 Quicks, they know we're here for the shutting up all the gates Why are you shutting the gates for bro? Well, they got to hide here But they got to hide if you eat drinking dairy is so normal Eating cows is so normal. Why don't I got to hide here? Why don't they like cameras here? The security guards are on the phones. They're worried like if we were at a strawberry farm or some crop field You think they'd be as worried shutting the gates and oh, we're doing something wrong here We're doing something morally wrong at some, you know wheat farm where they grow wheat for bread They're really worried here that we're gonna expose something Those big truck containers are filled with blood, guts and skin Can we have a tour bro? Are we allowed to have a tour of this waterhouse? No, why not? But I got to hide I got to hide, but I can't have a tour. You're not doing any tours today on the kill floor Any tours today? Doing any tours, any public tours Interesting that Not not because good for business I'm sure you're allowed to go to strawberry farms and go peaking for strawberries yourself We can't go have a tour of the slaughterhouse and see what happens on the kill floor I wonder why? That looks so secretive here This is Kelly Can you just explain what this place where we are right now? Yeah, so we're in Tideford So we're on the outskirts of Flemmer And we're a small multi-species abattoir So we cater for farmers, smallholders and butchers Steady my girl for a bit Let's put this on I'm gonna actually go inside and check out the carcasses that have been cut open And see some CCTV footage of the actual slaughter process The smallholders will drop their animals off here And you offer the service to them of killing them Yes, so we were slaughtered, butchered, patched, labelled But we actively encourage farmers and smallholders to come in and watch their livestock processed Because a lot of people think that it's all blood and guts and gore and panic Whereas that's not the case Well, I'm not the case in our plant I can't speak for every plant My dad's a fridge engineer by trade And he's seen incidences in other slaughterhouses, big commercial units Where he's just come home and been absolutely mortified Traumatised? Yeah It's not the first time I've been in a slaughterhouse by the way No, that's alright Besides, so that's a boot dip But I think that would be more damaging because it's not Can we come in for a tour, mate? Can we come in for a tour? A tour of the kill floor? Not up to you He's kind of smirking in his face Like he thinks the concept of a tour of a slaughterhouse is ridiculous Like as if that would happen But why? Why not? Why aren't they just open to the public to see where their food is coming from? But we want to be the exception to that rule We were farmers before we bought the abattoir And we would like every animal here to be treated how I would have wanted my livestock to be treated The care and attention is what we're very strict with So I guess you would be minimising stress before they're slaughtered Making sure they're not murdered in front of each other That sort of thing So the truth here is that we were in the marriage So this is our cattle race We've got a door here that swings outside the race So the cattle come round up the cattle race And we've got two check face So the cattle can't see anything in front In front of each other So this is our small stun pen So this is where we use the electric to stun pigs And we shoot the sheep with a captive bolt A lot of people opt to stun sheep with electric Is it a fork? Yeah, I've seen those before And then that essentially will pick the animals up So we've got the shackles there So what we do then is once the animal is stunned and unconscious We shackle the hind leg They're hoisted up onto the rail And then they push through the check gates Put your friend behind them And then the slaughtering happens So that's a bleeding phase Happens the other side of the gate Do you have any connection with the animals before they get killed? Yes, sometimes There's only once where I haven't been able to do my job And we had a lovely, lovely elderly lady with Mrs Dent And she used to have little black Berkshire pigs And they came in on the Monday night So we like to have the livestock in the night before Because obviously being picked out from their friends Put in a big shiny metal box and rattled around for a while Then they rock up somewhere they don't know Can be very stressful So we like to have them in the night before They can have a lie down, have a mooch, have a drink, have a sleep So it minimizes stress So we like to do that But yes, these people came in on the Monday And they were just the most adorable things I've ever met in my life So it came to Tuesday morning Time for slaughter Opened the door and said, come on my biddies And they just followed And I did it there in the pan And she said, Dad, I can't do it Sorry, the sheep and pigs come in here And this is where they're picked They get bled out in here What do the people keep the blood usually? We process it as a category two animal byproducts So we take the blood up to a biodeigestion plant in Halsworthy Where they render it all down and they make electricity out of it I've actually never heard that before in my life We try not to waste anything in the time being as environmentally friendly as possible So although it's a bit of pain in the backside You don't want to waste any of the animal? No And is this just down here? You just can't do it So I said, I'll do it You go on around So you would be on the kill floor usually doing the hands-on stuff So I do all of it And I think that's where the small units vary Very massively in comparison to the big commercial units Is the people who are responsible for the animal welfare Are on the floor doing the job Whereas in the big plants They just have line operatives These people aren't They haven't reared their own livestock necessarily They're just seen as units So you've got to process so many units an hour to be profitable Whereas here, if it takes 10-15 minutes for a pig to walk out of the trailer It takes 10-15 minutes You don't rush them along or cause them any stress So that is our bleed pit So that's where it's been washed through So this is our castle knocking box So we've got the options in this box We can either shoot from the front Or you can climb up the side and shoot from above Which I can show you on the CCTV later on Of how we do it Once the animal is shot and unconscious Pull the little evo and run to the back Open that, rolls out onto the floor And then what we'll often do is shackle the front leg Just to make sure that the animal is in the right position For bleeding And then we perform a burp of the chestic So they bleed out more quickly Okay I just want to know from your own emotional psychological perspective Have you had to detach? Yes Sometimes We had a cow and calf come in This was about three or four years ago now And the lady who booked them in She said now the calf is small And I said how small And she said the calf is still suckling But the cow was passing on a genetic Early on-step osteoarthritis So as the calves grew older and got bigger They were suffering So what she wanted to do She identified through veterinary intervention It was this cow that was passing on the gene So she brought both of them down Because the longer she left it The calf would then start to suffer So she brought the cow and calf down And the calf, yeah He must have been about six months old So he was quite small And it was at that point Something that I had to sort of My other slaughterment at the time He turned around and was like I can't do it And that's the time where you have to say Okay, that's fine But I'm doing it for the welfare of the animal Other than that That animal is going to go on and suffer Okay And this is our beef splitting saucer Just mind your head It splits them completely vertically down Yeah Because every beef animal Has to have the spinal cord removed And so that's for risk of BSE So we have to- What is BSE? It's mad cow disease Mad cow disease, yeah, yeah Yeah So that all has to be removed Totally normal Yeah There's nothing going on back here That's, you know, out of the ordinary Smells like a rotting corpse That's been covered in feces Like a urine mixture It's horrible I see in that instance Maybe there's a different context Because of the animal may You know, could be going into some suffering As they grow But that's not always the context So you would have to be- You'd have to sort of emotionally detach From, you know, the- Someone that you're taking the life from So you'd have- Like, could you explain How you do that psychologically? I think- I think the difference is You go in and you've got a job to do And you- Well, we alter Our sort of management Our handling of the animals Depending on their behaviour And their body language Like for example The cattle behind us This one here He's a little devon He was hand-reared on a bucket Because he was born premature And so for him We would- Tomorrow morning When we'd go to walk him in We'd open the gate Hands on his bum Walk on, you know Whereas the big cattle at the back Who were a bit flighty And we've known them before To be aggressive Not just him But on their homestead What we would do Is get everyone out of the way Open everything up And let them run up together As a pair To minimise stress Into the cattle race So that's how we manage it Is by- And that sort of gives you- That settles some Of the emotional discomfort With, you know- Yeah, I mean no one- I don't like killing things I don't think- I don't think anyone should But- So you don't feel that It's a moral thing to do At the end of the day That you're trying to offer the- I'm- Why I'm trying to offer an alternative So for people who- Care about where their food comes from They care about their animals There has to be somewhere To offer that service So here is our- Expecting room These are our captive vaults That we use Are they- Are they the- Okay, yeah So that's a spent cartridge Yeah But these- These are what we use for stunning So this bolt here What it does is the- The cartridge Goes in here Yeah And then- This is made- Effectively your safety So you- Pop it forward And then when you pull the trigger The- The- Combustion inside the chamber Here at the back Forces the bolt- How far does the bolt come out? Come touch about here And then- Inside is full of Loads of little rubber rings Yeah And what it does is that As the bolt is forced out It compresses the rings And then the rings pull it back So they have to go into the centre of the skull With that, yeah? Right here And it varies No, we've happened to show you Like not on the head Yeah But no, so it's basically- You can show on my head That's okay So it would be about here Okay So the top of the forehead Yeah, well it would go from- From ear to eye And then ear to eye So if you were cows You would have these So it has to go pierce through their brain The whole- The way that the stunning actually works Is when the bolt hits the skull That causes a massive ricochet Through the brain And that is effective The rattling Yeah And when I was young, I used to have My two pet pigs every year My last two were Samson and Delilah And I used them to clear A big area of scrubland For me to put in my vegetable patches Yeah And I'd been to several other Small abattoirs And I was mortified with what I got back You know, they've Bansled up and chucked into a sack And it was so destroying to think Well, I've put so much time and effort And pride into producing Happy, healthy, good quality pigs And then that has just been Showing no respect whatsoever That, for me, was really upsetting Yeah And that's something that I'm wanting To, you know, that we here Are wanting to change Through here This is our pre-chill So this is what we've sorted here today Okay So you guys don't mind just Pilling the door to behind me So this here is the south seven stair That we sorted this afternoon And this is the animal that I Can show you this animal Being sorted on the film Okay So you can see exactly How it all went Yeah Evil, those trucks Abspure evil Where are the babies now? Where are those cows? Being hacked up, stab So where do you put The heads and stuff? We've got an incinerator on site So that reduces Like transport miles for waste And things like that So we incinerate everything on site That's considered category one Animal byproducts Okay So it's for incineration only And these are some pigs So this is a mother? Is that our mother? Yes A breeding She was Do you feel that it's a Necessary thing? Yes Like it's necessary Like it's like Do you feel like it's needed? Yes Yeah I mean at the end of the day Not everyone is vegan Not everyone is vegetarian So To be the lesser of two evils There has to be a better way Of doing something And we feel Like the lesser of two evils But it's still not Like It's not a nice thing to do It's not good Well Do you say that it's good Or like If the lesser of two evils Obviously you could torture And kill someone first Or you could Nurture and kill someone first But do you think the act Of killing can ever be Considered like Okay or good That's a really tricky question Because There are some methods That we all know Like kosher And unsung halal Where You look at it And I personally I see that as barbaric That is my point of view I've witnessed it I've been in the slaughterhouse Where they decapitate Animals It's absolutely horrendous I know But it's Each individual's point of view For me Growing up on a farm I've always been taught Where there's livestock There's dead stock Sometimes Animals You know Things go wrong And I've always been taught That every animal has their purpose If You know We Didn't eat meat Then there wouldn't be any animals And so That's the way That we sort of look at it Is that They're here There's They've got a purpose There's a job That has to be done And I would much rather Do it My way In What I consider To be the kindest way Possible Where the animals Stress You know And they're treated with respect And dignity Right up until the point Of stunning Where they're rendered unconscious Prior to slaughter So They've all got names I see On legs Yeah If you don't mind Not the names Yeah Good idea Yeah That's something that we do They're not a barcode You know We put the name Of the customer Because they're That person's property You know They're that The animals belong to them Yeah Yeah So we You know A lot of places use Barcodes or numbers Or anything like that But I think it's a much more Personal It makes it more personal Yeah Individualizes Obviously we have Different views on this Yeah But I see From contrast Like Torturing Abusing Someone More than necessary To You know And just treating them A lot better than Other places do And killing them Settle something in your heart But the way I Like the way I view it Is if it was me Right And like Let's just say There's two alternatives here That you see Torturing and killing them Or offering them The best welfare possible And minimizing stress Before you kill them I always look at the third option Which is like Is this really necessary I mean we can eat Plant-based foods I mean the studies are Showing that we don't need To be healthy Or to survive And in all of these Environmental consequences Of raising animals And the ethical implications Of robbing someone of their life No matter how nice we do it And I put myself in the animal's Position And I go I would want option three Yeah No I understand that This one Because she was so big We actually Shot her with a Free bullet Oh really Yeah So that's why she's got Such a big hole Generally the older they Get The fit for their heads to come I see Big bones But every piece of evidence There is an equal And opposite piece Of contradicting evidence So it's very difficult To say for definite Yes or no And I think You know they are They do have feelings And you know They do have Learned behaviours There's someone in Do you believe like When you look at an animal There's someone inside of there With their own You don't think there's Someone in there Oh they've got their own Personalities Yeah There Oh of course Like an individual Experiencing reality Similar to us What I'm saying Is that We as An educated Person Yeah We know what's going to happen But this animal has never Experienced it Or seen it Or you know They've never heard anything Like for you So they don't Associate Anything with what Is going So like a child would Like the innocence of a child Like they wouldn't Like if you let a child Somewhere Like to be killed No But it's like If you go on holiday And your child has never Been in the swimming pool And you're out on holiday You're sat in the deck And your next thing Your child runs And jumps in the swimming pool You know That's dangerous They don't No Because they've never Seen it or encountered it before So they wouldn't know They're about to be killed If the setting was Right And they had no idea of it But the Child is still The child That to take their life From them Would still be like Sort of robbing their Someone of their existence Yeah I understand what you're saying But I think this is where We would vary Very differently You know I understand they are Living, breathing, sentient beings But at the same time They're not It's a misguided anthropomorphism Where A person will imprint Their emotions Onto an animal Whereas Realistically The animal's actions Is only a learned behaviour This one here She's remained into sausages Okay So you do that on site For them Yeah That's very interesting Not many places do The whole process Slaughter My butchers are shop butchers Yeah So the quality of what They get back It's not As I said With Samson and Delilah When I got the meat back And it was just Literally everything Was just in one bag And I was like What is this for them Whereas what we do Individually Hand cut So chops Label And then Leg of lamb Leg of the leg We've got some lamb steaks there And this is what people Are used to seeing But they're not really Used to seeing the whole No But that's why we actively Encourage people to come And look Witness So that they know What happened So from cattle In a herd environment If you go around They will flock together Because that's something That they've learned to do Whereas people You know If you were to go For example To go running through A crowd of people with a machine gun Everyone would scatter You know That kind of thing Is it For the livestock It's a learned behaviour And the same way as They avoid A cow would avoid a machine gun Just as much as a human Oh yeah No It's just an example You know Is it a learned behaviour They have a desire To live Like cows And pigs And dogs Like let's just put it In the context of dogs Because I know It's a bit of a jump For a human child To cow In the context of dogs Like would you feel Kind of I mean Your feelings don't really Tell you if it's moral or not But with dogs Like you know They're killing dogs in China They're raising them for food They're trying to You know They're farming dogs For consumption Do you have Any animals like a dog at home Yeah Yeah Chris has met my dog In the office What's your dog's name Indy Indy Okay Probably adorable He is But I'm biased This is This is Indy You are so cute But you know Indy's got a personality Yeah There's someone in there Like you know That desires You know To live Yeah And you would Don't do that That's normal What's he doing Oh he's like Having a good old scratch On the water drinker We've done that This one we've had to repair Because one of the One did that And ripped off the wall Darling Would you see a difference Between your dog And the cows Um Would you slaughter for the dog If it wasn't necessary For survival If Yeah If it was a situation Where I would have to Kill my dog Or watch them starve to death For example Different context Yeah Like if it was necessary Not like when you think about In Australia With the amount of livestock Having to be slaughtered Very prematurely Or livestock That weren't ever destined For the meat chain They've had to be slaughtered Because there's a lack of food Um I would That's true But they were bread They're forcibly bread By the farmers So if we stop the forcibly Forcibly Well, not forcibly I'm sure if you stuck a ram in there He wouldn't turn around And say, sorry ladies We're not really feeling it today Ah, well I guess But the human beings Are breeding the animals into it So we're creating the problem We're solving it by So let's just say There was no necessity For dog flesh You know And we bought the dog in Your dog To be You know More like epically slaughtered You would You would have a problem with that Like a moral problem I would Because I formed Attachment to that dog Whereas You know If there was a situation Where We were out and about And he got scared Or You know Someone turned around with food He wouldn't think twice about Going and wandering off With person with food And that's because It's a behaviour It's a learned behaviour This is what I'm talking about When I talk about disconnect Like most of Society are disconnected from Yeah, a lot of people Don't want to know They don't want to meet The cow before They eat the burger No But If you want to eat meat responsibly Then I think You should be asking more questions Do you think like Indy has moral value Outside of the Like your emotional attachment Oh, he knows Right, wrong No, I mean like Intrinsic moral Like in and of It's like Indy's Like you outside of the picture Does Indy have moral value Outside of your emotional attachment Indy He wouldn't think twice I have to take him out on a leave Because he wouldn't think twice About chasing sheep And killing one I mean Not his instinct to You know But like Indy Would it be immoral Outside of your emotional attachment To Indy to Ethically kill Indy For no necessity I'm not following So like I'm asking Like because I asked you If it's moral to kill Indy In the same way these cows Are killed for their flesh But you said No, because I have an emotional attachment To Indy That's what gives Indy Value Moral value But outside of your emotional attachment To Indy His or herself Him Himself Himself Does he have his own moral value Outside of you Like just his sentience and See that's very tricky It's a very very difficult question Very difficult Because like an individual human being Like a small child Outside of their The parent's emotional attachment To that small child There is an individual there That deserves moral treatment You know Yeah Because At the same time their personality Doesn't really start to develop Until their You know sort of Toddlers And most of that Is nurture rather than nature Learning Yeah So it's very much the same You know In the You know Cattle for example Like these cattle here Most of these will not be You know two years old So how much You know Learning You know they've Been brought up In a herd environment Rather than Been raised as An individual And I think that's the difference Is that people Yes we are Naturally In pairs Or you know We like to be in a group But we're More Emotionally developed Than animals I mean There's no way Of saying You know That animal is You know Feel that he's crying Because You know His friends died Or You know Like Yes I have When we take Their calves from them Do you think that's An emotional response But then at the same time When You can leave those cattle To run on And stay with them And then You know Give it another two months And those cows Will be fed up Because they've got You know Maybe another calf Or you know They're fed up That They think that That animal Their calf is ready For weaning And I've seen cows You know Buff their calves away They're like Mum kicked me out the house too When I was 40 No Well You know It's one of those things Nature does have a way of doing it Do you agree that Like If you take a cow A calf away from a mother cow They have an emotional Like Bond That's broken Emotional It's a maternal bond Yes There is a maternal bond But most of that Is hormones You'll find Then once they've Not seen Or suckled For two or three days That's it That emotional attachment That tie Is gone And then they're with You know The rest of their Their herd Be it with calves If the calves are together They will see that As Okay This is my new family This is where I'm safe This is what I do And it's the same as They will move on It's a bit like The same as Animals in the wild If If a calf Is Killed by a lion For example Then The You know The mother Will move on To a survival instinct Is what they do It's like Food Reproduction You know, it's survival And then Yeah, that's something Animals are emotionally intelligent And life is big The child is killed And they've probably Had some type of emotional Response to that If you do choose To buy meat from Your local butcher Rather than the supermarket Don't be afraid to go in And say Where is this from? Where was it reared? And If the butcher Is a good butcher They should be able to tell you And if not I would ask the question Why? Why not? Yeah Interesting Yeah, I'm just trying to like Get to the point where we're like Okay, like we have lots of things In common with animals Like the sentience You know, there's someone in there You agree that there's different Personalities Indy has a personality The pink stat you met That you couldn't kill Had their own little personalities Yeah There's someone There's an individual inside Each of them You know There are better ways to kill someone But for me I wouldn't want to have my life robbed From me And then we could sort of like Debate on whether You know humans have more of a Complex experience than animals And you know I'm on board with that a lot But there's also human beings That can't have Complexes Experiences Other human beings But we still wouldn't Think it's moral to like Kill them and eat them or whatever And there has to be like Some type of differentiating factor Like some type of real difference Between human beings and animals To sort of To say that killing animals is moral But killing humans isn't Or killing a dog isn't And there's sort of There's so many similarities that matter Yeah So that's where sort of We're at Yeah, absolutely And I understand that But at the same time You know If you want to test that theory You can go and stand in with those bullets And I don't think they'd give two Heats to be honest They don't care about me Yeah, I know But that doesn't They might not be able to Conceptualize the same sort of Moral system Yeah, but then you're saying They've got exactly the same Emotions and things like that Not the same But we do have So they have a moral obligation Like you know If you go and walk in with them And they say Oh, do you know what I'm sure he's a nice bloke I'll leave him alone Because they don't have Moral agency I mean they can't make Moral decisions And there's also like Human beings There's also like Human beings that can't Make moral decisions as well Like they might be Yeah, but they're generally Like locked up One way or another Is to tell them though Because they can't make Moral decisions Oh, you tell that to the Americans It's just because we've Got rid of hanging, haven't we But Americans still have Death row I would still make a moral decision Because I'm a moral agent Even if someone else couldn't I wouldn't say like Because they can't make Moral decisions I should act Immorally towards them Yeah, but morals are Individual So for example Subjective Us as members of society We turn around and say Do you know what It's not okay to go And you know Gun someone down In the street Or anything like that Whereas for example The death row They might not think twice about it So, you know They would then So morals are An agreement Not everyone is the same You know And this is something That we're trying to change Is by educating people And saying Look, okay If you want to eat meat That's cool That's fine It's up to you But you need to make An educated decision And a choice To see How that animal Was looked after Where was he born How was he reared How was he handled So people If they choose to eat meat Yeah They at least see the whole process And you guys Are willing to show people The process Yeah In here And say Look If you're going to eat The flesh of an animal Okay This is what's going to happen This is the reality of it Yeah This is how we do it here Yeah Can we come in For a tour of the slaughterhouse Please mate We're lad on the kill floor Why won't they let us On the kill floor It's supposed to be humane No surprise that they They're so secretive It's such a humane Ethical You know Industry Just a normal industry A lot of people don't want to A lot of people don't want to They don't want to know What happens What do you think about that I understand it Because like I said There's a very Common misconception About what happens That it's all Blood and guts and gore Yeah And you know Animals stressed And traumatised And that's what's Portrait to them Like ignorance Like they don't want to see it Or do you just Understand that it's hard for people Yeah No Both Okay So can we see the CCTV films Yeah So that's the first thing You do is remove the head Yeah I guarantee you If I wanted to tour Any other like a Let's just say like a Crisp's factory Where they're cooking crisps Serving crisps to people They have no problem Me coming in For a tour Something wrong going on In here And they know it The public know it It's like It's like an inherent Feel it It's like a Feeling in your heart You know there's something wrong Going on in there That's why it's so Covered up So hidden from The population They don't show Slaughterhouse footage on TV