IT REALLY does have to stop. Poor sentient pigs are enduring relentless torment in dozens of farms across Italy and Spain, conditions that are actually illegal under EU law.

According to Compassion in World Farming, undercover investigators saw “bins full of dead pigs being eaten by maggots; piglets lying in their own filth; pigs urinating in drinking/feeding troughs due to severe overcrowding; repeated evidence of biting and fighting; some pigs with chronic chest infections and others foaming badly at the mouth; dying and dead pigs simply left in dark corridors”.

It saddens me that some farmers think that’s the way to treat sentient creatures, because showing a little kindness, care or attention is never a big ask.

Zero punishment for inflicting cruelty on farmed animals and, therefore, zero deterrent to it becoming more widespread? Have the Italian and Spanish parliaments gone completely mad?

Aled Jones, Mount Crescent, Bridlington.