As seen in The Times on Monday, a film has emerged taken by an undercover agent working for animal rights organisation, Animal Justice Project inside the abattoir of supermarket giant, Morrisons.
The harrowing footage, captured late last year at Woodhead Brothers at Brunel Road, Pinchbeck, Spalding PE11 3YY – a slaughterhouse killing around 2,500-3,000 pigs a day – shows abattoir staff, in full view of CCTV and sometimes the government watchdog Food Standards Agency (FSA)’s Official Veterinarian, using paddles to violently coerce pigs along the ‘race’ and into a gas chamber or ‘gondola’. Workers used electric prods on cows and pigs arrived off transporters lame and collapsing in the race. The findings will be sent to the authorities, Red Tractor, RSPCA, and Morrisons.
Morrisons states “We believe that having CCTV cameras independently reviewed is a clear way to demonstrate that we have the highest possible standards”. Yet Animal Justice Project says the scenes reveal a brutal culture towards animals in UK abattoirs, that legislation and guidelines are ignored, and that CCTV is failing to prevent poor practice.
The supermarket claims that Woodhead Brothers were the first abattoir in England with staff qualified in the Welfare at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 (WATOK) standards, yet our findings show clear breaches of WATOK [10, 11, 12] with regards to the moving of animals, as care was not taken to ensure they were not frightened, excited or mistreated.
