“In many cases they are mishandled. Some die suddenly from the stress of unloading, some arrive from their home farms with serious welfare problems, some are transport violations, and some die on arrival.
“When you see enough pigs suffering and expressing fear and distress, it becomes clear that this is not an isolated or rare problem.”
Undercover footage taken inside C&K Meats, a facility that slaughters both concentrated and free-range pigs, in 2023 revealed numerous clear breaches of animal welfare laws.
The slaughterhouse has the capacity to slaughter approximately 1,200 to 1,400 pigs per day in a CO2 gas chamber. mirrorIt supplies pork to brands including Jolly Hog, which is sold in Tesco, Co-op, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Morrisons, Asda and Lidl. Some of Tesco’s own brand pork products also come from pigs slaughtered at the abattoir.
Limping
Animal rights groups have raised concerns about the treatment of the animals, including workers beating pigs with paddles, using excessive force to force them into gas chambers, and signs of severe stress.
Such actions may breach Article 5 of the Animal Welfare (Transport) (UK) Order 2006 and European Union Council Regulation 1099/2009 setting out humane treatment and preventing unnecessary suffering.
Dr Alek Simmons, a former deputy chief veterinary surgeon to the UK government, reviewed the footage and said: “There were a number of instances in the footage where the use of the paddle was excessive over a short period of time. It is illegal to hit or kick animals in an abattoir holding area.”
Dr. Simmons also raised concerns about how the animals were transported, based on evidence from the undercover video: “Both the transport of unsuitable animals and the transport of pigs that died during transport strongly suggest that insufficient care was taken in selecting pigs for transport.”
Simmons continued: “During unloading, several lame pigs were encountered, as well as pigs that were unfit for travel (shortness of breath, large umbilical hernias, etc.). The welfare of these animals was likely compromised prior to unloading, but transport may have exacerbated the problem.
Rocks
“These animals should not have been transported and should have been treated humanely or killed at the point of origin.”
The AJP also highlights worrying patterns of regulatory failures and illegal practices within UK abattoirs.
Independent analysis According to government statistics, an average of 10 people Serious legal violations Slaughterhouse operators around the world report daily: 229 British Slaughterhouse In 2023, this would represent just 0.08% of dead animals.
The Food Standards Agency claims: 99.9 Percentage of UK abattoirs met animal welfare compliance standards in 2023, but incidents of non-compliance Decrease between 2021/22 and 2022/23A referral for investigation is the highest executive power that an official veterinarian can exercise.
In 2023 only 28 violations of non-performance 3,843 cases were referred for investigation into the 2015 version of the UK’s Welfare of Animals at Slaughter (WATOK) Regulations, leading to concerns that enforcement was lax.
Penalty
However, AJP has conducted inspections of five slaughterhouses over the past five years and found several violations every day.
These cases are examples of a systematic failure by slaughterhouse operators to address animal welfare issues. AJP believes these violations are significant. Over 1 billion The number of animals slaughtered each year in the UK.
Moreover, the actions taken when violations are found are insufficient – ‘verbal advice’ is the only outcome. 43% of ‘Level 4’ severity incidents.
This is despite the fact that such incidents pose a serious and imminent risk to animal welfare or cause avoidable pain, suffering or distress.
The lack of actual penalties contradicts the Food Standards Agency’s own actions. Manual for official control This states that a WATOK Enforcement Notice (WEN) should always be considered, except where an accident is unavoidable or evidence is insufficient.
Right to reply
Andrew Opie, head of food and sustainability at the UK Retail Consortium, which represents many supermarkets, said: “Our member companies know how important animal welfare is to their customers and they take their responsibility for animal welfare very seriously, carrying out regular audits to ensure expected standards are being met.
“This is being investigated and action will be taken if any breaches of the high animal welfare standards to which our members adhere are identified.”
A Waitrose spokesperson confirmed that none of its branded pork was sourced from C&K Meats, adding: “Our commitment to improving animal welfare standards extends to our own branded products and we are working urgently with Jolly Hog to investigate these claims further.”
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We take animal welfare very seriously and expect all our suppliers to adhere to our high welfare standards. Any bad practice has no place in our supply chain and following our discovery of this shocking footage we are urgently investigating with our supplier.”
An RSPCA Assured spokesperson said: “Animal welfare is our absolute priority and we always investigate claims of poor welfare. When we became aware of the footage, which was filmed more than a year ago, we launched an immediate and urgent investigation.
“We take complaints of poor animal welfare very seriously and would always urge anyone with concerns to contact us immediately. This will allow us to investigate immediately, visit the premises and address welfare concerns as a priority.”
I contacted C&K Meats. Ecologist But no opinion has been expressed yet.
This author
Brendan Montague is the editor. Ecologist.
