Abattoir staff sacked amid abuse allegation

Nuneaton MP Jodie Gosling raised the allegations about the abattoir in the House of Commons

Several staff at a slaughterhouse have been fired after footage posted online showed sheep being allegedly manhandled.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was investigating an incident at the T&S Abattoir in Arley, Warwickshire.

Raising the issue in the House of Commons on Thursday, Nuneaton MP Jodie Gosling said people were horrified by a video, posted on YouTube by an animal rights activist, that apparently showed hours of abusive behaviour at the facility in her constituency.

In response, T&S bosses said they were "shocked and disgusted" at the footage involving three employees and had "immediately" ended their contracts.

Speaking in Parliament, Gosling said many people felt "outraged that the regulator systems have failed to notice, let alone address, the repeated breaches" at the site.

"I ask the leader the House if she can work with me to establish why it took an activist to highlight these issues, while my constituents and these animals continue to suffer," she said.

The 21-minute video, posted by activist Joey Carbstrong, apparently shows sheep being transported from a van into a gated area in the abattoir.

Responding to Gosling, the Leader of the Commons, Lucy Powell, said the FSA was taking action.

"The FSA have already taken some action but if they've not taken sufficient action I will ensure that they do," she said.

Several people were suspended from handling live animals, a spokesperson for the FSA said, adding that they have "increased on-site presence during all slaughter operations whilst we look into these allegations further".

"We will not hesitate to take more action as we have a zero-tolerance approach to animal welfare breaches," they added.

Lucy Powell, Leader of the Commons, told Parliament that the government had a zero-tolerance approach to animal welfare breaches

T&S' spokesperson said the scenes seen in the video went against the company's animal welfare policy and their values.

They added the staff members involved had had their contracts terminated immediately and added they were working with the FSA.

"We are also implementing additional measures to ensure that this does never happens again on this site," the firm added.

"This includes increasing frequency of monitoring checks, additional CCTV to cover previous blind spots and bringing in more experienced management."