For nearly two years, UK-based Animal Aid used hidden cameras to secretly record extreme cruelty and illegal slaughter practices in six slaughterhouses in Britain. The investigations revealed workers kicking, slapping and stomping on pigs, cows and sheep, picking them up by their ears and throwing them into stunning pens, improperly stunning them and slitting their throats while still conscious. According to Animal Aid, as a result of the investigations, one slaughterhouse has already lost its supermarket contract and another has closed permanently.
Legal action was initially underway against nine slaughterhouse workers and four slaughterhouse operators following the release of the investigative footage, but the British Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has now dropped all attempts to prosecute because the footage was allegedly not obtained legally. But, according to an article in The Guardian, that may not be an issue much longer as the British government is now calling on nearly 370 slaughterhouses to install video surveillance cameras to help enforce anti-cruelty legislation.
A similar effort to monitor slaughterhouses was made in the United States, albeit unsuccessfully, when, following a 2008 undercover investigation at a slaughterhouse in California, some members of Congress called for video cameras to be installed in U.S. slaughterhouses. During a hearing before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee, Rep. Elijah Cummings said, “The time is long overdue to strengthen the practices at the USDA and to explore new methods of oversight, such as video surveillance.”
Mercy For Animals has long believed that the public has a right to know how animals are raised and slaughtered for food and has sent teams of investigators behind the closed doors of our nation’s factory farms, slaughterhouses and hatcheries to expose what the animal agriculture industry works so hard to conceal. Wired with hidden cameras, MFA’s undercover investigators have diligently documented the harsh realities of industrial animal agriculture and exposed millions of Americans to the plights of farmed animals.
Of course, each of us can immediately withdraw our financial support of the violent meat industry simply by adopting a compassionate vegan diet.
