Posted on February 3, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
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Posted on February 3, 2015 by Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)
3/2/15 – Kent, England based Animal Aid (Kent – also SAV territory) have today released undercover footage of animal suffering at the hands of Halal slaughtermen.
We have supported calls for ages to have cctv fitted into EVERY slaughterhouse across the entire EU, to ensued that there are more controls on the abuses that animals suffer at their time of death. Via the Animal Aid data provided below, you can take several lines of action. We suggest you watch the video footage prior to taking the actions.
Animal Aid – Latest News & Campaigns
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.
– The petition currently has over 86,000 signatures. If we can achieve 100,000+ then it is possible that this issue would have to be debated in UK Parliament. Therefore please sign now.
HM Government e petition wording is as follows:
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.
This e-petition has received the following response:
As this e-petition has received more than 10 000 signatures, the relevant Government department have provided the following response:
The Government encourages the highest standards of welfare at slaughter. Both EU Regulation 1099/2009, on the protection of animals at time of killing, and the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 (WASK), as amended, contain strict requirements to protect the welfare of animals being slaughtered. In slaughterhouses, these requirements are monitored and enforced by Official Veterinarians of the Food Standards Agency to ensure that animals are spared unnecessary suffering, distress or pain during the slaughter process.
Some of the undercover evidence has been gathered in premises which already had CCTV which implies CCTV may not be an effective monitoring tool though it could be helpful as a verification tool for audit purposes after a welfare breach has taken place in a particular slaughterhouse. The Government is not convinced of the need for further legislation at this time but will be keeping the need for CCTV under review in the context of the new monitoring requirements required under Regulation 1099/2009 which came into direct effect in January 2013.
This e-petition remains open to signatures and will be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee should it pass the 100 000 signature threshold.
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The ‘Guardian’ (UK National Press) Link with detailed video footage – WARNING – animal abuse shown.
Halal slaughterhouse staff investigated over alleged animal cruelty
Video footage from animal rights group appears to show sheep being kicked, hacked at and hurled into structures at Bowood Lamb abattoir in Yorkshire
Secret CCTV footage exposes halal abattoir cruelty
Undercover video shot by an animal welfare group appearing to show the brutal treatment of sheep at a Yorkshire abattoir has rekindled the debate over whether animals need to be stunned before they are killed.
The footage gathered by campaigning group Animal Aid shows sheep being kicked, threatened with knives and thrown into solid structures. In one case a worker appears to be pinning a sheep’s head down with his foot. Four slaughtermen at Bowood Lamb, a halal slaughterhouse in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, have had their operating licences suspended and the company said one worker had been sacked.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched an investigation into the footage, saying there is “no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video” and adding that prosecutions could follow.
Over three days in December, activists from Animal Aid used hidden cameras to record footage which appeared to show:
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A worker hacking and sawing at animals’ throats, in direct contravention of Islamic practice. In one instance it took up to five attempts to sever blood vessels.
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Sheep being kicked in the face and head, lifted by their ears, fleeces or legs and hurled into solid structures.
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A worker standing on the neck of a conscious sheep and bouncing up and down.
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Staff erupting into laughter over a sheep bleeding to death with spectacles drawn around her eyes in green paint.
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Employees taunting and frightening animals by waving knives, smacking them on the head and shouting at them.
The law requires abattoirs to stun animals before slaughter to prevent unnecessary suffering, but there are exemptions for Jewish and Muslim producers.
Under the halal code, animals are supposed to be killed quickly, with a single sweep of a surgically sharp knife.
They should not see the knife before they are slaughtered, or witness the death of other animals.
Footage from the Animal Aid video of the halal slaughterhouse.
Photograph: Animal Aid/PA
The video footage appears to show that these rules were not adhered to at Bowood, where more than 4,000 sheep were filmed being killed, the animal rights organisation said.
Sheep appeared to have knives sharpened in front of them and watched their flock-mates bleeding to death before being shackled and hoisted.
Responding to the allegation from Animal Aid that the alleged abuse captured on film was “routine”, Jamie Foster, solicitor for Bowood Lamb, said that was not correct.
Speaking on the BBC’s Farming Today programme, Foster said one employee had been sacked and added the company took animal welfare extremely seriously.
“We have very limited access to the footage … but clearly the piece we saw which involved a slaughterman standing on the neck of a sheep was something that fell far below the standards that Bowood would find acceptable and that individual was immediately dismissed for gross misconduct.”
Kate Fowler, head of campaigns at Animal Aid, said the scenes were “inexcusable”.
Animal Aid also criticised the poor design of the slaughterhouse. The group said that sheep fell some distance from a chute on to a slippery floor in the kill area and were often unable to stand.
They were then frequently thrown head first into a solid structure, Animal Aid said.
The group is calling for independently monitored CCTV cameras to be compulsory at slaughterhouses.
Slaughterhouses in the UK are regulated by the FSA, which provides operating licences and carries out inspections.
The FSA said: “The Food Standards Agency takes animal welfare at abattoirs very seriously, which is why we immediately suspended the licences of the slaughtermen involved.
“There is no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video and we are therefore investigating the footage with a view to prosecution.”
Last year, 2.4m sheep and goats were killed without being stunned in halal and Jewish shechita abattoirs, according to the British Veterinary Association.
Animal Aid said it recognised there was a risk of the video stirring up anti-Muslim feeling, but added: “Withholding release of the footage would be a betrayal of our key mission: to expose and combat animal cruelty.”
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Past SAV posts relating to Halal:
Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional, GLOBAL PETITIONS - Anything Animal, Anywhere !, PHOTOGRAPHS - **WARNING** (Animal Suffering), The "Serbian Animals Voice (SAV) ALLIANCE, VIDEOS | Leave a comment »
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