Credit: Farm Transparency Project
A darkened image with a cow on a slaughter line who can barely be seen.

Undercover investigations captured more animal suffering—but their plight is being kept in the dark.

Disturbing cruelty has once again been documented in an Australian slaughterhouse – but the media isn’t allowed to show it. Should you have a right to see the footage?

Animals Australia

Animals Australia team

Last updated September 12, 2024

Most people would be shocked by the reality of ‘standard practice’ animal slaughter. Slaughterhouses, whose entire business relies on killing animals, can’t change these practices – so what do they do? They try to hide them.

When Farm Transparency Project (FTP) investigators captured footage in a Victorian slaughterhouse showing “goats having their throats cut while they appear to be still alive, FTP submitted a cruelty complaint to the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Determined to show the plight of goats being killed in Australia, FTP published extracts online and sent the footage to the media when authorities failed to act.

What happened next?

Rather than condemning the cruelty, the slaughterhouse took action to sue the investigators who exposed it. A temporary injunction was ordered to prevent the footage from being shown to the public.

FTP has since been arguing in court for the public’s right to know what happens inside Australian farms and slaughterhouses. While a decision has yet to be made on this particular case, we don’t need to stretch our imagination to gauge what the footage entails. Sadly, there is ample evidence already of the terror animals experience behind the closed doors of Australia’s slaughterhouses.

Investigation after investigation has made one thing clear…

…there’s no ‘humane’ end in a slaughterhouse.

Covert cameras and undercover investigators continue to capture the distressing final moments of farmed animals across Australia. While there’s no doubt investigation footage is distressing to watch, a light must be shone on what’s really going on behind slaughterhouse walls.

More recently, FTP’s hidden cameras captured deeply disturbing footage inside another Victorian slaughterhouse, this time of a mother goat forced to give birth while trapped within a restraint device, moments before she was killed. Investigators also documented baby goats who had survived slaughter, and yet were still crying for their mothers and attempting to stand more than six hours after they had been shot with a captive bolt gun. Publishing this footage is also an offence.

Sadly, the list of documented cruelty goes on.

How can this be happening?

Slaughterhouses exist for one reason: to kill animals as ‘efficiently’ as possible. The meat industry relies on keeping the reality of its operations hidden from consumers – as people would likely choose differently if they knew what was going on.

When we pass animals crowded in trucks on the road, our hearts sink a little; we know where they are going. But most of us, through no fault of our own, have little knowledge or exposure to the legal and routine ways animals suffer to be sold as food products in Australia. Neatly packaged animal products are available on supermarket shelves without transparency around who these products are made from, and what they were forced to endure for these ‘products’ to get there. Consumers have a right to know.

This image contains content which some may find confronting

A close up of a cow's eyes peering through the bars of a transport truck.

Often, mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses is suggested as a ‘solution’ to address slaughterhouse cruelty. But given that slaughterhouses and animal industries default response is to stop any footage of suffering from being publicly aired, rather than actually addressing the cause of that suffering, raises an important question – who would actually be monitoring any enforced video footage? 

It is clear that unless there is true transparency, which can only come from that footage being made publicly available, slaughterhouses will continue to operate with minimal oversight, and animals will remain at high risk of the most extreme cruelty.

Sadly, with or without CCTV, even the strictest adherence to regulations wouldn’t remove the fear and suffering animals endure.

Goats, pigs, sheep, cows, and chickens think and feel, just like the companion animals we share our homes and our hearts with. But for these animals bred only to be killed, there is no ‘humane’ end – unless people choose differently…

Your individual actions are the most powerful in sparing animals

The more we learn about our food system – and the reality for animals trapped in that system – the more empowered we are to make food choices that better align with our values. By opting to eat more kindly, you can help reduce the demand that’s driving industries to breed and kill more animals for meat, egg and dairy products, and spare them from ever having to set foot inside a slaughterhouse.

Pledge to spare animals from slaughterhouses.

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“I pledge to choose to eat kindly. By leaving animals off my plate, I will spare them the terror of slaughter, and remove myself from this perpetual cycle of suffering. Alongside the compassionate people who have taken this pledge, I will help build the path to a kinder future for all animals.“
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