Viva! 8 York Court Wilder Street Bristol BS2 8QH Tel: 0117 944 1000 Fax: 0117 924 4646 email: media@viva.org.uk	13 November 2000 MAFF accused of failing to protect animals in abattoirs Photocall: Tuesday 14 November at 2 pm at the MAFF offices, Block B, Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 The animal charity Viva! is accusing the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of failing to protect animals’ welfare in British abattoirs. At 2 pm on Tuesday 14th November, campaigners dressed as farm animals will be ‘killed’ by a ‘slaughterman’ on the steps of the MAFF offices in Cambridge. Campaigners will hold placards saying, ‘Abattoir cruelty: MAFF approved’ and ‘MAFF: No protection for animals’. The demonstration is one of a series of protests taking place at MAFF offices around the UK. They follow a major expose of the Britain’s slaughter industry by Viva!. Video evidence shot at three British abattoirs shows animals being stunned for as little as two seconds and regaining consciousness as they bleed to death. Clearly conscious sheep and pigs are shown struggling violently as they hang from shackles on the slaughter line. Viva! has reviewed the latest scientific literature for its 58-page Sentenced to Death report which reveals that stunning techniques cause suffering and that every year, tens of millions of animals regain consciousness before they die. · Five million electrically stunned sheep regain consciousness before they die from loss of blood. · 1.8 million electrically stunned pigs regain consciousness before they die. 244,800 pigs a year are incorrectly stunned and do not lose consciousness. · Four million pigs are stunned with carbon dioxide gas. It takes them up to 30 seconds to lose consciousness and during that time they will squeal, hyperventilate and try to escape. · Up to 230,000 cattle are not correctly stunned with the captive bolt pistol and endure the pain of being shot again or knifed whilst conscious. · 62 million chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese regain consciousness and at least 8.4 million are conscious when they enter the scalding tank. Slaughterhouses are continuing to pay workers according to the number of animals killed and both workers and inspectors are under pressure not to stop the line, whatever the needs of the animals. Slaughterhouses frequently have no trained staff. Vets and inspectors are only obliged to observe stunning and killing once a day and Viva! believes that major animal welfare problems are going unnoticed. “Current legislation does little to protect the two million animals killed in UK abattoirs every day and we are calling on MAFF to make urgent changes,” says Viva! Campaigner Rebecca Smith. “In the abattoirs we visited, slaughtermen were frequently left to stun and kill the animals without any direct supervision and we witnessed animals regaining consciousness as they bled to death. “Across the country, tens of millions of animals a year regain consciousness because of long stun-to-knife intervals, the inaccurate and brief placement of electric tongs and the cutting of only one carotid artery at slaughter. This huge toll of suffering is wholly unacceptable in a society which claims to care about animals.” Viva!’s report contains an account from Gabriele Meurer MRCVS, who was a vet in UK slaughterhouses and has serious concerns about animal welfare. She says, “The slaughtermen are in such a hurry that they often don’t put the electric tongs in the correct position when they stun the pigs. Some wake up while they bleed and are obviously still conscious when they are plunged into the boiling water. Sheep are stunned just as badly.” Ends Notes to Editors: For a fully referenced report, pictures or video footage, contact Rebecca Smith, Juliet Gellatley or Tony Wardle on 0117 944 1000. Animal welfare legislation in UK slaughterhouses is covered by The Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 (HMSO publication).