Halal slaughterhouse Muslim staff investigated over alleged animal cruelty.

Halal slaughterhouse Muslim staff investigated over alleged animal cruelty. (Guardian).

Undercover video shot by an animal welfare group appearing to show the brutal treatment of sheep at a Yorkshire abattoir has rekindled the debate over whether animals need to be stunned before they are killed.

The footage gathered by campaigning group Animal Aid, shows sheep being kicked, threatened with knives and thrown into solid structures. In one case a worker appears to be seen pinning a sheep’s head down with his foot. Four slaughtermen at halal slaughterhouse, Bowood Lamb in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, have had their operating licences suspended and the company said one worker had been sacked.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched an investigation into the footage, saying there is “no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video” and adding that prosecutions could follow.

Over three days in December, activists from Animal Aid used hidden cameras to record footage which appeared to show:

• A worker hacking and sawing at animals’ throats, in direct contravention of Islamic practice. In one instance it took up to five attempts to sever blood vessels

• Sheep being kicked in the face and head, lifted by their ears, fleeces or legs and hurled into solid structures

• A worker standing on the neck of a conscious sheep and bouncing up and down

• Staff erupting into laughter over a sheep bleeding to death with spectacles drawn around her eyes in green paint

• Employees taunting and frightening animals by waving knives, smacking them on the head and shouting at them.

The FSA said: “The Food Standards Agency takes animal welfare at abattoirs very seriously, which is why we immediately suspended the licences of the slaughtermen involved.

“There is no excuse for treating animals in the way shown on the video and we are therefore investigating the footage with a view to prosecution.” Read the full story here.