Why are Swedish authorities hiding animal welfare violations?

For three consecutive years, Anna Harenius, Animal Welfare Specialist at Project 1882, has investigated conditions at chicken slaughterhouses using official documents. But recently, those documents have started arriving heavily masked. Reports are filled with blacked-out text, and images that once showed suffering animals have been replaced with solid black rectangles. 

 – We want to be part of holding the system accountable. But when inspection reports are censored, we’re left in the dark. We can tell something is wrong, but we have no idea what the animals have been subjected to. If Project 1882 is to continue its vital work, we must be able to access these records, says Anna Harenius. 

In the past, company names were typically masked, while the actual animal welfare violations remained visible. Over the past two years, this pattern has been reversed: company names, addresses, and contact information are public, while the violations themselves are hidden.  

 – I don’t believe suspected violations of the Animal Welfare Act should be kept secret. We need to know what’s being done to animals, because we’re certainly not hearing it from the companies themselves. Their advertising only shows sunny rapeseed fields, says Anna Harenius. 

Read more in the full report on Swedish chicken slaughterhouses and their violations.