Published 24/05/2013

The shocking cruelty found in Cyprus is indicative of the untold story of how many problems exist at slaughterhouses. With it, a broad picture of non-compliance emerges.

At a local slaughterhouse, goats and sheep were slaughtered in horrifically cruel and illegal conditions.

The goats were chained by their rear legs, and whilst fully conscious, hoisted up, dangling upside down and bleating piteously. It was only at this stage that they were stunned. It is illegal to suspend or hoist conscious animals. In many cases the stunning was ineffective due to lack of training and/or knowledge.

To add to the horror, a slaughter man begins to cut the goats throats and immediately after, a second man cut off their horns. It is unlikely they were dead at this time and would have felt an extreme amount of pain.

Footage was taken of these illegal practices.

Cyprus slaughter footage 2013

Please note that there are scenes that viewers will find extremely disturbing.

Peter Stevenson, Chief Policy Advisor says:

This is some of the the worst European slaughter footage I have ever seen. What is so disturbing is that new EU slaughter regulations came in this year - and they are being largely ignored.

Some goats that had been stunned were left waiting for over three minutes before having their throats cuts. It is likely that they would regain consciousness in this time and therefore be awake when their slaughter took place. Most of the sheep were slaughtered without first being stunned.

Peter continues:

These problems need to be addressed urgently and we have sent a formal complaint to the Cypriot Minister of Agriculture. The new laws need to be followed in full to prevent the horrific cruelty that is currently being inflicted.