Europaweite Videoüberwachung an Schlachthöfen und Dokumentation

Food Standards Agency FSA 11/11/09
Open Board – 15 November 2011

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CCTV FOR MONITORING ANIMAL WELFARE AT THE TIME OF SLAUGHTER
Report by Andrew Rhodes, Director of Operations

1 SUMMARY

1.1 In early 2009 undercover footage was obtained from a small number of slaughterhouses. Later on in the year this was released, via the media, into the public domain. This led to a sustained campaign demanding mandatory installation of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) to monitor animal welfare practices in slaughterhouses.
1.2 In October 2010 the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Board agreed to endorse the principle of encouraging the installation of CCTV by Food Business Operators (FBOs) as a further management tool to protect animal welfare, but agreed further evidence was required, with a report to be presented to the Board in November 2011.
1.3 This paper discusses the current level of uptake of CCTV for animal welfare monitoring in slaughterhouses. It covers the issues and benefits of installation of CCTV. The Board is reminded that current legislation does not require businesses to install CCTV for this purpose. However, the FSA continues to work with the industry to encourage voluntary installation.
1.4 The Board is asked to:
Note the contents of this paper; Note a further update will be provided once results of the recent animal welfare survey are available, and Note that no policy change is proposed without
completion of the evidence gathering process.

2 INTRODUCTION

2.1 The Board discussed CCTV as a tool for monitoring animal welfare in slaughterhouses at its meeting in October 2010 (FSA 10/10/04)1. The Government’s Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer, Alick Simmons, attended the meeting. The Chief Executive compared the use CCTV at the difficult to monitor point of slaughter as being similar to the introduction of the tachograph in the transport industry during the 1970s. The Board agreed to the principle of encouraging the
installation of CCTV by businesses as a further tool to protect animal welfare but asked that more evidence was gathered to determine how useful it could be. A programme of work to establish this evidence base was set up by the Director of Operations working with the industry and Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), reporting back to the Board in November 2011.
1 http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/board/fsa101004.pdf

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2.2 The campaigning organisation Animal Aid has released further footage in recent months and the matter of animal welfare at slaughter has reached the media spotlight once more. The most recent release of undercover film has resulted in regular animal welfare protests outside the slaughterhouse where the filming took place.

3 STRATEGIC AIMS

3.1 This work supports the strategic outcome that regulation is effective, risk-based and proportionate, is clear about the responsibilities of businesses and protects consumers and their
interests from fraud and other risks. It also fits with our commitment to safeguard animal welfare at the point of slaughter through enforcement of animal welfare legislation. This work we carry out in Great Britain on behalf of Defra and the Scottish and Welsh Governments.

4 DISCUSSION

Current level of uptake of CCTV by slaughterhouses
4.1 In June 2010, about 7% of slaughterhouses had CCTV installed for monitoring animal welfare in the stunning / slaughter area, with 8% having CCTV in place for monitoring animal welfare in other areas. This accounted for 13% of cattle, 16% of sheep, 42% of pigs and 40% of
poultry processed during the period April to June 2010.
4.2 In September 2011, the FSA gathered information on the further uptake of CCTV has changed since June 2010. The number of establishments with CCTV in place for animal welfare has more than
doubled.
4.3 There are now: 19% of red meat slaughterhouses with CCTV in place to monitor animal welfare. These account for around 48% of red meat volume over the period July 2010 to July 2011, and 29% of white meat slaughterhouses. These account for 59% of poultry volume in the same period.
4.4 These increases have been driven in part by individual businesses and in part by the major retailers, both independently and through their assurance schemes. Asda, Morrisons, J Sainsbury, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Iceland, The Co-operative and Waitrose all now require CCTV monitoring of animals at slaughter throughout their supply chains.

FSA activity

4.5 The FSA is clear that businesses must have appropriate systems in place to comply with legal requirements and achieve the required standards of animal welfare.
4.6 The protection of animal welfare through proportionate enforcement is one of

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Open Board – 15 November 2011

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the key reasons for FSA presence in approved meat establishments. Our Official Veterinarians (OV) must take proportionate enforcement action to protect the welfare of animals prior to and during slaughter. OVs are neither expected to observe the slaughter of every animal in a
slaughterhouse, nor are they required to.
4.7 The FSA has been involved in discussions with Defra and industry stakeholders throughout the last year as both industry and officials come together to address the problems highlighted during the campaign. In particular, the FSA continues to work with British Retail Consortium on a code of practice for the use of CCTV, with the support of the larger retailers.
4.8 In promoting animal welfare safeguards, the FSA supports the use of CCTV in slaughterhouses as a useful monitoring tool. This is because there is often limited space in the stunning pen for the OV to have a clear view. Monitors are often in business offices, and in these cases OVs may not have direct access. In practice, when our officials have enquired, OVs tend to view the business’ CCTV on a regular basis. Businesses in general allow OVs opportunity to review footage when they require.
4.9 Following up on a similar survey last May 2010, OVs have recently completed a detailed, week-long animal welfare survey in every slaughterhouse in England, Scotland and Wales (in the week commencing 19 September 2011). The purpose of the survey was to provide assurance that:
Businesses are taking active steps to comply with legal requirements and to achieve necessary standards of animal welfare, and OVs and frontline teams are carrying out their roles effectively, with appropriate monitoring and verification checks and relevant enforcement action being taken in the event of non-compliances or breaches.
4.10 Survey results are currently being analysed and the Board will be updated on findings and any issues arising once the analysis is complete.
Animal Aid campaign
4.11 At the end of July 2011, Animal Aid published footage from a slaughterhouse in Essex. This showed pigs being abused and manhandled in breach of animal welfare legislation. As a result two slaughtermen had their licences revoked and the FSA increased the level of its inspection staff. Since then, the animal rights group has increased pressure for changes to the arrangements for monitoring and enforcing welfare in abattoirs. Animal Aid wishes to see mandatory CCTV in
slaughterhouses and prosecution for slaughterhouses found to be breaching animal welfare rules.
4.12 The Essex case is interesting in that it highlighted welfare breaches in a slaughterhouse that already had CCTV installed for animal welfare monitoring. Some of the footage obtained by Animal Aid was from a ‘blind spot’ in the business’ CCTV camera system.

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4.13 This case confirms the Executive’s view that while CCTV monitoring is useful for monitoring animal welfare, it can only be one of a range of safeguards to ensure the highest standards of animal welfare – such as having appointed animal welfare officers, regular refresher staff training and monitoring of staff, equipment and practices.
4.14 This case has also raised the issue of whether a business’ own footage can be used as evidence against them. In principle, where available, evidence recorded through a plant’s CCTV is capable of being used as evidence. In practice issues may arise over securing the retention of that evidence and the legal and investigation teams are working through those issues at present.

5 IMPACT

5.1 Defra Ministers are currently considering their position with regard to mandatory installation of CCTV by businesses and introduction of other measures to improve animal welfare standards in slaughterhouses.
5.2 Those slaughterhouses where CCTV has not been installed are typically small to medium sized slaughterhouses. CCTV installation costs can vary from £100 – £200 for a webcam system to many thousands of pounds for a very sophisticated system.
5.3 An average system with a hard disc recorder would typically cost about £2,000. On this basis the one-off cost to industry associated with compulsory installation of CCTV would be in the region of £0.6m.

6 LEGAL

6.1 Given potential sensitivities, businesses planning to install CCTV for monitoring animal welfare need to be aware of the CCTV code issued by the Information Commissioner under the Data Protection Act 1998, which regulates collection, use and disclosure about individuals,
including images.
6.2 Following the CCTV code not only helps businesses to remain within the law, but also demonstrates to the courts and the public they are responsible operators. The FSA has therefore produced a simple checklist that businesses may use to judge their compliance with the CCTV Code of Practice.

7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATIONS

7.1 While CCTV monitoring is a useful tool for monitoring animal welfare, it must only be as part of a range of safeguards to ensure the highest standards of animal welfare – such as having appointed animal welfare officers, regular refresher staff training, and monitoring of staff, equipment and practices.
7.2 The FSA continues to work with businesses and meat industry representatives to encourage voluntary installation of CCTV as best practice. In addition, the FSA is currently gathering a body of evidence from a range of sources, including those businesses that already use CCTV, to determine the benefits of

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CCTV. The Executive is encouraged though that the number of establishments with CCTV in place for animal welfare has more than doubled since June 2010.
7.3 Businesses who have CCTV in place are keen to demonstrate to our officials the highest standards to which their operatives work and have not provided any resistance to FSA officials viewing footage when requested. This is evidenced by the visits which senior FSA officials
have recently undertaken in order to gather evidence for this paper. At each establishment with CCTV, access to footage was provided and monitoring systems demonstrated.
7.4 The FSA would consider that, where CCTV is in place for monitoring animal welfare, certain simple best practice guidelines should be followed: CCTV should be monitored on a daily basis both by FSA OVs and the business. Where this is not happening, we are reminding OVs and
businesses to do this; Daily checks should be undertaken on a regular basis, but at different times, and should be part of the OV’s ongoing checks of business compliance. Similarly, the business’ checks should be part of their own internal verification procedures; Checks should
be at a frequency associated with the potential risk of non-compliance for each particular practice undertaken; for example, gas killing of poultry has less potential for adverse practices than group stunning of pigs or lambs; Checks should also be risk based on the known
compliance of the business with welfare legislation and recognised best practices; Where monitoring of CCTV footage by FSA regulatory officials indicates potential evidence for enforcement action, that footage should be retained for a sufficient period from the date it
was taken to enable proper investigation and, if appropriate, enforcement action to be taken; CCTV footage should be made available to officials in the course of enforcement. CCTV footage should be used for the training of new slaughtermen, and CCTV footage should be used in the training of new OVs and Meat Hygiene Inspectors.
7.5 The Board is asked to:
Note the contents of this paper; Note a further update will be provided once results of the recent animal welfare survey are available; Note that no policy change is proposed without completion of the evidence gathering process, and Agree the recommendations for guidance at paragraph 7.4, where CCTV has been installed.
For further information, contact Andrew Rhodes on 020 7276 8615,
email
andrew.rhodes@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk