Make CCTV mandatory for all slaughterhouses

Responsible department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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.