Report proposes industry funds mandatory slaughterhouse CCTV
A recently published research report has proposed the mandatory monitoring and inspection of processes in slaughterhouses using CCTV as “it is clear voluntary compliance does not achieve effective cessation of all malpractice.”
The report, CCTV Monitoring in Slaughterhouses, by Ian D. Rotherham, Joe Worden and Paul Cormack of Cormack Economics, HEC Associates and Sheffield Hallam University, also recommends the scheme to be funded by the industry with a per-carcass levy system. It suggests that the overall costs of establishing an effective CCTV monitoring programme for all slaughterhouses in England will be between £150,000 and £370,000 annually.
The report said: “The clear conclusion is that the current system of welfare monitoring is failing and compulsory use of CCTV with independent monitoring is the only robust solution.
“For a modest investment in the independence of CCTV monitoring, the potential welfare benefits are significant.”
Animal rights group, Animal Aid, believes a fully installed four-camera system with remote viewing and night vision would be suitable for smaller slaughterhouses and would cost in the region of £700 and £900, whilst an eight-camera system would cost in the region of £2,500.
A sign of the growing concern of the welfare of animals at the time of slaughter can be highlighted by the 112,285 people who signed a petition on the Government’s No.10 website in 2015 calling for mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses with independent monitoring.
The petition followed investigations by Animal Aid between 2009 and 2014 which saw them secretly film inside ten randomly selected UK slaughterhouses, in which cruelty and law breaking were found in nine.
The CCTV Monitoring in Slaughterhouses report proposes a small-scale pilot scheme to test the system’s feasibility.
Since welfare at slaughter is a devolved issue, any decision taken at Westminster on mandatory installation of CCTV would apply only to slaughterhouses in England.
The full report can be found here.
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