Britain Calls for 800 Foreign Butchers to Avoid Pig Cull

Britain Calls for 800 Foreign Butchers to Avoid Pig Cull
A group of breeding sows are pictured inside a barn on a family pig farm near Driffield, Britain, Oct. 12, 2021. Phil Noble/Reuters
|Updated:

LONDON—Britain will offer six-month emergency visas to 800 foreign butchers to avoid a mass pig cull, it said on Thursday, after farmers complained that an exodus of workers from abattoirs and meat processors had left the pork sector fighting for survival.

A combination of Brexit and COVID-19 has sparked an exodus of east European workers, leaving some 120,000 pigs in barns and fields across the country waiting to be slaughtered, according to the National Pig Association.