From May 2015 to January 2017 the body responsible for monitoring welfare in Scottish slaughterhouses recorded 181 breaches.
These were only the breaches that were actually picked up.
It has become so bad the authorities have set up what is effectively a crisis committee to attempt to manage the situation.
Last year Scotland for Animals exposed the nature of offences including ineffective stunning, injured animals being left to suffer and animals waiting to die in overcrowded pens.
SfA can also now reveal that we have discovered that out of the 181 recorded, 143 of these crimes were committed in slaughterhouses where there was already self-regulated CCTV in operation.
Scotland for Animals has consistently argued that the position of government, and perhaps more shamefully some alleged animal welfare groups, of supporting voluntary CCTV uptake managed by the abattoir operators themselves, is useless.
This reluctance to take on a very powerful industry is causing suffering on an unimaginable scale.
The governing party in Scotland, the SNP, has had support for mandatory CCTV agreed at it's annual conferences. There has been no action to implement this to date.
Please take a few minutes of your Saturday to write to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and demand immediate action.
Sample message:
Re: CCTV in slaughterhouses.
Dear Ms Sturgeon,
I am appalled to learn that the situation in Scottish slaughterhouses has become of such concern that a crisis committee is being convened by Food Standards Scotland to investigate the issue.
I am further aware that your administration has repeatedly rejected calls for mandatory, independently monitored CCTV at slaughter establishments and has instead chosen to support self-regulation.
As the charity Scotland for Animals has now revealed that the vast majority of breaches recorded in the past two years were in establishments where your favoured system was present I would ask that you now take urgent action to have mandatory and independent monitoring put in place.
I note that at your party conference last year delegates voted to support this policy but your government has done nothing to carry this through.
Please be reminded that as there is an election next month, and that there is great public support for legislative change, then failure to act will reflect badly on your party and candidates.
I await your reply.
Thank you in advance.
Contact here: scottish.ministers@gov.scot
As the the Scottish Government has been increasingly relying on the votes of Green MSPs to get legislation through please also contact Co-Convenor Patrick Harvie: Patrick.Harvie.msp@parliament.scot
You can ask him why, as the Greens also have a commitment to mandatory CCTV, he and his party have done nothing make this a condition when providing support at Holyrood.
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Animals are suffering right now, please act today and forward this message.
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