Barclays Is Funding Horrifying Animal Cruelty Through £5bn JBS Investment

Backing factory farming and profiting from suffering

World Animal Protection is launching a new campaign calling on the UK’s biggest high street bank to stop financing JBS, the Brazil-based meat giant responsible for confining and slaughtering over 5 billion chickens, 53 million pigs, 27 million cows, and 8 million lambs every year. 

Barclays has invested more than £5bn into JBS since 2015. That money enables the systematic abuse of animals – from piglets having their tails cut off without pain relief, to chickens being crammed into spaces smaller than an A4 sheet of paper. Barclays is profiting from animals living their short lives out in these abysmal conditions.

British public wants accountability

New research shows that the British public is appalled. 75% of UK consumers are concerned about Barclays’ investment in JBS. 80% believe banks should be held accountable for funding factory farming, which is known to harm not only the animals enduring the conditions but also putting people and our planet at risk.

JBS owns four major UK brands including Fridge Raiders, Pilgrim’s UK, Richmond and Moy Park . The latter is a household name, accounting for a quarter of all processed chicken sales in the UK.

Barclays customers will never see the horrors of factory farming in the bank’s glossy brochures or entertaining TV ads. But they are helping to fund it.

Enough is enough

World Animal Protection UK’s Country Director Ruth Tanner said:

Barclays is using customer money to bankroll cruelty and destruction on an unimaginable scale. Propping up a system where animals suffer and our planet is ravaged.  It’s time for Barclays to stop profiting from pain and start investing in a kinder, safer future for animals, people and the planet.

World Animal Protection's CEO Tricia Croasdell said:

This is a betrayal of public trust. Most people would be horrified to know their bank is funding the suffering of billions of animals and the destruction of our planet with their money. Barclays has the power to change course - to stop propping up this broken, brutal system. Until they do, they are complicit in the cruelty.

World Animal Protection is now leaving Barclays. Despite ongoing discussions, the bank has failed to introduce even a basic animal welfare policy and is lagging competitors who have begun to take action.

It’s not just animals who suffer. JBS has also been linked to deforestation in some of the world’s most biodiverse regions. Rainforests are razed to grow cheap soy feed for factory-farmed animals – destroying ecosystems and driving climate breakdown.

The scale of destruction is staggering. JBS has been linked to over 16,000 instances of illegal deforestation, according to Global Witness. Earlier this year, the company admitted it never had a real net zero climate target despite promoting one for years and, to top it off, new research reveals it has avoided paying hundreds of millions in taxes while continuing its destructive practices.