Undercover: inside a UK non-stun slaughterhouse
Animal Aid has today made public footage it took covertly from inside Bowood slaughterhouse in Yorkshire. The footage, which was taken over three days in December, showed:

Sheep kicked in the face; smashed into solid objects headfirst; picked up and hurled by legs, fleeces, throats and ears.

A worker standing on the neck of a conscious sheep, then bouncing up and down.

Slaughterhouse workers erupting into laughter at a sheep bleeding to death with spectacles drawn around her eyes in green paint.

A worker holding a sheep by her throat and pulling back a fist as if to punch her.

Slaughtermen taunting and frightening the sheep by waving knives, smacking them on the head and shouting at them.

Slaughtermen hacking away at the throats of still-conscious sheep.

We urge the government to make CCTV installation mandatory for all slaughterhouses, with selected footage independently monitored by welfare experts.

Animal Aid investigated nine randomly chosen UK slaughterhouses and found breaches of welfare laws in eight. Animals were shown being kicked, slapped, stamped on, beaten, punched, burned with cigarettes, and picked up by their fleeces and ears and thrown into pens. It showed inadequate, botched and multiple stunning, and the sadistic use of stunning equipment to ‘punish’ animals.

Neither the government-appointed on-site vets nor the slaughterhouse operators detected a single illegal act that we filmed.

Properly monitored CCTV would deter abuse, encourage best practice, help with staff training, and provide evidence for prosecutions.

CCTV won’t end slaughterhouse suffering, but it is an invaluable tool to help vets and welfare officers protect animals from gratuitous abuse and incompetent or negligent workers.