Spain, mandatory cameras in slaughterhouses to guarantee animal welfare

Spain is the first European country to oblige slaughterhouses to equip themselves with cameras and video surveillance systems to safeguard animal welfare.

Obligation for all slaughterhouses to install cameras and video surveillance systems, to save the recordings for at least one month and allow access to them in the event of a request for verification by the competent authorities.This is what is foreseen by the decree approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers of the Spanish government to safeguard animal welfare.In fact, over the years there have been many testimonies and investigations carried out with hidden cameras by animal rights associations which have documented and brought to light gratuitous acts of cruelty and violence towards defenseless animals in their last moments of life.An example? Animal Equality, an organization founded in Spain in 2006 to alleviate the suffering of animals confined to farms and slaughterhouses.

Cameras everywhere in slaughterhouses for animal welfare

The need, according to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs led by Alberto Garzón, is to guarantee animal welfare at every stage, from transport to killing while also improving safety for workers and the final consumer.The cameras must be present in all environments where the animals are alive, including the loading and unloading areas, the corridors connecting the areas, including those where stunning activities take place.

Every slaughterhouse will be subject to this obligation regardless of its extent:the larger structures are given one year to comply, two years for the smaller ones (i.e. up to two thousand animals slaughtered per year).It is estimated that the operators involved will be around 700.Spain thus becomes the first nation in Europe and the fourth in the world to make the adoption of a video surveillance system mandatory.First there were England, Israel and Scotland.