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In the UK, there are over 350 licenced slaughterhouses. Secrecy surrounds the killing business and individuals and animal welfare organisations are rarely permitted to visit slaughterhouses. Even the governmentâs own advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, has been refused access to some of the larger plants.
Viva! has been able to obtain video footage of stunning and killing and we have also reviewed the latest scientific research on slaughter. As a result, we have built up an extremely disturbing picture of the reality of Britainâs killing factories.
How many animals are killed?
The total number of animals killed in British slaughterhouses in 2003 was approximately 900 million.
This included 9.35 million pigs, nearly 15 million sheep, 28 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, over 850 million chickens and 2.25 million cattle.
This equates to 2.4 million animals slaughtered every day; 100,000 an hour; 1600 per minute and 26 every second.
Legislation and enforcement
Legislation in slaughterhouses is covered by The Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 (WASK). It is supplemented by 3 âpocket guidesâ to the law published by the Governmentâs Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The Meat Hygiene Service (MHS) is responsible for ensuring that legislation is being enforced in UK abattoirs. Official veterinary surgeons (OVSs) monitor hygiene and welfare standards with meat hygiene inspectors. The MHS has been criticised by the European Commission for not having enough OVSs in both poultry and red meat abattoirs. OVSs are only obliged to observe slaughter once a day and Viva! fears that meat hygiene inspectors spend most of their time monitoring hygiene procedures once animals have been killed, rather than observing stunning and slaughter. | 