‘People watch me doing everything’: Pig crate campaigner reveals toll of gruelling 21-day protest
An animal rights campaigner spending 21 days and nights locked inside a pig farrowing crate says she is feeling increasingly drained as the gruelling protest takes its toll.
Michelle Farnham, 28, was speaking on Day 16 of her demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, where she is highlighting the conditions endured by mother pigs on British factory farms.
The Animal Rising campaign manager entered the metal crate outside the National Gallery on September 1 and has vowed not to leave it for three weeks.
Speaking yesterday, Michelle said the warm weather and complete lack of privacy were becoming increasingly difficult, but positive conversations with members of the public were helping her to continue.
She said: “I’m definitely feeling quite drained at the moment, but there are still so many positive conversations going on.
“There is a constant stream of people coming over to talk to us because they are so intrigued by what is going on.”
The structure allows Michelle to sit up and lie down but prevents her from turning around, replicating a fraction of the confinement experienced by sows before and after giving birth.
Michelle said one of the hardest parts of the challenge had been losing almost all sense of privacy.
She said: “It is very odd and it is one of the things I struggle with quite a lot.
“I am watched while I do everything. In the morning and evening, people watch me brushing my teeth, and that is very strange.
“I cannot simply get away from people when I need to. But I have a team here looking after me who will keep people back and give me some space when I need it.”
Michelle is remaining inside the crate around the clock and uses a bucket when she needs the toilet, while supporters sit with her during the night to keep her safe.
Earlier in the challenge, she said: “When I need to go to the toilet I am covered in a tarp and have a bucket. I am not leaving the crate at all, as that is what the pigs endure.”
She sleeps with a pillow and sleeping bag but said even these small comforts set her experience apart from the reality faced by farmed pigs.
She previously said: “Sometimes it has been really hard, but I try and keep it in my mind that the pigs have it much worse.
“At least it is dark at night for me and I have a sleeping bag and pillow. In the farrowing crate, the lights are on all the time.”
Farrowing crates are narrow metal enclosures used to restrict a sow’s movement around the time she gives birth and nurses her piglets.
The Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy for England states that approximately 92 per cent of indoor pig production systems continue to use the crates.
Pigs due to give birth and those nursing their piglets can be confined for around a month at a time, while commercial sows typically give birth twice a year.
Michelle said: “About 60 per cent of mother pigs are put in these crates multiple times a year.
“I am much smaller than a pig. A sow takes up this entire space and cannot even turn around. It is horrific that we are doing this to animals.”
The protest coincides with the release of footage documenting a month in the life of Luna, a sow filmed inside a farrowing crate at Red Court Farm in Ipswich during an Animal Rising investigation earlier this year.
Animal Rising is calling for Luna to be released into a sanctuary rather than being put through another pregnancy, birth and separation from her piglets.
Michelle said: “I am doing this for Luna and all the other pigs confined inside these horrible crates.
“We investigated a farm earlier this year which uses these crates, and that is where we found Luna. People can watch the video on Animal Rising’s YouTube channel to see her full story.
“We want to highlight what is happening because so many people simply do not know.”
Michelle studied Animal Management for two years and has reviewed hundreds of hours of footage recorded inside British pig farms while working alongside veterinary and animal welfare law experts.
She previously made national headlines as one of the Animal Rising campaigners who took action at the 2023 Grand National.
The Trafalgar Square protest marks the launch of Animal Rising’s long-term campaign calling on the UK Government to commit to ending factory farming by 2040 and publish a roadmap setting out how the country would make that transition.
The organisation says its campaign begins with Luna and farrowing crates but will ultimately highlight the confinement and suffering experienced by different species across intensive farming.
Michelle said: “This is part of a much wider campaign that will last a few years to end factory farming.
“It is not just Luna, it is not just mother pigs and it is not just pigs. There are so many species being confined in horrible ways.
“I want people to see just how restrictive and abhorrent the factory farming system is.
“I’ll be inside this crate for 21 days. It is a huge physical challenge, but at the end I get to walk away. The pigs don’t get a choice.
“We don’t have to accept this system. We’re asking the Government to bring an end to factory farming for good.”
Rose Patterson, director of Animal Rising, who holds an MSc in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law, said: “For 21 days, in the heart of London, Michelle will give people a glimpse of a reality that is normally kept behind closed doors. But after three weeks, Michelle can step out. For Luna and thousands of other mother pigs, there is no such choice.
“This campaign starts with Luna, but it won’t end with her. We believe we can free Luna, and we believe Britain can end factory farming.”
