Beating: Abattoir staff are filmed striking pigs with sharp paddles - even when the animals were severely injuredAppalling cruelty, including cigarettes being stubbed out on the faces of pigs, has been revealed in secret filming inside a slaughterhouse.
The footage of pigs being burned, punched and smacked across the head with sharp paddles was captured by animal welfare campaigners.
They reveal the shocking truth of the casual brutality inside one of the country’s biggest abattoirs.
Despite the clear evidence, the Government, through the Food Standards Agency, has refused to prosecute those involved.The decision has been condemned by Animal Aid, which carried out the secret filming. It says it is evidence that ministers are putting the commercial interests of the meat industry above welfare.
The secret filming took place at an Essex slaughterhouse run by Cheale Meats, where up to 6,000 pigs are slaughtered every week.
In 2001 the outbreak of a disastrous foot and mouth epidemic which swept through the country was first identified among 27 pigs sent to the plant from the north-east of England.
Brutal: The video opens with several incidents of staff stubbing out cigarettes on pigs' faces
Torment: Incorrect stunning, as shown here, leaves pigs in terrible pain
Despite images like this, showing a pig bleeding to death as a worker looks on, the Government will not prosecute the abattoir
Violent: Staff were filmed using force to move the pigs around the slaughterhouse‘As the RSPCA has found in previous cases, this would get it thrown out of court and do absolutely nothing to help reduce the suffering of animals.’
The FSA said it has taken action to end the cruelty at the plant.
It revoked the licence of one slaughterman identified in the footage, while another slaughterman’s provisional licence had already expired and has not been renewed.
The organisation has also increased monitoring at the plant to avoid any repeat.
source: dailymail
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