Amazon to change pig ‘swill feeding’ advert amid disease fears

The National Pig Association (NPA) has pressured online retail giant Amazon into changing a high-profile advert, amid concerns it could encourage smallholders to feed pigs kitchen waste. 

The ad for the Amazon Echo Dot speaker, which was aired in cinemas, shows a boy giving uneaten food from a plate to a pet pig.

Aware this constituted swill feeding – a practice banned in the UK after pigs fed infected waste food sparked the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak – the NPA complained to the Advertising Standards Authority, 

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“What really concerns us is not just the fact that the ad appears to encourage an illegal act, but the fact that we have another disease – African swine fever [ASF] – spreading through the EU, all over China and several other Asian countries,” said NPA chief executive Zoe Davies.

“We do not have the disease in the UK and we are working really hard with other industry groups and the government to try to keep it out by attempting to educate the public about the illegality and the risk of feeding kitchen scraps to pigs,” she said.

“This advert undermines all those efforts and, because of the advertising budget, will be seen by a much wider audience.”

Complaints

Vet Duncan Berkshire, president of the Pig Veterinary Society, also complained to the ASA and called on Amazon to remove all footage of the illegal practice, suggesting “a company as big and influential as Amazon has a huge responsibility to make sure that its customers are informed correctly”.

The NPA later welcomed the ASA’s response, informing them they had instructed Amazon to change the advert. 

The ASA said: “We asked them to remove the scene in question, and I’m pleased to advise that we have received an assurance from them that they will make that change should the ad appear again.”

While the dangers of feeding pigs kitchen scraps is widely understood within the commercial pig sector, there is less awareness or acceptance among smallholders and pet pig owners, according to the NSA.

“We have a large smallholder and pet pig community in the UK and we know from studies that feeding kitchen scraps, despite being illegal, is still practised, so the risk is already present,” added Ms Davies.