The shocking secret filming that will put you off your Xmas dinner; FARM AT CENTRE OF ILLEGAL TURKEY SLAUGHTER FACES PROBE.
Byline: TOM WELLSA TURKEY farm is at the centre of a Trading Standards probe into claims that up to 2,000 birds may have been slaughtered illegally for Christmas.
Undercover video footage filmed by an animal rights group allegedly shows live birds being forced upside down into tin buckets by farm workers.
Campaigners claim that their throats are then agonisingly slit -without any attempt to stun them first.
Farmers licensed to kill are legally obliged to first knock out animals with electric stunning equipment to prevent unnecessary suffering.
The business at the centre of the investigation is Oak Lane Farm in Calf Heath, Staffordshire, which is run by the Brassington family.
The farm relies heavily on dairy produce throughout the year, but switches to turkeys during the Christmas months to boost revenue.
More than 1,000 birds are bred, fattened and killed each year before being shipped out to local Staffordshire butchers.
Last night the Brassingtons denied that they had broken any Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs regulations on slaughter, but admitted they were being investigated by Trading Standards.
If found guilty of breaching animal health legislation, workers could face up to six months in jail and a pounds 5,000 fine.
The covert video was filmed by Compassion In World Farming (CIWF), a pressure group dedicated to stopping the factory-farming of animals.
They sent an undercover activist to work as a turkey plucker at Oak Lane Farm two weeks ago and claim to have found damning evidence.
The investigator, who has not been named, told the Sunday Mercury: 'The farmer in charge of the operation carried out all of the slaughter.
'It involved carrying a turkey from the shed, dangling it over a trough in an open-ended buckets. He would then slit their throats and move on to the next bird.'
He claimed no stunning of the birds was employed. 'As soon as they had their throats slit they would make extremely violent kicking and shaking movements,' he said.
'The squealing was so loud it made conversation difficult.'
Kerry Burgess, campaigns director at CIWF, said: 'What we witnessed and filmed was entirely unacceptable.'
When the Sunday Mercury visited Oak Lane Farm, we found the turkey slaughter was continuing unabated.
But the owner's wife told us that her husbandandtwo sons haddone nothing wrong.
'We have had a visit from Trading Standards but they have not told us we have done anything wrong,' Mrs Brassington said.
'Stunners are used here. They are small clamps which fit over the heads of the birds and knock them out with an electric shock.
'My sons have been extremely upset by all this. The group have trespassed on private land and it is all very unpleasant.
'The animal group have not even contacted us with their allegations.'
Tony Shaw, of Staffordshire Trading Standards, said: 'We have received a complaint relating to welfare of turkeys and slaughter processes.
'We are currently looking into that complaint to see whether any part of the Animal Health Act has been broken. The investigation is ongoing, and is at a preliminary stage.'
CAPTION(S):
DOWN ON THE FARM: Mrs Brassington and (below) a smiling worker; UNDERCOVER: Video footage shows farm workers killing the turkeys
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| Publication: | Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, England) |
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| Date: | Dec 21, 2003 |
| Words: | 537 |
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