UK animal rights group secretly films practices inside halal abattoir

The UK’s Food Standards Agency has suspended four workers after an animal rights group secretly filmed practices at an abattoir.

The footage, released by the Animal Aid group showed what appeared to be serious abuses of sheep at the Bowood Lamb halal slaughterhouse in North Yorkshire.

The Food Standards Agency said on Tuesday that there was “no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video” and launched an investigation into the slaughterhouse in Thirsk, 215 miles (346 kilometres) north of London.

The footage showed abusive practices including sheep being thrown, and kicked in the face and head.

The Muslim Council of Britain said it was “appalled” at the reports of abuse at an abattoir that claims to follow the halal methods of slaughter recognised by Islamic authorities.

Massod Butt, from the Association of Non-Stun Abattoirs said on Monday that Islam has clear guidelines concerning the treatment of animals for food.

“That is to be kind and merciful to them and respecting their care and not to cause pain or suffering to the animals unnecessarily,” Butt told Sky News.

An Animal Aid press release stated: “Halal monitoring bodies typically require that prayers should be said while animals are killed. At Bowood, there were no prayers but the radio blared out pop music, including Christmas songs.”

The animal rights group pointed out that the behaviour captured on camera in Thirsk was not restricted to halal processing sites.

Bowood Lamb was the tenth slaughterhouse they had filmed undercover since January 2009, the rights group said.

“As with the others, we didn’t know what we would find when our cameras were planted, including that it was a halal establishment – the first we have investigated. All the other nine were practising so-called ‘humane slaughter’,” a statement from the group read.

The release of the footage has renewed calls by campaigners and MPs for all abattoirs to be fitted with closed circuit television cameras.

“It’s not something that is very expensive or burdensome, but actually could end a lot of unnecessary suffering and abuse of livestock in the food production process,” Conservative MP Henry Smith told Sky News.