In response to Annie Hayes’s Soapbox view headlined “Take a stand to protect animals” (The Argus, April 4), I concur wholeheartedly with everything she articulates about the way we treat animals.
We shouldn’t have animals killed for our consumption as we don’t need them to live a full, healthy life, especially as there are proven healthier alternatives to animal flesh.
Annie goes on to say, “Regardless of the route they (animals) may take, the UK’s cows, chickens and pigs still come to a brutal and undignified end in the same slaughterhouses.”
What Annie omits to mention here is that, before animals are killed, some of them are being kicked, slapped, stamped on and picked up by fleeces and ears to be thrown into stunning pens, improperly stunned and deliberately and illegally beaten before going to the knife while still conscious.
Animal Aid filmed secretly inside nine UK slaughterhouses. Eight were breaking animal welfare laws.
Animal Aid’s footage has already led to two men being jailed. It is now campaigning for the Government to make CCTV mandatory in all abattoirs.
A YouGov poll has found that, of those who expressed a view (3,445), 73% said the Government should make CCTV mandatory for all UK slaughterhouses.
Most supermarkets insist that their slaughterhouse suppliers install CCTV.
Readers can write to their MPs to ask them to sign EDM 951, which calls for mandatory CCTV in all slaughterhouses to take a stand to protect animals.
David Hammond, North Court, Hassocks
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