Published in collaboration with Compassion in World Farming, this investigation reveals farming and slaughter practices that cause enormous suffering to millions of fishes in the EU. On the trout, sea bass and sea bream farms we visited, animals are forced to live in barren and overcrowded tanks, are moved at high speed using pumps, and are often left out of water for endless minutes. Also, stunning and killing methods are used ineffectively, meaning that many die after prolonged suffering, and others are still alive during the packaging operations. Read more

Our investigators documented the appalling living conditions and cruel practices to which sea bream and sea bass are subjected on intensive farms in Greece, the European aquaculture leader. Violent slaughter, overcrowding and high mortality rates: our images once again reveal the enormous suffering of fish raised for food. The investigation was carried out in collaboration with We Animals Media. Read more

Essere Animali’s investigators, in collaboration with journalists from the Italian TV program Report, have visited several fish farms in Greece, where more than a half of sea bass and sea bream imported to Italy comes from. Crammed by the millions in cages situated in the open sea, the fish destined to be sold into the Italian market are routinely over-treated with antibiotics, and at the time of slaughter they suffer immensely for endless minutes.

In 2018, Essere Animali carried out the first investigation in Europe inside the main fish farms in northern and central Italy. In our investigation, we documented fish treated as objects, left to suffocate or bleed to death in containers of water and ice and even tied with string while they are still alive and gasping for breath out of the water.