RSPCA backs Animal Aid’s slaughter campaign

The Soil Association has followed suit, announcing that it will change its organic standards so that CCTV is installed in all Soil Association approved abattoirs as well.

Animal Aid began calling for CCTV to be installed in all UK slaughterhouses in August last year after secretly filming shocking scenes of cruelty in three randomly chosen abattoirs. Possible prosecutions are pending.

Just four months later, three workers were suspended from a Soil Association approved abattoir for breaches of animal welfare laws, filmed again by Animal Aid – evidence that has also led to investigations with a view to possible prosecutions.

Since then, Animal Aid has met with industry leaders, politicians and government officials in order to promote our key recommendations: CCTV in all abattoirs, compulsory retraining for all slaughtermen every three years and a ban on anyone with criminal convictions for violence, sexual assault or animal cruelty working in a slaughterhouse.

Says Kate Fowler, Head of Campaigns at Animal Aid:

That the RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming and the Soil Association have now all spoken out in favour of CCTV is an important step. While we believe that all slaughter is shocking and unnecessary, the mandatory installation of CCTV would encourage best practice, help train and retrain slaughtermen and provide evidence for prosecutions. As such, it is an important initiative that could reduce some of the worst suffering at the most vulnerable time of the animals’ lives.