Animal Aid, a leading animal welfare charity, secretly filmed pigs being punched, kicked and having cigarette butts stubbed out on their faces at Elmkirk (Cheale Meats Ltd), a slaughterhouse in Essex. The footage also showed workers using electrified tongs, designed to render pigs insensible, on the faces and anuses of the animals, instead of on their hindquarters, resulting in the animals falling to the ground “screaming”.
But Defra has announced it will not prosecute Cheale Meats because Animal Aid’s video evidence was “obtained illegally” – despite numerous successful court cases in which animal welfare groups have obtained footage by trespassing.
Kate Fowler, head of campaigns at Animal Aid, said the previous Labour Government was committed to prosecuting abattoirs which were found to have been acting illegally. “Animal Aid has filmed secretly inside nine UK slaughterhouses and found eight breaking animal welfare laws. Under Labour, Defra was bringing prosecutions against slaughterhouses using our footage as evidence.
“Within weeks of the coalition taking over, all cases were dropped and the Cheale Meats abusers will not face justice either. We did not get authorisation under the Investigatory Powers Act. When we explained that we do not need authorisation, Defra said it could not prosecute because we did not have the slaughterhouse owners’ permission to film.”
