MP backs call for mandatory abattoir CCTV

The campaign was launched by Animal Aid, who placed fly-on-the-wall cameras inside 10 slaughterhouses and found nine were breaking animal welfare laws. Footage revealed workers kicking and beating animals in the head and face; picking them up by ears, legs and fleeces and throwing them; burning them with cigarettes; and using electrical stunning tongs to inflict painful electric shocks.

Mr Wilson signed an Early Day Motion, saying: “I appreciate that abattoirs are essential to the production of food in our economy, and nowhere more so than Northern Ireland because of our dependence on the agri-food industry.”

He added: “However, I do believe that it is important that animals taken for slaughter should not be cruelly treated and that safeguards should be in place to ensure that where standards do slip below what the public and the authorities would expect there should be means of detecting individuals who may engage in cruelty. Abattoirs should not have any fear from CCTV.”