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Tunbridge Wells slaughterhouse, Forge Farm Meats, will be in the dock on Friday (October 5) charged with 14 counts of breaking animal welfare regulations.

Abattoir workers Brian Luck, 25, George Mason, 56, will also appear before Maidstone magistrates accused of failing to properly stun animals before they were killed at the Powder Mill Lane abattoir.

Luck, of Hornbeam Avenue, Southborough, faces nine charges of relating to sheep and a pig.

He is accused of placing electrodes on sheep for less than three seconds and failing to check for signs of consciousness on April 13 and May 15 last year.

He is further accused of cutting a pig's ear less than 20 seconds after it had been bled and stunned.

Mason, of Hurstwood Avenue, Emsworth, Hampshire, also faces eight charges relating to the death of sheep on April 12 and 13 last year.

These include applying electrodes to stun a sheep before slaughter for less than three seconds and failing to ensure the current was strong enough to render an animal unconscious because it was placed incorrectly around the animal's neck and head.

He is also facing charges of cutting the leg of a sheep less than 20 seconds after it had stunned and a further charge of causing sheep avoidable pain or suffering by walking on the backs of sheep during their killing.

Forge Farm Meats of Eridge Road, is being prosecuted alongside its employees.

The company slaughters, supplies and processes meat to butchers and outlets across Sussex and Kent.