Slaughterhouse failings result in live chickens being plunged into scalding water

Dead birds are usually submerged in very hot water to loosen their feathers, but failings at the abattoir meant that these animals were plunged into the scalding tank while still alive, where they would have stayed for two minutes. The company involved, 1Stop Halal, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to 81 birds. It has been fined and ordered to pay costs.

Says Animal Aid Director, Isobel Hutchinson

‘These deeply disturbing incidents are yet more evidence of the shocking cruelty and lawbreaking that we now know is widespread in UK slaughterhouses. We cannot begin to imagine the agony that must have been endured by the live birds who would have spent two minutes in a scalding tank. Animal Aid has conducted undercover investigations inside ten randomly chosen UK slaughterhouses, and found evidence of lawbreaking and cruelty in nine out of those ten. Slaughter is always going to be a cruel and violent process, which is why we encourage people to adopt a vegan diet, but in the meantime we urgently need tighter slaughterhouse regulation to ensure that these vulnerable animals do not spend their final moments in agony.’

Read the article in the Times