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The RSPCA has formally endorsed Animal Aid’s call for CCTV to be installed in all UK slaughterhouses and has said that it will make cameras mandatory in all Freedom Food approved abattoirs.
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.
The RSPCA said that with so many animals going through abattoirs daily, it was aware of significant welfare risks involved and said the area needed closer scrutiny.
“All farmed animals deserve to have a painless and humane end to their lives,” said John Avizienius, deputy head of RSPCA’s farm animal science department.
“This is why we believe this is such an important step forward, as CCTV not only acts as a “preventative’ measure, but also allows proper evidence to be collected if animal welfare is suspected of being compromised.”
The charity said it would be consulting with industry to ensure that CCTV becomes mandatory in all RSPCA welfare standard approved farms, known in the industry as the Freedom Food labelling scheme.
“And (we) are calling for all slaughterhouses in the country to follow suit,’ Avizienius added
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.
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IMPORTANT NOTE:
EVOLVE! Campaigns also believes that all slaughter is shocking and unnecessary and we urge all those consuming animal products to reconsider their food choices and make the life-changing decision to embrace veganism.
Farm animals are sentient, complex, and unique. They are as capable of feeling pain and frustration, joy and excitement as those dogs and cats we welcome into our families, yet industrialised agriculture treats them merely as meat, egg, and milk-producing machines, instead of the living, sensitive beings they are. Just like those animals we consider to be our companions or those in the wild, these animals deserve our respect and compassion.
Factory farming is the biggest cause of animal suffering in the world today. To find out what the life of a intensively farmed pig, dairy calf, battery hen, goose and wild caught ocean fish is like, read these stories:
http://www.evolvecampaigns.org.uk/animals.asp
Compiled By:
http://www.evolvecampaigns.org.uk
