Human Interest

In EU first, Spain to implement obligatory video surveillance in abattoirs

Madrid, Aug 23 (EFE).- Spanish slaughterhouses will have to install video surveillance to monitor animal welfare as part of a government measure approved Tuesday in a European Union first.

All abattoirs regardless of size will have to abide by the law published by the ministry of consumer affairs, which aims to guarantee animal welfare standards in the unloading, transfer, lairage and stunning of the animals during the slaughter process.

Large slaughterhouses will have one year to implement the change while smaller facilities will have two.

“Spanish slaughterhouses will be the first in the EU to have mandatory video surveillance systems,” Spain’s consumption affairs minister, Alberto Garzon, tweeted. “Cameras that will help improve food safety and avoid breaches in animal welfare.”

The new law stipulates that video surveillance must be in place in sections of slaughterhouses that handle live animals, including areas for unloading, driving, stunning and bleeding animals.

Poultry and pig farms will also have to install cameras to monitor scalding, to ensure that no animals with signs of life are submitted to the process.

Spain’s agency for food safety (Aesean) conducted 1,626 inspections of 645 abattoirs and found 680 breaches of regulation.EFE

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