The face of a pig who stares out of a tiny metal cage, called a “blangsung”, at a slaughterhouse. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Resha Juhari / We Animals
[Content warning: Contains confronting images and/or video footage]
The smell was the first thing that struck We Animals photojournalist Resha Juhari when he stepped into a roadside slaughterhouse in Bali, Indonesia. Even through a mask, the stench of urine and decay was overwhelming. Nearby, a live pig stood inside a metal cage beside piles of intestines, blood, and butchered meat.
The scene was not an isolated case.
Photographer: Resha Juhari, Muhammad Fajri
Videographer: Resha Juhari, Muhammad Fajri
A worker at a slaughterhouse raises a club to strike a pig on the head to stun them before slaughter. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Muhammad Fajri / We Animals
During a We Animals field investigation across Bali’s Badung regency, photojournalists Resha Juhari and Muhammad Fajri visited eight small slaughterhouses on two separate occasions. They documented conditions and practices inside facilities that appear to operate with little oversight, raising concerns about animal welfare, worker safety, and public health.
Across the facilities they visited, pigs arrived in narrow metal transport cages known locally as “blangsung“. Many animals remain confined in these cages for more than 24 hours before slaughter, unable to move, eat, or drink while lying in their own urine and faeces.
A confined pig awaiting slaughter makes eye contact from a dirty and odorous holding pen they share with others at a regulated slaughterhouse. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Muhammad Fajri / We Animals
Several pigs slated for slaughter lie squeezed inside stacked metal cages, called “blangsung”, in front of a filthy freezer used to store meat from butchered pigs at a slaughterhouse. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Resha Juhari / We Animals
When pigs were removed from the cages, they were often transferred to crowded holding pens where they continued to wait for slaughter. These pens were unsanitary and lacked food or water containers.
The photojournalists documented two stunning methods. One involved homemade electric prods applied for roughly three minutes. The other involved bludgeoning pigs with clubs until they lost consciousness.
Neither method aligns with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), which states that animals should be rendered fully unconscious before slaughter.
A pig about to be killed at a slaughterhouse struggles against a rope running through their mouth and tightly restraining them inside a small metal cage called a blangsung. A dead sow lies bleeding on the floor directly in front of them. Badung Regency, Bali Province, Indonesia, 2025.
Resha Juhari / We Animals
In several cases, pigs appeared to remain conscious while their throats were cut.
Throughout the facilities, pigs awaiting slaughter could hear, see, and smell other animals being killed nearby. Blood, offal, and carcasses were often clearly visible from holding areas, which can cause extreme stress for animals that are highly sensitive to their surroundings.
A dying pig confined inside a small metal cage, called a “blangsung, shudders and moans as they bleed out over a collection basin at a slaughterhouse. Body parts from other slaughtered pigs lie piled on the floor nearby. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Resha Juhari / We Animals
Workers did not appear to check whether pigs were unconscious before their throats were cut, nor whether death had occurred before butchering began.
“It was horrible to see pigs being killed in such a way. They were beaten over the head with clubs, then their throats were slit. This was the first time I had seen it in person.” — Muhammad Fajri, photojournalist
The head of a pig confined inside a small metal cage called a “blangsung” is pulled up by a worker using a rope snare, which allows for unstunned throat cutting, at a slaughterhouse. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Resha Juhari / We Animals
A pig at a slaughterhouse stares out of a small metal cage, called a blangsung, at body parts from slaughtered pigs lying inches from their face. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Resha Juhari / We Animals
The conditions also raised concerns beyond animal welfare.
In several facilities, slaughterhouse floors were covered with blood, faeces, and waste. Investigators reported seeing animal remains and liquids which can contain high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, blood, fats, and grease, flowing into nearby drainage systems and waterways, creating environmental risks such as pollution and eutrophication, and the spread of harmful bacteria.
Workers often handled dangerous tools such as homemade electric prods, knives, and blowtorches, while wearing little protective equipment beyond rubber boots. With floors slick with water, the risk of slipping or electrocution. Like most slaughterhouse workers around the globe, these workers were continuously exposed to working conditions and to practices that can cause mental and moral harm.
Live pigs confined to a holding pen peer through its bars at the bodies of dead pigs lying nearby in pools of blood on a slaughterhouse floor. At this slaughterhouse, pigs are clubbed on the head to stun them before slaughter. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Muhammad Fajri / We Animals
A worker at a slaughterhouse prepares to put a pig into a body-sized metal cage, called a “blangsung”, to restrain them for slaughter. Badung Regency, Bali Province, Indonesia, 2025.
Resha Juhari / We Animals
Facilities were often dirty and in poor repair. Holding pens, slaughter and meat processing areas were confluent. Carcasses and meat were processed on the floor, often close to pig faeces, urine, and other waste. The likelihood of gut contents coming into contact with meat was high, leading to risks of bacterial contamination and food safety issues.
A conscious pig gasps as they bleed out inside a small metal cage after being stuck with a knife a moment earlier at a slaughterhouse open to the street. A worker dehairs another pig with a torch nearby as shoppers make purchases from a sales area in the background. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Resha Juhari / We Animals
Pig meat plays a central part in Balinese cuisine and religious celebrations, particularly during major Hindu festivals, when demand increases significantly. Official statistics indicate that around 77,000 pigs were slaughtered in Bali in 2024, though how many passed through unregulated facilities is unclear.
A worker at a slaughterhouse packages the flesh from a slaughtered pig, which will be sold by the kilogram. The partially butchered body of a dead pig lies on the floor beside him. Undisclosed location, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, 2025.
Muhammad Fajri / We Animals
For consumers, the realities of slaughter are rarely visible. But as global concern grows around animal welfare, food safety, and environmental protection, the conditions documented in these facilities raise a difficult question: how much oversight exists behind the pork that reaches the table?
Photographer: Resha Juhari, Muhammad Fajri
Videographer: Resha Juhari, Muhammad Fajri
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