Salmon in Scottish ponds live in poor conditions, causing them to suffer from all kinds of diseases, parasites or malformations or to die prematurely. This is what the animal welfare organisation Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) has done.
CIWF researchers inspected 22 Scottish farms and filmed underwater on farms belonging to the five largest producers producing 96 percent of all Scottish salmon. The images are shocking, says CIWF.
Salmon missing an eye or pieces of their body whose skin is eaten away by sea lice. The images go through the marrow. Salmon are intelligent animals, with feelings and emotions, that is how we should treat them.
The Organisation calls on the Scottish Government to put a brake on the growth of the salmon industry. Scotland is the third largest salmon producer in the world with some 165,000 tonnes (about 38 million animals) per year and exports to more than 50 countries.
Salmon are naturally migratory animals and travel thousands of kilometres in their lives. In the nurseries they live in cages close to each other and swim aimlessly in circles. The conditions are so bad that sometimes up to a quarter of the animals do not reach the slaughter age, says CIWF.
