Pigs tortured with lit cigarettes, punched, kicked Brentwood, Essex, EN (UK)Incident Date: Tuesday, Mar 1, 2011
Disposition: Not Charged Case Images: 10 files available
Person of Interest: Names Undisclosed
An animal welfare group has released footage of pigs being kicked, struck and having cigarettes stubbed out on their faces an abattoir in the UK, but the government agency refuses to prosecute because it says the cameras were secretly installed.
The footage was captured over a four-day period at Elmkirk Ltd (Cheale Meats) in Brentwood, Essex.
It shows men stubbing out cigarettes on pigs' faces, and hitting and kicking them. Pigs were improperly stunned with electrified tongs and fall to the floor screaming. Injured animals were forced to crawl across the floor. These actions breach the
A Defra spokesperson said the Food Standards Agency had not referred the case to their lawyers for a decision on whether to prosecute.
The
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Sky News reported that although Defra lawyers cited two cases of animal cruelty which collapsed when footage was ruled inadmissible in court, they have found examples of successful court cases which relied on secretly captured footage. One of these cases involved two men who released a statement saying that they have launched an investigation into the footage and that it strengthens their call for CCTV to be installed in all abattoirs.
Jamie Foster, solicitor for Elmkirk, said his client has had CCTV installed for ten years and would not accept that all of the footage involved their premises
"A complaint has been made to Essex Police by our clients in relation to any unlawful entry into our client's premises by an employee of Animal Aid," he told here. References |