Target: Katie Pettifer, Chief Executive, Food Standards Agency, London, United Kingdom
Goal: Investigate serious slaughterhouse welfare breaches, strengthen oversight, and pursue meaningful penalties whenever evidence establishes unlawful animal suffering.
Official veterinary records have exposed what appear to be repeated animal welfare failures connected with slaughter and transport. The documented incidents reportedly include severe injuries, critical welfare breaches, and animals dying during transit without those deaths being properly recorded. These are not minor paperwork concerns when living animals are experiencing preventable suffering.
Animal Justice Project argues that the findings point to broader systemic weaknesses rather than isolated incidents. Government data also show that apparent animal welfare breaches continue to be detected in slaughterhouses, while official veterinarians remain responsible for monitoring unloading, handling, restraint, stunning, bleeding, and the condition of animals arriving for slaughter.
Every serious breach should produce a clear investigative trail and meaningful consequences. Strengthen unannounced inspections, CCTV scrutiny, veterinary reporting, and coordination with authorities responsible for transport welfare. Where evidence identifies operators or handlers responsible for violations, use the full range of enforcement powers available, including lisence action and prosecution referrals.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Chief Executive Pettifer,
Official records have documented apparent serious animal welfare breaches involving animals entering and moving through the slaughter system. These include severe injuries, failures affecting animal welfare, and deaths occurring during transport that were not properly recorded.
The Food Standards Agency already places official veterinarians inside approved slaughterhouses to monitor handling, restraint, stunning, and killing. Please ensure every major or critical breach is thoroughly investigated, relevant CCTV and veterinary evidence is preserved, and recurring problems trigger stronger regulatory intervention rather than becoming normalized.
Where evidence establishes violations of animal welfare law, suspend or revoke licences when appropriate and refer serious cases for prosecution. Animals sent for slaughter remain legally entitled to protection from avoidable pain and distress. Enforce those protections consistently and impose meaningful consequences wherever responsibility is proven.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Nom d’util
