 I think that the animals try to escape the knockbox and they see animals being chopped up in front of them and then they get shot in the head against their will. I'm telling you the picture of saying it's not factual. It's not factual, okay. Come on, help your mind! Come on! Can I help? This is the story of a small local slaughterhouse in the UK countryside. I often hear that local farms and local abattoirs are humane. So with the help of my investigators, I thought I'd put that to the test. We recently placed hidden cameras in this facility so I already know what happens to the animals inside. But I decided to pay the slaughterhouse owner a visit to see if what they told the public matches what we saw in our undercover footage. We're going to do a drive by past this place. There's a local farms all around us. Yeah, I brought someone with us just in case someone was aggressive or anything like that. Okay, this is it. Private road. That's the road. Who do I got, babe? I got sheep. Is this your TV? I've got some aliens here. Hey, mate. How you going, all right? Yeah. Who's the owner here? All right. Are you the owner? I'm just a journalist, photojournalist. We're going around to local slaughterhouses in each smaller town. Yeah, and we're seeing if we can get access to the slaughterhouse to film inside. No. No? No, definitely not. Why is that? I don't want it. Thank you very much. All right. So you do sheep here, mid-sized animals like pigs and... Sheep, pigs and cows. Sheep, pigs and cows. Oh. And just from the local area? Like just local farms? Yeah. Five miles. So you're not going to be doing any factory farms here? No, no. Pigs come from the farm just across the road there. Okay. Yeah, that's interesting. So it's all just local sort of family farms here? Oh yeah. Sounds nice. Hello, how are you? Fine, very well. Thank you. We're journalists. Don't worry about us. We're just looking for local slaughterhouses that have local farms. Supply them that we can... We don't allow this. You will see the signs. No phones, no videos. We don't allow it. I'm very sorry. You're allowed to film here? Yeah. I'm very sorry. But no, that's... No, no. Sorry, we're in a public spot. We know our filming rights. I'm pretty sure this road is public, yeah? Excuse me. This is not there. I know, no. If you want me to move off of it, I can. It's not that. I don't... We don't like our... We don't like our customers. We... The farmers do not like... Oh, well, we... We would... We would... We'll... We'll... We'll blare anyone's faces. We've had all sorts of weird people and we don't wish it. Okay. Well, then we'll blare anyone's face. Come here and be offensive. But it's not weird. Oh, who do you have people come down here? Like activists? We've had this before at the market, etc. And we don't need it. Oh, really? No animal here is mistreated. No animal is mistreated? We do not want any of that. Well, why don't you talk to us about it then? So we know... I have spoken to many people about this. Do you own this place? Are you the owner? Okay, well, that's all. We want to just talk to you about it. If no animal is mistreated here, do you mind if we film in here? Yes. Why? Because it is not... Right, it is... Our employees here... Yeah. Okay, they have also had problems because they come here to work. It is purely and simply for your benefit as well. These are live animals. They would hurt us? Well, of course they would. If you frighten them, the most important thing is that they are calm and quiet, with no intrusion onto their lives or minimum intrusion. How many people are in there slaughtering? Two or three? That is a material that we have the required number of people here. All of whom are legally qualified. Yeah, I understand. It's your entitle to your beliefs. On the other hand, you have no right to inflict your opinions onto others if it causes them personal distress or alarm. Well, we are only concerned about the method here at this local slaughterhouse to try to compare it to what happens at the larger ones. It's a totally different process. Would you say that the animals are calm here? Well, they have to be calm. This is a small premise. The whole point of it is to keep the animal calm and content. So you would say... That the animal has a good life, it must have a good death. That is important. The good death. So that's what I want to talk about, the good death. So because we're trying to say that the bigger ones are worse. This one here, the animals... No, I wouldn't comment on anybody else's... Okay, just this one. Animal welfare is very... So the animals aren't afraid when they go into the knockbox or anything like that? No, why would they be afraid? If they see other animals being butchered around them? They don't see other animals. They don't see other animals being butchered? No, that animal does not see a death. So they only walk into the knockbox and look around and see other animals being butchered? They don't see anything like that. Okay, so there's completely oblivious, they're calm? Totally oblivious. And then they are stunned? And then they're dead and that's it? Okay. Just didn't tell him the story of the local slaughterhouse. So their own opinions, everybody is, however, not when it causes distress or alarm to our staff. Their health and welfare, very important to us. So people cannot access this meat, that's what I want to know. If they wanted to buy this meat, they couldn't access local meat. So how are the people getting? Because we sell to the local butchers. Okay, so the local butchers is where people get access to the local meat. That's all I wanted to know, so that there's a... No, there's no retail, we don't retail at all. But it's just local butchers, they will go out and... Okay, what do you think about people that just eat plants? If that's what they want to do, and as long as they're careful, that they keep themselves fit and healthy. It's entirely their business. So if they're healthy and... They're pretty fly, shouldn't they make them? Do you think it's a better choice than eating animals that are killed, or do you think it's a bit extreme? Well, no, no, I don't think it's extreme at all. I just think a balanced diet is good for everybody. But you're entitled to your opinion. If that's what you want to do, then, you know, and you keep yourself healthy, then that's entirely your opinion. Everybody's entitled to live their own life. I have no right to tell other people how to live their lives. People always... Sometimes people say to me that should the animals have the right to live their life as well? They do, and have you considered what would happen if we weren't eating them? What would happen? They wouldn't be there. Yeah. They're not pets. Yeah, they're bred by the farmers. Well, they are, to eat, and that's what they're there for. So they have a good life. They're kept the best they possibly can be, and then they have a good day. And they're killed humanely. Oh, that's it. Would you use the phrase humane? Would you say they're killed humanely? Humane is a weird, no, a weird word, isn't it? I'm just wondering, do you think that what happens in this slaughterhouse, would you call it humane? That's what most people would say. It depends what you mean by the word humane. There is no suffering at all. That's it. That's all that's required. What do you think when you hear the word humane? Do you think that that's... The word humane comes from the word human. Okay. If you mean we're acting in a compassionate manner. Yeah. Because we have dominion over these animals then, yes. You think... Okay, so you would call it compassionate what happens inside of this particular slaughterhouse, yours? Because you have to treat animals with respect. Okay. They're entirely treated with respect. They're alive. And they're like conscious and... Of course they are. And they get scared and hungry and... They experience all of these emotions, yeah. You have to eliminate any... Stress. ...that you possibly can and stress. Okay. As you would with any living creature, including yourself. Other humans. Yeah, like... So you would call this... Maybe this is a respectful way to go for an animal. Of course. A respectful death. So let's just see how respectful the staff at this local slaughterhouse really are to these animals. As this noticeably distressed cow is so afraid that they nudge the bolt gun off of the ledge. Even a staff member was surprised at this. The larger man who comes in is the slaughterhouse owner's son and has been injured by the cow whilst herding them in. He appears to vent his frustration on the cow. Is this cow fully unconscious? I'll let you decide. Cow lets out what seems like a gasp for air. You can see the cow moving around whilst still trying to breathe through the hole in their neck. And then he finishes with his final display of respect. Isn't that... You need to... For something. It's necessary for you to try. You would say like if it's... You need to eat animals. You have... It's necessary to respect them as you kill them. Okay. It's just curious if you think that we need to eat them. That's all. Well, do you like to see them? Do you like to see the lambs? I mean... Do you like to see the lambs? Yeah, I love... I like lambs. Okay. They wouldn't be there. These... Not these type of lambs. They're bred specifically for me. But there might be other animals around. Like, what do you think about factory farming yourself? Like, you know, where they have the big intensive indoor dairies or the big intensive indoor like pig units or like tens of thousands of chickens in there. Where's the word respect there? No respect. Respect is very important. I suppose everyone has a line with the respect though. Don't know. So if you look at the word, if you really think about it it's obvious where the respect lies. Would it be respectful to put me into that slaughterhouse? You, as an individual. Me. Me. As a human being to put me through the exact same process as the cows go through. Why would I do that? We don't get human beings. Just... Just let's just call it a hypothetical. Would it be respectful? Why... Why would you do it then? Why... What reason would you have? To eat me. To eat you. Yeah. The Soylent Green Theory. Well, I've just... Like, let's just say there was another option. There was this plant-based burger. And then you had me. And then, but you said, we want to respectfully kill him so we'll put him in this slaughterhouse and eat him. And then someone said, well, you've got this other option here. Why would you even put them through? Then we've got to go down the line of the whole thing about human beings. How do you define... I mean, look at the world as it stands at the moment. Where's the respect there? Do these animals want to live? What do you mean by do they want to... Are they enjoying their existence out here on the fields? One would have imagined so. Because they live and they thrive and they do quite nicely. Would you call them happy animals? Like these ones here? Would you call them happy? I don't think that I would use that term. They're animals. Therefore, I don't know how they feel. How would I know? If you see an animal suffering, would you know that they're suffering? Of course you would. But no, it's not the point. No, I am saying you cannot empathize with a sheep. You can't show empathy to an animal. You can't picture if they hurt themselves. You can't picture their souls being hurt. No, that is... No, it's not the same thing. What you're saying is, do you think the sheep is happy? Cannot say, I understand how that animal feels. Because you can't understand how that... So why would we even know if an animal's suffering in factory farms? How could we even have animal welfare if we didn't know how an animal feels? Why do we even care? You do not know how they feel. You know if they're suffering pain. You know if they are ill. How? By the way they behave. Okay, that's fine. Exactly. So we know by the way they're behaving that they are content. And they're not suffering. At the moment, they're perfectly happy. At the moment, they're perfectly happy. You would still say that inside the knockbox or where they get the bolt gun, they're still content. They're perfectly... They don't know what is... They're totally fine with being killed. They don't know they're being... They don't know they're about to... Okay. They're totally oblivious to that fact. Okay. If these animals are perfectly content and have no idea about what's going to happen to them, then why do they struggle so hard to escape the knockbox? Okay. This animal struggles so hard, they rip their own horn off. And then the other one. They're thinking good grief. I think that somebody's going to kill me. Don't be ridiculous. That is no way that they could possibly know what has happened. Okay. And they don't... Like a small toddler, like they wouldn't really know what a gun is. So like you could put it to their head and they wouldn't really know what's going to happen when you pull the trigger. Of course not. Yeah, that wouldn't make it okay, though, would it? It's not the point. You've got to realise that animals that are grown within the industry are grown for meat. The same way that plants are grown in fields. Yeah, I don't understand that. We all understand that. But I was just... I'm just getting to the bottom of the... You've also got to appreciate that plants themselves... Feel pain? Feel pain in some respect. Really? Also it's believed. I mean, I've watched a lecture on it some short while ago to say that they literally have a nervous reaction. Okay. Well, you mean like a reaction to a stimuli in the environment? Okay. And also... Do you think that's analogous to like a cow? No, but what I'm saying to is that we cannot... The idea of do no harm is a very lovely one. But do we know what harm really is? I mean, we could probably not live without causing some amount of harm. But having slaughterhouses on top of that is probably increasing the amount of killing on a... I understand your beliefs. Yeah, yeah. It's your beliefs. However, I think it is very important that you understand and respect other people's beliefs. But maybe different to yours. Okay. I wonder how far you would take... How far would you take that respecting people's beliefs? In what... Would you say that we should respect everyone's beliefs? It depends whether or not they would cause harm to another. Okay. In a sustainable manner. What would you consider harm? Bombing Ukraine. What about shooting an animal in the head? What's about shooting an animal? Would you consider that harm? That is the way to dispatch an animal without it being... Would you consider it harm to shoot someone in the head? To shoot someone in the head. Yeah, like an animal. I would like to shoot someone in the head. With a bolt gun, like a slaughterhouse bolt gun. I'm sure doing now is being... I'm trying to figure out if you consider that harm. That's all... That's all like a bolt gun in the head and a knife in the throat if you consider that harm. Where's a knife in the throat? The animals don't get stabbed in the throat, yeah? Good God, no. How do they drain them of their blood? They are already insensible to pay. No, but do they get stabbed in the throat with a knife? Usually we've seen a few slaughterhouses. That's usually the technique. I'm sorry, but you are being ridiculous now. Okay. These are now just statements of... Knives in the throat don't happen in slaughterhouses? I'm afraid that what you're saying is ridiculous. Down! Sorry. This way. Do you think this is a personal choice here? Just asking. Is it a personal choice to have a slaughterhouse? Of the... of you? Because this is your slaughterhouse. Is this a personal choice? Is it a personal choice? To own a slaughterhouse and kill animals. That's all. Just asking. Is it a personal choice of yours to... to turn up uninvited on people's premises? Is that a personal choice? Well, it's a choice that's now affecting you. Does the kill floor have cameras? The veterinary service has cameras. No, no. Does the kill floor inside have security cameras watching the animals be slaughtered? Everything is recorded. Can you give us some images? Why not? If it's so humane, why don't you... Why don't you release it? It's not for us. It's not for us. Why don't you release it to the public? It is... it's for the vets. Are you afraid that the public might see what actually goes on in here? It's for the vets. Do you not understand? Vets are here. Or do you not understand the vets here? No, no, no. I'm just wondering why you think... why it's so bad to see for people to see it. That's all. Do you think... Do you understand that there is a vet here all the time? Oh, no. I know there's vets in slaughterhouses. Of course, yeah. No, there is a vet here all the time. A vet sees every animal that dies. I'm just wondering what the problem would be showing people giving us the footage. Everything is recording. Why don't you give us the footage? A copy of it. Because it's got a copy. It shows all of my stock. I don't do that. Okay, we'll just... Maybe we can blow their faces. I would not do that to them. They would find it disquieting. They would call... It would cause them alarm. And I don't wish to do that. But they're an employee. They're in... But it's nothing to do with what's going on in the footage, yeah? Why would there be anything going on in the footage? What do you think is going on? I think animals are being killed against their will. And they don't want to die. And I think they're stressed. You're doing it again. I think that they prefer to live or they're terrified in the knockbox. I think they try... This is what I believe. And you can deny it. It's so entitled to believe whatever you lie. I think that the animals try to escape the knockbox and they see animals being chopped up in front of them and then they get shot in the head against their will. That's what I think. Young man, you have no idea about what you're saying. Okay, you can disagree with me but that's fine. I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm telling you what you're saying is not factual. It's not factual. It just is not factual. It's not true? Do you think I'm being hyperbolic or over-exaggerating or making things up? I don't think you understand the process. I don't understand it. I don't think you understand what happens. Fair enough. Okay, I don't understand and that's not what happens. Okay, I appreciate your time. Thanks a lot. We'll let you go now. Can I... I don't know if you have but that road is extremely dangerous. It's extremely dangerous. Where we notice? There is no speed limit on this road. Be very careful. So whether you're walking or driving, it is a blind corner. We warn everybody. It is very dangerous. And I appreciate you still being caring after having an uncomfortable conversation. No, I mean you're entitled to your opinion. Everybody is but I'm entitled to mine. Yeah, you are. And the animals should be entitled to be treated with actual respect, I believe as well. Indeed, they are. Okay, thank you for your time and we'll be sure to be careful. We don't want you to have another many bloody mess to clean up. No. Sure, you've got enough blood to clean up. Most slaughterhouses operate in secrecy. They don't want people in there. It's very clear they don't want cameras in there. This is very consistent. This isn't out of the ordinary. Most people wouldn't allow me in with a camera. The health and safety executives if they come here have to make... You have to... Cannot go into the premises while they're working. It's too dangerous. Yeah, I mean... And also can cause alarm to the animals. That we're going to have. I mean I'm fairly sure that you can deny this if you like that the animals already experience alarm inside of a knockbox. I'm fairly sure they're alarmed before they're killed. A lot of the time. I think that's your opinion. Unfortunately it's not based in fact but you're entitled to it. I mean maybe I'm living in a dream world but something tells me that when an animal goes into a slaughterhouse they're not comfortable. That's for sure. How would they know where they're going? Because they know. They're not stupid. I mean you might think they're stupid but they're actually quite intelligent these animals and they know what's going on. And there's plenty of science to prove sheep intelligence, cow intelligence, pig intelligence. Pigs are one of the most intelligent animals on earth. Do you think they don't know what's going on when they go into a slaughterhouse? How would they know where they are? They know that there's someone... What's the difference between They can smell blood. And another pen. Pigs have one of the best senses of smell. They can smell blood. They can smell fear pheromones that they leave from urine. They can smell death. The world that you live in inside your head would be... is a lovely world. I'm absolutely sure that... It's scientific. No, it's not based in fact. But never mind. You're entitled to your opinion. I would like to see... I would like to see what goes on behind these walls but we'll have to wait for that. I don't think that would be happening. I'm afraid. We're just here to tell the animal's story. That's fine. And that's it. But as you see it, can I point out that you can only tell any story as you see it. As you see it. Do not imply that you are making statements on behalf of or representing an animal. Because I'm afraid you cannot... Well then that means that you... That's your opinion. Well, that's fine. That's your opinion of how the animal is being looked after or not. That's fine. You're entitled to your opinion. But do not imply that the animal has in some way given you permission or information in any way, shape or form. I don't think I need to be too smart to know when an animal doesn't want to be stabbed in the throat or shot in the head. I don't think I need that like high intelligence for that, eh? I think you're making sweeping statements. I could just... I could... Do you have a dog? Do you have a pet dog? Do you have a cat? Do you have any... Do you have domesticated animals? If you don't think that they care, then I can just go up and shoot them in the head and cut their throat open. Come on, get a bite! Come on! Can I help? Can I help? Nope. No? Dan. Father! Bring the place. I understand why he's concerned. I understand why he's concerned. He thinks that... We're not interested in threatening people and especially someone who's just been polite to us. I would be defensive of my mother too. So don't you worry, we're not here to create any aggression towards you or anything like that. Okay, we're not interested in that. You've been nice enough and I think you've been nice enough with your time. You're entitled to your opinion and I respect your opinion. Okay. Dan, come on! You know, I'd be very interested... I'd be very interested to hear exactly what you have made of what you... you know, of your opinion of what you think you're seeing today. I'd be very interested. Is there any way that I can access that? Um, you'll know soon enough. You'll know soon enough, I'm fairly sure. Are you interested in my men losing their... No, we're only interested in telling the story of the local slaughterhouse. That's it. Mind. Thank you. Is this... Are these animals here? Is that a pig? No, listen, can I point out some? Is that one free-range pig? That animal, that animal is a living creature. Yeah. Is entitled to respect. It doesn't want to be frightened by you. We're not... I'm not in the business of frightening animals. No, no noises. Can I point out that they have a range of vision? Please try to realize... We don't harm animals. No, I'm trying to explain to you. Do you think he's going to be scared when he goes into the slaughterhouse? No, no, no. If he is not... If there's no disquieting, if nobody gets within his range of vision... We're not trying to. ...that he's not used to... He's about to be... He's about to be electrically shocked and stabbed to death. He doesn't know this. Can I point out that you can terrify that creature, and I would rather you didn't? I just think it's audacious to suggest that we're going to terrify an animal that you're about to murder, that your son is about to kill. You've got to realize... Yeah, look, honestly, we're not interested in causing the animal distress, all right? Because it's not necessary. We've got harmless cameras that just film, you know. No, we've got nothing to do with that. I wonder if they family like this pig. They're about to send here. Good work, Dan. Good work, mate. Did you get her face? We're only filming. We're not here to harm anyone, mate. I just said we're only here to film. We're not here to cause... You can take some fish and smell it. I don't want to be on film. Oh, we'll blow your face for you. We'll blow your face for you, mate. We're not going to... Yeah. Look, your mum's been... Yeah, no worries. What is that? Is that for the cows? There's no cows in there. All right, so behind me are some local cattle here. So they'll be slaughtered next door right here. All right. There's sheep across in the field, too. They're killing animals within a five mile radius here. So this is super local. Go into a local butcher. Like, that doesn't get any more local. Okay. Hey, mate. Yeah, good buddy. These are local? Yes. How local is this? How local is your beef? Suffolk. And this... Do they... Because there's a slaughterhouse around... Not too far. Yeah, that's bifids, isn't it? And they slaughter in a five mile radius. So... No, we don't get hit from there. I know. Okay. Checking before we buy that's all. Yeah, no, that's not a problem. Yeah. All right. I mean, obviously, I mean we get as local as we can. Local enough. Smallest slaughterhouses are better, I think. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, they're more humane. That's all right, thanks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Thanks, mate. So this is... Rented chops. British... This is what... This is kind of a quaint little local butcher. We're going to go to the other one as well. I think there's another one nearby.