Request
Your request was about the following information:
'Can you be kind enough to send me a copy of the FOI release referred to in this article please?
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/thousands-farm-animals-suffering-cruelty-10245497' '
Response
The attached report shows the information you requested.
Please note personal information has been redacted from the attached document in accordance with FOI guidelines.
I would like to provide some additional background information on this issue, which you may find helpful.
Food Standards Scotland delivers animal welfare controls in approved slaughterhouses on behalf of the Scottish Government, and we provide updates to them on a regular basis. 95% of all animals in Scotland are slaughtered in abattoirs with CCTV. Larger abattoirs are those which tend to have CCTV installed.
Of the 706 reported animal welfare breaches reported during the 20 month period from 1 May 2015 to the 31 January 2017, approximately a quarter (181) occurred in abattoirs.
During this same period, approximately 900,000 cattle, 2,390,000 sheep, 580,000 pigs and 81,400,000 poultry were slaughtered in abattoirs in Scotland.
We currently have 62 veterinarians in slaughterhouses in Scotland to monitor and enforce animal welfare standards as we take animal welfare extremely seriously. We do not tolerate animal cruelty. Any breaches are investigated as a priority, and action is taken dependent on the type of breach. There are a range of options open to us, including providing reports to the Procurator Fiscal, who can then take the decision on any further action required. We currently have four cases under investigation and one of those is already at the prosecution stage. We also have an option to suspend a slaughterer’s Certificate of Competence, and have done so in 10 cases.
Further solutions to this unacceptable issue will be considered by a new working group comprising of Food Standards Scotland, Quality Meat Scotland, Scottish Government Animal & Plant Health Agency, Scottish Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals and Scottish Local Authorities.