Official welfare controls at slaughter plants are critical but often inadequate, and CCTV monitoring has emerged as an important tool for accountability and improvement.
Slaughter is the point of maximum welfare vulnerability for farm animals: after a life potentially of good welfare, inadequate stunning, rough handling, or understaffing can impose serious suffering in the final minutes. The evidence from CCTV implementation in the UK shows that monitoring changes behaviour and catches problems that would previously have gone undetected. The welfare gains from proper slaughter oversight are immediate, direct, and measurable.