PIG KING IS BANNED OVER CRUELTY CLAIMS 
Daily Record, Dec 6 2003

PIG tycoon Arthur Simmers has been barred from selling pork in Scotland after claims of animal cruelty in his farm empire. Watchdog Quality Meat Scotland said Simmers's company, Scotpigs, was a ''rotten apple'' in the trade.

QMS have thrown Scotpigs out of their quality assurance scheme. It means abattoirs in Scotland will refuse to accept their pork.

The move comes after anti-crueltygroup Advocates for Animals filmed secretly at three Simmers farmsin Aberdeenshire, West Lothian and Tayside.

A spokesman alleged: ''We found pigs with sores, piglets pulling at the flesh of dead pigs, fly infestations and rats all over the place.''

Simmers is Scotland's second-biggest pig producer and runs farms nationwide.

The Record last year exposed squalor at Scotpigs, a firm set up in 1998 after Simmers went bust.

A QMS spokesman said yesterday: ''We are not prepared to let one rotten apple wreck the industry's reputation.''