Posts Tagged ‘slaughter’

Turkey live exports

Monday, October 24th, 2011

I defy anyone to watch the latest undercover exposé from Turkey of the transport and slaughter of sheep and cattle and not feel sickened and angry.

Here’s yet more gruesome footage in which unforgivable and inexcusable things are done to farmed animals when they are at their most vulnerable. Please understand that it’s as difficult for me and everyone at Compassion to watch this footage as I am sure it is for you. But please don’t turn away. We owe it to the animals to know how they’re abused in order to speak out on their behalf with authority.

As we saw repeatedly from previous undercover investigations in, for example, Egypt in 2009 and Indonesia this year, sheep, cattle and pigs are repeatedly abused in contravention of the international recommendations of the World Organisation for Animal Health on welfare at slaughter.

We cannot allow these situations to continue. Developments in Turkey are particularly distressing. In the first half of this year almost 600,000 sheep were transported to Turkey from the EU. This is more than twice as many as in the whole of 2010. At least 100,000 cattle were exported from the EU to Turkey in the first half of 2011. This is nearly twice as many as in the whole of 2010. On current trends, we could see more than 1 million animals travel the route this year.

The European Commission has several times been given detailed information about the welfare abuses involved in live exports to Turkey. We have told them how EU law designed to protect animals is regularly broken during these journeys and how protracted delays at the border – lasting hours, sometimes days – intensifies the suffering. Despite this the Commission has failed to take any effective action. If you want to write to the Commission please join us in taking action here.

All of this underscores the importance of keeping up the pressure against the long distance transport trade in animals internationally. Thank you for your continued support.

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CCTV in Slaughterhouses

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

There are, of course, issues of genuine concern about the prevalence of CCTV in our society. The extent to which we live our lives under surveillance is frequently and hotly debated. Rightly so in my view. Nevertheless, CCTV benefits are clear. It deters crime and, when used as evidence in a court of law, helps to prosecute people for their criminal behaviour.

I first called for CCTV in slaughterhouses in 2009. I was sharing here with you my frustration at the European Union and its new Slaughter Regulation for its failure to tackle important animal welfare issues. This was despite our best lobbying efforts to improve things. CCTV was not on the agenda then. Two years later, it is all but absent from the “to do” list at Brussels and at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in London.

Last year, I repeated my call after watching footage taken inside a slaughterhouse by Animal Aid, who had arranged for CCTV to be installed secretly. In what now appears to be an annual event, in July Animal Aid released new footage shot by concealed CCTV cameras in a slaughterhouse showing appalling cruelty to farm animals.

Surely this was evidence to prosecute?

We joined with Animal Aid and others in asking Jim Paice MP, the agriculture and food minister at DEFRA, to act.

“The fact that this CCTV footage was obtained without permission,” I wrote, “does not diminish the government’s duty to consider credible evidence of breaches of EU legislation on the welfare of animals at slaughter.”

The minister claimed DEFRA could not prosecute because the footage was shot without the permission of the slaughterhouse management, as the persons involved would have trespassed on the property, thereby making the footage inadmissible as evidence in a UK court. Then, it was announced the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will take over DEFRA’s prosecution duties in September. A development, apparently, that had been in the works for some time. In any event, I welcome it, as I hope the CPS will be more willing than DEFRA to bring prosecutions.

One of the employees identified in the footage was dismissed, the minister told to me in his letter, and another did not have their provisional slaughter licence renewed. Further, he said the “possibility of compulsory CCTV in abattoirs” is under consideration. I am pleased to see the Food Standards Agency, which is responsible for food safety and food hygiene, endorse CCTV in slaughterhouses. But I worry the government will follow and not lead farmers and food suppliers who are already taking steps in the right direction. For example, toward the end of last year we saluted supermarket, Morrisons, for pledging to install CCTV cameras in all its abattoirs by the end of this year. Others will surely want to add their voice to this call.

Notwithstanding these developments, I confess to finding it hard to believe existing law prevents Defra from requiring the installation of CCTV in slaughterhouses. Particularly in these times, when we rely upon CCTV so much as an important tool to help keep law and order, there is no reason why the legal and humane slaughter of animals for food cannot be monitored in this way.

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Ramsgate: Ban live exports

Monday, June 20th, 2011

A packed public meeting on a rainy Friday evening in Ramsgate; no-one could have any doubt at the strength of feeling against the live animal export trade now going through the town’s port. 

The meeting was opened by an impassioned speech from local councillor, Ian Driver, who took the initiative and called this meeting.  Local people mingled with stalwart campaigners; veterans of past battles against live exports in Shoreham and Brightlingsea.  The RSPCA were joined on the platform by, amongst others, leading members of the dedicated team from Kent Against Live Exports (KALE).  It was a privilege to be part of the meeting; and to see so many people speaking out against a trade in live animals that is outdated, unnecessary and causes so much suffering to animals.

Before the meeting, I spoke to Meridian TV News; they had been busy getting sound-bites from local people in Ramsgate about live exports.  They told me that finding someone in favour of it had been difficult; testimony to the overwhelming opinion against the trade locally. 

Like so many of us, the campaign against long distance animal transport has been part of my life for decades. It’s a chapter I would rather see closed. It was one of the major issues that motivated Compassion’s founder, Peter Roberts.  The campaign has brought together people from all walks of life.  Together, we’ve had huge impact; at its height in the early-1990s, two million sheep and 500,000 calves were being exported live from Britain to continental Europe; staggering numbers.  Last year, that figure was down to 4,000 sheep; the calf trade ceased all together. 

What is deeply concerning is that Ramsgate is now hosting a resurgence of the live export trade; a trade that is both inhumane and unnecessary.  Only this month, 2 consignments of British calves went from Ramsgate.  These calves will often be reared in veal systems that would be illegal in the UK. There is also a major calf trade from Northern Ireland with 7,000 animals this year having gone to Spain and Hungary. 

Many of the sheep will be going for slaughter.  It simply cannot be right to transport animals over long distances simply to be slaughtered at the journey’s end.  This problem is not confined to British live exports.  Our recent investigation  in Europe pointed to the kind of conditions these animals are often forced to endure; transported in overcrowded and filthy conditions, legs sticking out of the lorries and journeys lasting up to 23 hours long.

You can help.  If you haven’t already, please sign the 8-hours petition. Please write urgently to your MEPs calling for European action to end the long distance transport trade and impose a total maximum journey time of 8 hours for animals travelling for slaughter or fattening.  It is great to see that Peter Skinner MEP is supporting the campaign.  If you live in the Ramsgate area, please write to your local councillors and MPs calling for urgent action.  We are putting together an action pack to help you do just that.  I will post it very soon.  Thank you for helping make live animal exports a thing of the past.

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CCTV in slaughterhouses now!

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about the need for CCTV to be installed in all abattoirs to help protect the welfare of animals at a point when they are most vulnerable, at slaughter. Anyone reading the latest exposé in the Sunday Times this week, and reported in other media, could be forgiven for thinking that our slaughterhouse industry remains in the dark ages. And it gives fresh impetus to calls for much stricter monitoring, not just some of the time, but all of the time.

CCTV always on and focused at the killing end of the slaughterhouse seems a simple innovation. After all, as I’ve said before, we live in a country where every High Street is watched by CCTV for our protection and safety. Are farm animals not equally deserving of the same? Particularly at the time when they are killed?

As I did a year ago, I again offer Compassion’s excellent staff and their outstanding expertise to Government to help train their staff to monitor the video footage taken in their country’s slaughterhouses. Round the clock monitoring would surely put to the test any procedure, training programme and compliance mechanism. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that random, unannounced checks of CCTV tapes should be carried out by Compassion to reinforce the independence of the system.

I am delighted to read that the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) supports the idea of CCTV in slaughterhouses, something we will be following up with them. CCTV is not the whole answer to solving the problem of suffering and poor practice in our slaughterhouses. But it does seem to be an obvious step to introduce the transparency that is so badly needed in this aspect of our food system conducted firmly behind closed doors.

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Inhumane slaughter is unacceptable

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Compassion opposes cruel ways of slaughtering animals in any place at any time regardless of any reason. We believe all slaughter must be conducted humanely. Animals must be stunned prior to slaughter using a method which causes immediate unconsciousness or, in the case of gas stunning, does not cause distress during the period before loss of consciousness.

There is no justification for taking an animal’s life inhumanely. There are no exceptions, including for religious purposes. Of course, we value religious freedom but we do not believe this includes practices causing animal suffering. This is why we lobby for all animals to be pre-stunned before slaughter, even in the case of religious slaughter, such as for Halal and Kosher requirements.

In the UK, a large proportion of animals slaughtered for Halal meat are stunned before slaughter whereas animals slaughtered for Kosher meat generally are not. We work with religious communities internationally, such as in Egypt and Jordan, to raise awareness of animal suffering in transportation and slaughter. It is important for me to make this clear because I want to state forcefully our opposition to the recent Hindu ritual slaughter of animals in Nepal. Quite simply, inhumane slaughter is unacceptable, whatever the apparent justification.

Every five years in November in the village of Bariyapur in southern Nepal, what is thought to be the world’s largest ritual sacrifice of animals attracts thousands of worshippers, many from neighbouring India. In the temple grounds, a two-day ceremony takes place to appease Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power, which includes a Ferris wheel, fortune-telling and stalls selling tea and snacks. Some 250,000 animals (e.g. pigs, buffaloes, goats, wild rats) and birds (e.g. chickens and pigeons) are ritually slaughtered by some 250 men licensed by the temple and armed with swords, axes and Kukri knives wrapped in red cloths.

The killing methods completely fail to address the most basic of animal welfare concerns. Reports suggest, for example, that no animal or bird is pre-stunned before slaughter. Their heads are chopped off by single or multiple blows. The bodies of dead animals and birds are not removed after they have been killed. This means that the remaining moments of those who have yet to be killed is with those who have just been slaughtered. Indeed, animals brought with their offspring witness their slaughter or orphaned babies run loose among the carnage after their mother’s death. Many of the animals are brought great distances without food, water and rest. Many fail to complete the journey or collapse and die after their arrival. The enclosed killing field, which is guarded by high walls and armed police, is no respite for these animals before they are killed. They are not offered any food, water or shelter.

The tragic plight of these animals attracted the attention of the world’s media. For example, The Guardian published a report and a photo essay.

Further local groups, including Animal Nepal, tenaciously campaigned against the Gadhimai slaughter. Compassion pledges to join with others around the world to make sure that there will not be a repeat of this inhumane slaughter in November 2014.

Please join with me in writing polite letters of protest (PDF 59KB) to the Nepalese Embassy in London encouraging their government to work with international organisations like Compassion and Nepalese groups like Animal Nepal to ensure that if any animal is to be ritually slaughtered in five years time they will be humanely stunned first.

Mr. Jhabindra P. Aryal
Charge d’Affaires
Embassy of Nepal
12A Kensington Palace Gardens
London
W8 4QU

Email: eon {at} nepembassy.org(.)uk

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Greece guilty!

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

A recent case in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) demonstrates the power our undercover investigations have in not only exposing animal suffering but also bringing governments to account. The Government of Greece was found guilty for failing to uphold European rules protecting animals during transport and slaughter.

The case was brought by the European Commission following successive exposés by Compassion and other animal welfare groups. Whilst the legislation itself is inadequate, Case 416/07 did strike a blow for proper enforcement of existing rules, something that would prevent much suffering amongst the six million farm animals transported across Europe every year.

Case C-416/07 found Greece guilty of “failing to take all the measures necessary” to properly enforce EU legislation on the protection of animals during transport and slaughter. Specifically, Greece did not

• Ensure competent authorities properly carried out obligatory checks of route plans
• Provide facilities at ferry ports for animals to rest after unloading
• Ensure inspections of animal transport vehicles were completed
• Enforce rules on stunning of animals at slaughter
• Ensure that inspections and controls in slaughterhouses are carried appropriately.

Our investigators, often working undercover at personal risk, gathered evidence in Europe which documented how animals travel enormous distances for considerable time without periods of rest and access to water to reach their final destination – slaughterhouses where they are killed in cruel and unacceptable circumstances.

For example, our latest investigation showed how many unwanted male dairy calves born in Poland and Lithuania have been transported long distances to intensive veal farms in The Netherlands and Italy.
With respect to Case C-416/07, evidence was gathered by the European Commission’s Food and Veterinary Office which investigated how Greece transported and slaughtered farmed animals. The FVO is responsible for checking that Member States are enforcing EU animal welfare legislation properly. Their investigations were prompted in part by our own and those of other like-minded organisations. Our research in Greece in 1997, 2001 and 2005 documented widespread failure to comply with the transportation and slaughter directives.

The ruling in Case C-416/07 shines the spotlight on Greece and its treatment of farmed animals. Greece must now prove to the Commission its compliance with the transportation and slaughter directives. If it does not taken sufficient action, the Commission could issue a “reasoned opinion specifying the points on which Greece has not complied with the judgment.” The case could then be brought back to the ECJ.

Everyone who supports Compassion played a role in the successful prosecution of Greece. Your support helped us to make sure we had sufficient resources to operate our investigators in Europe, including those who work undercover. They provided us with the evidence we used in our reports on countries failing to implement the transportation and slaughter directives. As in Greece’s prosecution, our reports helped to persuade the European Court of Justice and the Food and Veterinary Office that not all of the EU’s member states were in compliance.

Please help us to hold these authorities to account and make sure that EU regulations are enforced by Greece and every other European country.

Thank you!

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Lost Opportunity in Europe

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Animals are at their most vulnerable in the hands of those who don’t care about their fate. Behind the closed doors of slaughterhouses where accountability is minimal at best, there is a cauldron of serious animal welfare problems built out of the stuff of nightmares. Forget about the individual well-being of cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys, ducks and horses on the production line when slaughterhouse employees are paid to kill animals at frighteningly high speed. Not that I blame those whose job is to kill the animals we eat. I wished they had – like the animals they slaughter – a better future. My complaint is with the system. The how and why in which animals are slaughtered for food.

That’s why I’m angry with the European Union and its new Slaughter Regulation agreed by the Agriculture Council on 22 June. Compassion was, of course, in the thick of things lobbying for animals. As we report here some progress was made. This includes requirements for procedures, training and compliance. I have to ask, however, why measures like this aren’t already in place.  Sadly, the new Regulation fails to tackle a number of crucial welfare problems, even when the science and humanity fully support the need for reforms.  It fails to ban religious slaughter without stunning, for example, and the highly aversive gassing of pigs with Carbon dioxide.  As it is the new regulation does not come into force until 2013.

As we all know, there’s money to be made from killing animals by the millions everyday. (Five billion chickens and 360 million other animals are slaughtered annually in the EU.) There are also national traditions, cultural attitudes and religious beliefs which deny that animals have an ability to feel pain, experience emotions and make decisions. Or, if they are recognized, they are considered unimportant as our interests always trump them. This is why there are no excuses for lost opportunities for farmed animals at the time when their lives are terminated.

Like me, you’ve probably thought about what it would be like if every slaughterhouse had glass walls. This may not be possible today but tomorrow each one could be fitted with CCTV. After all, we live in a country where every High Street is watched by CCTV for our protection and safety. Are not farmed animals equally deserving of the same? Particularly at the time when they are killed?

I offer Compassion’s excellent staff and their outstanding expertise to every European government to help them train their staff to monitor the video footage taken in their country’s slaughterhouses. Round the clock monitoring would surely put to the test any procedure, training program and compliance mechanism.

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Campaigners outside the Polish Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden DSC00756Campaigners in Bratislava, Slovakia Supporters sign a petition to defend the the hens in Warsaw, PolandCampaigners at the Polish Embassy in The Hague, NetherlandsMr. Jankowski, The Ambassador’s personal councilor with Amalia Sotirhou at the Polish Embassy in Psychiko, GreeceCampaigners at the Polish Embassy in Berlin, Germany Campaigners at the Polish Embassy in Helsinki, PolandCampaigners at the Polish Embassy in Tallinn, Estonia

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