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February 16th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - Married father-of-two Stephen Brown, 52, is believed to have shot himself
- Investigation launched this week after covert video shows pigs being kicked and slapped and one being beaten to death with an iron bar
- Farm suspended from the
Red Tractor food quality assurance scheme, which aims to ensure
responsible farming methods
By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:44 PM on 15th February 2012
‘Tipping point’: Pig farmer Stephen Brown was under investigation after serious allegations of animal cruelty were made about his farm
A farmer under investigation over allegations of horrific cruelty to his pigs has been found dead in a suspected suicide.
Married father-of-two Stephen Brown, 52, is believed to have shot himself in one of his fields at Harling Farm, East Harling, near Thetford, Norfolk.
The RSPCA launched an investigation this week after animal rights group Animal Equality released a video of pigs being kicked and slapped and one being beaten to death with an iron bar on the farm.
The group claimed it had gathered 200 hours of undercover footage and 300 photographs after it sent an undercover investigator to work on the farm for two months, last summer.
The probe led to Mr Brown’s farm being suspended from the Red Tractor food quality assurance scheme, which aims to ensure responsible farming methods.
It is believed that he had been due to take his wife Fiona and their two daughters on a half term ski trip, but cancelled it after the footage was released over the weekend.
His body was found at 7.30am by police who were called to his farm. Officers said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Mr Brown kept 4,000 pigs on his 500 acre arable and mixed farm which has been in his family since 1920. He took it over from his father Michael, 82, a former parish council chairman who still lives on the farm.
Police guarding the farm entrance said the family were too upset to comment.
One section of the footage showed a worker repeatedly beating a pig on the face with a plastic rod.
The same worker was seen using an iron bar to beat a pig to death, raining down repeated strikes until the animal was left twitching on the concrete.
The RSPCA, which described the footage as ‘some of the most shocking’ it had seen, confirmed last night that inquiries were continuing into the farm.
Mr Brown gave an emotional interview to BBC News on Monday saying he was ‘gutted and mortified’ by the footage, but he claimed it had been ‘dramatised.’
East Harling hairdresser Lorraine Mitchell, 40, who used to work as a pigman on Mr Brown’s farm, around 15-years-ago, said: ‘He was a hard working farmer who cared a lot for his animals.
Shocking: An undercover investigation exposed horrific acts of cruelty to animals on Stephen Brown’s farm in Thetford, Norfolk, which supplies meat to leading supermarkets
‘I never saw him do anything bad to the pigs or raise a hand to them. He was always concerned about their welfare and made sure they had the right medication and were treated properly.
‘His pigs would win awards and certificates because they were so well looked after. There was never anything like the horrendous scenes in this film footage.
‘He and his father Mike were great bosses. Whatever actually happened, it was not his fault. I just hope some people are happy.
‘You could tell he was a broken man from seeing him being interviewed on TV about these cruelty allegations. The shock of it all coming out was probably too much for him.
‘I detest animal cruelty, but Stephen and Mike did not do anything wrong in the footage. It was other people. My thoughts go out to his family.’
East Harling parish council chairman Philip Edge said: ‘I have known the family for 40 or 50 years. Obviously we are all shocked that this has happened within the community.
Grim discovery: This dreadful image of the place where the farm buried the pigs on site was part of evidence forming a case of animal cruelty against farmer Stephen Brown
‘Bearing in mind the circumstances and the media coverage it would be inappropriate for me to say anything.’
Villager Donald Grunbaum added: ‘It is sad for everybody all round regardless of the circumstances.’
Another villager who asked not to be named: ‘I believe he was incredibly concerned about this animal rights investigation. It now looks as though it might have tipped him over the edge.
‘He was just a decent, hard working farmer. It seems the group which infiltrated his farm might well have a lot to answer for.’
Mr Brown told the BBC that the pig which was beaten to death with a bar had a broken leg and would normally be shot.
He claimed that the worker killed it with the blunt object as he did not have access to his shotgun kept in the house.
Mr Brown also accused the undercover worker who filmed the footage of failing to help the pigs that he was filming.
Nobody from Animal Equality was available to comment on Mr Brown’s death yesterday.
Earlier this week the group claimed that the investigation ‘marks the beginning of an intensive campaign to reveal the true face of animal farming in Britain’.
David Clarke, chief executive of Assured Food Standards, which runs the Red Tractor scheme, said the farm had been suspended, pending an investigation.
Horrific: Workers were caught on video beating pigs with iron bars, battering piglets, scraping knives across their backs and smashing animals onto concrete floors.
He said earlier this week: ‘What we see in the video is shocking. It has no place in our scheme or in the British farming industry. It is really disappointing.’
A Norfolk Police spokeswoman said: ‘Police were called to reports of a sudden death at a property in East Harling at around 7.30am this morning [Wednesday]. Officers attended and found the body of a 52-year-old man.
‘At this stage there do not appear to be any suspicious circumstances to the death and an inquest will be held in due course.’
The RSPCA said in a statement released before Mr Brown’s death that it was ‘disgusted by the apparent deliberate animal cruelty being inflicted’.
The statement said the footage was being reviewed by one of the charity’s farm animal scientists.
It added: ‘It is one of the worst cases of animal abuse we have seen. Within hours of receiving the footage on February 10, two RSPCA inspectors and a chief inspector attended the farm to check the welfare of any animals there.
‘The chief inspector asked for a vet to be called to a farm. We are treating this matter extremely seriously and a full and thorough investigation has begun.
‘As with any other RSPCA investigation, if evidence of deliberate cruelty and/or suffering in contravention of the Animal Welfare Act is found, a file will be passed to our prosecutions department to determine whether or not to start legal proceedings.
‘While the investigation continues it is not appropriate for us to make further comment as it could jeopardise a possible future prosecution.’
- For confidential support call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details
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How truly and utterly awful that this poor man was driven to this. Although his poor, intelligent pigs should never have had to suffer in the appalling ways they did, as a farm manager you can’t monitor all of your staff 24/7.
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ok…that’s it…I can’t eat meat anymore…enough is enough….
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I think the RSPCA should revue they the way they go about things like this. No man should be driven to take his own life.
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It seems the ‘workers’ were actually agent provocateurs filming themselves abusing animals. They as good as murdered this farmer.
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Saw some of the footage of mistreatment on tv this weekend. Tiny baby piglets being kicked out of a trailer, bigger pigs being hit and kicked and the pig with the broken leg being beaten to death. Although it was his workers who carried out these deeds this man was interviewed, he was visably upset and insisted they’d done nothing wrong. I am sorry he felt the need to shoot himself but the practises carried out on his farm were disgraceful, now they need to get animals away from the farm and the cruel employees. Shocking.
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Stephen Brown’ s family should take action against the RSPCA for manslaughter in court so that they should learned how to intervene properly next time.
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Sick
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My thoughts are with those poor pigs. No excuse for treating them like that.
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Great. so a video made by an activist vegan body, not independent in any way, and with an axe to burn has brought it to this.
Backed by the RSPCA, an utterly useless body, run only to keep the executives in salary and pension.
Bear in mind, the person filming was employed to care for the animals. Perhaps we could see him prosecuted for obtaining remuneration by deception (Theft Act 1978)i
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A relative of mine was involved in work experience on a number of farms and some of the things he saw were horrendous, and would not be printed. And when are the RSPCA going to get involved in getting rid of the cruelty involved in halal slaughter and the transport of live animals for halal slaughter?
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