This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Campaigners are calling for animal welfare reform in Cambodia after exclusive footage of an open-air slaughterhouse revealed the brutal treatment of pigs.

In the undercover video, taken by British animal rights campaigners Moving Animals, hundreds of the animals can be seen huddling together watching others being killed in close proximity.

Shirtless workers approach each animal in pairs. One clubs the pig’s head multiple times with a metal rod before sitting upon it to prevent it from moving. The other worker then slits the pig’s throat.

The dying animals are dragged across the bloody concrete floor, before being thrown into a boiling vat of water off-screen.

“This was one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen,” said Moving Animals’ co-founder Amy Jones.

“The Cambodian government must act immediately by implementing animal welfare laws that ensure no more animals experience such brutal killing methods. For consumers, the best way to protest against the inhumane suffering of animals is to stop paying for their slaughter altogether.”

The slaughterhouse, which is overlooked by apartment buildings, made local headlines last year when Peta called on the Cambodian government to stop the abuse and to implement animal welfare laws.

Yet it appears no action was taken, said Jones, who used to work for Peta.

“This footage shows there has been no change. The meat industry in south-east Asia is growing at an alarming rate: around 2.5 million pigs are slaughtered annually in Cambodia alone,” she said.

“But the laws for animal welfare are practically non-existent in Cambodia, which means these animals are left with no protection.”

Death by clubbing: the brutality of Thailand's pig slaughterhouses Read more

In 2016, the Buddhist nation passed its first-ever animal health and protection law following the culling of thousands of animals due to outbreaks of blue-ear pig disease and avian flu, which states that: “Keepers of animals who … torture, caus[e] the suffering [of], or commit barbaric acts on animals in contrary to animal welfare technical standards … shall be subject to written warning or suspension of certificate or relevant permits.”

But due to a lack of modern equipment and machinery, activists believe that most livestock in Cambodia is slaughtered by hand, using similar methods to those shown in the video.

Cambodia opened its first and only industrial slaughterhouse in 2016, at a cost of $22m (£17m). The 11,000 square-metre plant was designed to slaughter imported Australian cattle for export to China, but without the tax and sanitary compliance documents required for international trade, it now only operates twice a week, slaughtering fewer than 100 cattle for domestic consumption.

Cambodia is not unique in its poor animal welfare practice. Humane slaughter in small- and medium-sized abattoirs across the region is virtually non-existent, says global farm animal advisor Kate Blaszak, of the international charity World Animal Protection (WAP).

“Across south-east Asia, humane slaughter standards and enforcement are needed for all species slaughtered, including pigs, poultry, cattle and buffalo, as well as geese and ducks,” said Blaszak.

“However, from my experience, there is little routine enforcement or even regulation for animal welfare during slaughter except large company slaughter in some countries. Thus there is no general incentive for training and compliance day-to-day for most animals in most countries.”

Many of the pigs slaughtered in Cambodia have been driven over the border in crowded pickup trucks from Thailand, and arrive cramped, sunburnt and dehydrated, she added.

Pigs are highly intelligent and sentient animals capable of feeling intense pain and suffering, said Blaszak.

“Local consumers deserve pork that has been raised and slaughtered to good welfare standards along with intrinsic benefits of good meat quality and safety.”

The Phnom Penh slaughterhouse kills an estimated 600 pigs every night between 11pm and 6am, said Jones, who rented a room in one of the adjacent apartment buildings to document the process.

Jones and her partner Paul Healey, with whom she founded Moving Animals, said they were struck by the fact that some of the workers regularly looked away as the pigs’ throats were slit.

“Compared to the industrial style of slaughter, which is nameless and faceless because it’s done by a machine in a rapid pace, there’s an intimacy to this style of slaughter between the worker who has to hit the pig multiple times over the head, and the other worker who has to slit the throat,” said Healey.

“The workers have to walk over to the pig they want to kill and hit it repeatedly. It really drives home the impact it must have on the workers who work there night after night.”