At the end of January 2026, opposition to plans to expand a pig slaughterhouse near Bristol had already drawn more than 2,200 formal objections, with local residents and animal protection campaigners urging South Gloucestershire Council to refuse permission for the project. Pilgrim’s Pride has asked to “upgrade and expand” its Pilgrim’s Europe slaughterhouse at Oakley Green Farm in Westerleigh, increasing the killing capacity from 19,000 to 25,000 pigs per day, and adding new storage, waste, and lorry facilities.
The application, filed as P25/02416/F, proposes a new chill store for flesh, a bone trailer and waste area, chemical and effluent storage, a new lorry park and wash, and a new access road, all serving a site already used to kill thousands of pigs every day. Residents say this would lock in more suffering for pigs, more transport of living individuals in crowded lorries, and more environmental harm to the surrounding villages.
For years, animal rights campaigners have held regular vigils and protests outside the Westerleigh plant, coordinated by Bristol Animal Rights Collective, with support from Bristol Animal Save and We The Free, bearing witness to pigs arriving at the slaughterhouse and denouncing the use of carbon dioxide gas chambers. Activists describe the facility as a place of industrialised violence, where each increase in capacity means countless more sentient beings forced through the killing line.
Local people living near the site report being plagued by foul smells and fear that the expansion would worsen noise, pollution, and traffic on rural roads. Tom Goble said, “Currently the smell can be horrible. When I go running down by the railway crossing on Oakley Green Farm Lane the smell can be overwhelming and lead me to wretch… Villagers regularly complain of the smell, and it features often on our village WhatsApp group. A group of locals have visited the abattoir and the smell on site is quite disgusting.”Lydia Jefferies said, “If this goes ahead this would inevitably mean a substantial rise in heavy goods vehicle movements, worsening congestion on already stretched rural roads and increasing the risk of accidents for residents, cyclists, and pedestrians.”
