CCTV in abattoirs call by Welsh Conservatives
CCTV cameras must be made compulsory in all slaughterhouses in Wales, mirroring the position in England and Scotland, the Welsh Conservatives suggest.
In Wales there is funding through the Food Business Investment Scheme for the installation of cameras in abattoirs but it is a voluntary scheme and only one application has so far received a payment.
The Welsh Conservatives submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request to the Welsh Government to ask how many businesses had applied for funding for slaughterhouses.
Eight applications were made for grants, four of which were to enable or upgrade CCTV systems to monitor animal welfare, but to date only one grant payment of £2,689 to install CCTV in a slaughterhouse has been paid.
The most recent publicly available statistics, published in 2016, showed that only eight of 23 operational slaughterhouses in Wales had any form of CCTV; these included the three largest sites in Wales.
The Welsh Conservatives’ shadow minister for rural affairs, Janet Finch-Saunders MS, said she was “dismayed” by the revelations.
“Plainly put, this approach has not only fallen short, it has failed,” she said.
CCTV in slaughterhouses would ensure that mistreatment of animals is quickly detected and dealt with, she added.
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