Breaking: Our covert cameras capture appalling scenes of slaughterhouse incompetence and chaos at Farmers Fresh, Wales

This was further amplified by an extremely fast paced slaughter-line. Investigators filmed in Spring and Summer of this year (2019).

We brought to light many concerning issues including workers pinning down and cutting the throat of a sheep who appears fully conscious, and a stun-man picking up a sheep by her fleece and neck and hurling her down the slaughter conveyer line, whilst shouting. Another worker grabbed sheep by their throats or fleeces and threw them backwards into the conveyer, often with an audible crash.

 Animal Aid’s undercover investigators have revealed the truth behind their closed doors. We captured footage of incompetence and chaos at Farmers Fresh slaughterhouse, North Wales.

In one particularly harrowing scene, we witness a worker fail to properly stun a sheep, who surges forward onto the cutting table. Two workers then pin the struggling sheep down and cut her throat, whilst she appears to be fully conscious.

Staff try to round up bewildered sheep using brute force against these timid creatures.

They are kneed, and slapped, even picked up and thrown onto the conveyor.

Several sheep are loaded backwards and upside down. Sheep are also sometimes seen dragged back down the conveyor by their hind legs.

One sheep who is separated from the others, bleating in distress, panics and jumps back towards the gate from where she came, smashing her head through it, only to tumble to the ground. All of this went unnoticed by a staff member who was speaking on his mobile phone at the time.

Failures

According to a recent FSA (Food Standards Agency) audit report, this slaughterhouse is failing, in the areas of animal welfare, animal health and hygiene.

Animal Aid campaigned for almost a decade to see mandatory, independently monitored CCTV installed in slaughterhouses.

Mandatory CCTV was finally made law in England in 2018, although independent monitoring is not yet compulsory. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government announced that it would also make CCTV mandatory for slaughterhouses in Scotland.

The Welsh government has previously said that there has not been evidence of serious legal breaches and cruelty inside Welsh slaughterhouses. Now, our groundbreaking filming shows otherwise.

This is the 16th slaughterhouse Animal Aid has investigated. One disturbing aspect of what we have uncovered, is the very fast pace at which the sheep are ‘processed’, with an animal being stunned on average every 10 – 12 seconds. This combined with brutal treatment and what we believe are serious management failings means a terrifying and traumatic experience for the sheep being ‘processed’, and ultimately killed.

We believe this provides vital evidence that makes the case for mandatory CCTV to be introduced across Welsh slaughterhouses to bring Wales in line with England and plans proposed for Scotland.

Without our covert cameras in place, this horrendous situation may have continued, unchecked for some time. Join us in calling on the Welsh government to introduce independently monitored mandatory CCTV without delay across Wales. Take Action: Write to the Welsh government now!

(The Welsh Government has since committed to mandatory CCTV)