Secret CCTV footage exposes halal abattoir cruelty Guardian

Undercover video shot by an animal welfare group appearing to show the brutal treatment of sheep at a Yorkshire abattoir has rekindled the debate over whether animals need to be stunned before they are killed.

The footage gathered by campaigning group Animal Aid shows sheep being kicked, threatened with knives and thrown into solid structures. In one case a worker appears to be pinning a sheep’s head down with his foot. Four slaughtermen at Bowood Lamb, a halal slaughterhouse in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, have had their operating licences suspended and the company said one worker had been sacked.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched an investigation into the footage, saying there is “no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video” and adding that prosecutions could follow.

Over three days in December, activists from Animal Aid used hidden cameras to record footage which appeared to show:

• A worker hacking and sawing at animals’ throats, in direct contravention of Islamic practice. In one instance it took up to five attempts to sever blood vessels.

• Sheep being kicked in the face and head, lifted by their ears, fleeces or legs and hurled into solid structures.

• A worker standing on the neck of a conscious sheep and bouncing up and down.

• Staff erupting into laughter over a sheep bleeding to death with spectacles drawn around her eyes in green paint.

• Employees taunting and frightening animals by waving knives, smacking them on the head and shouting at them.

The law requires abattoirs to stun animals before slaughter to prevent unnecessary suffering, but there are exemptions for Jewish and Muslim producers.

Under the halal code, animals are supposed to be killed quickly, with a single sweep of a surgically sharp knife.

They should not see the knife before they are slaughtered, or witness the death of other animals.

Footage from the Animal Aid video of the halal slaughterhouse. Photograph: Animal Aid/PA

The video footage appears to show that these rules were not adhered to at Bowood, where more than 4,000 sheep were filmed being killed, the animal rights organisation said.

Sheep appeared to have knives sharpened in front of them and watched their flock-mates bleeding to death before being shackled and hoisted.

Responding to the allegation from Animal Aid that the alleged abuse captured on film was “routine”, Jamie Foster, solicitor for Bowood Lamb, said that was not correct.

Speaking on the BBC’s Farming Today programme, Foster said one employee had been sacked and added the company took animal welfare extremely seriously.

“We have very limited access to the footage … but clearly the piece we saw which involved a slaughterman standing on the neck of a sheep was something that fell far below the standards that Bowood would find acceptable and that individual was immediately dismissed for gross misconduct.”

Kate Fowler, head of campaigns at Animal Aid, said the scenes were “inexcusable”.

Animal Aid also criticised the poor design of the slaughterhouse. The group said that sheep fell some distance from a chute on to a slippery floor in the kill area and were often unable to stand.

They were then frequently thrown head first into a solid structure, Animal Aid said.

The group is calling for independently monitored CCTV cameras to be compulsory at slaughterhouses.

Slaughterhouses in the UK are regulated by the FSA, which provides operating licences and carries out inspections.

The FSA said: “The Food Standards Agency takes animal welfare at abattoirs very seriously, which is why we immediately suspended the licences of the slaughtermen involved.

“There is no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video and we are therefore investigating the footage with a view to prosecution.”

Last year, 2.4m sheep and goats were killed without being stunned in halal and Jewish shechita abattoirs, according to the British Veterinary Association.

Animal Aid said it recognised there was a risk of the video stirring up anti-Muslim feeling, but added: “Withholding release of the footage would be a betrayal of our key mission: to expose and combat animal cruelty.”