Sheep Beheaded in Front of One Another in Heartbreaking New Investigation

Animal Equality U.K.’s newly released investigation into Farmers Fresh Wales slaughterhouse reveals sheep caught painfully in machinery and beheaded in front of one another. Located in Wrexham, Wales, the slaughterhouse kills around 30,000 sheep a week and supplies customers across continental Europe.


Sheep and lambs arrive at the slaughterhouse after a journey that is so grueling some don’t survive it. Undercover video shows workers roughly grabbing sheep and dragging them into a room where they will be lined up for slaughter. The sheep are forced onto a conveyor belt, and smaller or emaciated sheep fall through to the floor below. Others get caught, dangling painfully in midair from their hips.


The trapped sheep are left hanging and frantically trying to break free until a worker arrives. When the worker is unable to force the panicked sheep out of the machine, he stuns the animals using a bolt gun and slits their throats with a knife, blood spilling onto the floor below. The sheep are then beheaded in full view of the live sheep who await their own slaughter.


While the heads are thrown aside, the bodies are tossed back onto the conveyor belt on top of living sheep, who struggle under the weight of the headless corpses as the belt carries them closer to their death.


As they reach the end of the conveyor belt, sheep watch as the animals in front of them have their throats slit one by one.

This investigation followed an exposé by Animal Aid into the same slaughterhouse earlier this year, which prompted a criminal investigation by the Food Standards Agency. But an inspector from the agency was present for much of Animal Equality’s investigation and saw no issue with the treatment of the sheep.

Unfortunately, this kind of cruelty is rampant at slaughterhouses throughout the world. Earlier this year, Mercy For Animals released its sixth investigation into slaughterhouses in Mexico, exposing similarly heartbreaking conditions. Check out our recent work here.