Hundreds of healthy pigs culled amid UK shortage of abattoir workers

Farmers warned that up to 120,000 animals face being slaughtered as they lack space to house them

The culling of healthy pigs has begun on British farms, with farmers forced to kill animals to make space and ensure the continued welfare of their livestock, amid an ongoing shortage of workers at slaughterhouses.

Pig farmers have been warning for several weeks that labour shortages at abattoirs have led to a backlog of as many as 120,000 pigs left stranded on farms long after they should have gone to slaughter.