Farm News
GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES PROPOSALS FOR
CCTV TO BE MANDATORY IN ALL ABATTOIRS
» » THE RSPCA SAYS IT IS PLEASED BY
the announcement on 10 August by
Environment Secretary Michael Gove citing
proposals to make CCTV mandatory in all
slaughterhouses in England.
The announcement comes following
years of campaigning by the RSPCA, the
country’s biggest and oldest animal welfare
organisation.
Dr Marc Cooper, head of farm animals at
the RSPCA, said: “The call for CCTV to be
made mandatory in all England’s approved
slaughterhouses has been one of the
RSPCA’s longest running campaigns, so we
wholeheartedly welcome the Environment
Secretary’s announcement today.
“All farm animals deserve to be treated
with compassion and respect throughout
their lives, and this includes at the time of
killing.
“Many actions and initiatives aimed at
improving farm animal welfare tend to focus
on the period when the animals are being
reared. Welfare considerations, however,
at the ‘end of life’– when the duration of
suffering may be short but the severity of
suffering can be very substantial – are just
as important.
“A key benefit of installing CCTV is
improved monitoring and enforcement,
leading to a reduction in malpractice and an
improvement in animal welfare. CCTV can
also be used to demonstrate compliance
with standards, a management tool for
training and monitoring slaughterhouse
staff, and to evidence good practice should
allegations be made to the contrary.”
The proposals mean that Official Vets,
who are present at abattoirs, will now have
unrestricted access to footage, enabling
them to better monitor and enforce animal
welfare.
A consultation will follow and the RSPCA
will be calling for the following:
• cameras to be placed in all areas of the
abattoir where key handling, stunning
and slaughter/killing operations are
being undertaken
• footage to be kept for a period of at
least three months
• footage to be made available for
independent monitoring to ensure
effective enforcement is taking place.
British farmers looking to short-term
profits as subsidy fears grow, NT warns
» » THE ‘CLOCK IS TICKING’ FOR BRITISH
farmers as they face a decade of uncertainty
surrounding post-Brexit subsidies, according
to the National Trust.
Speaking at Countryfile Live in
Oxfordshire in August, the Trust’s director
general Dame Helen Ghosh said that some
farmers are reverting to intensive methods
for short-term profits due to growing
uncertainty.
There is concern that such methods are
harming the environment and surrounding
wildlife.
“We have already seen examples of
short-term decision-making, where farmers,
in response to uncertainty about the future
and income, have ploughed up pasture
which was created with support from EU
environmental money.
“It’s very understandable, but heart-
breaking,” she said.
She called on the government to maintain
the EU’s £3bn-a-year support package
22 Autumn 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
for the industry with clear incentives for
nature-friendly farming along with clear
guarantees for farmers that food standards
and environmental protections will be
maintained.
“The longer we wait, the more we risk
losing all the gains we have made over the
last decade.”
The government has promised to keep
overall subsidies at the same level until
2022, but environment secretary Michael
Gove said the money would have to be
earned through environmentally-friendly
agriculture as part of a ‘green Brexit.’
Dame Ghosh said at the event at
Blenheim Palace: “We are within touching
distance of a vision for the future of farming
that sees thriving businesses successfully
meeting the needs of the nation into the 21st
century and beyond.
“The longer we wait, the more we risk
losing all the gains we have made over the
last decade.”
A DEFRA spokesman said: “Leaving the
EU provides us with a golden opportunity to
set up new frameworks for supporting our
farmers to grow more, sell more and export
more great British food.
“We have committed to match the £3
billion agricultural support until 2022 and the
Environment Secretary has said that support
for our farmers will continue for many years
to come where the environmental benefits
of that spending are clear.
“As we develop this new approach to
food and farming outside the EU we will not
compromise on our high standards of animal
welfare and environmental protection.”