Mandatory CCTV in slaughter plants has emerged as a significant welfare accountability tool, but implementation and access requirements vary critically.
Mandatory CCTV in slaughter plants represents a significant accountability improvement over inspection-only oversight, but the welfare impact depends heavily on how footage is used. Retrospective access on request is less effective than proactive review — welfare incidents occur continuously between scheduled inspections, and reactive access captures only incidents where concerns are already raised. The ideal system combines continuous installation with regular automated analysis, proactive review by trained welfare monitors, and independent access for welfare bodies alongside official veterinarians. Evidence from the first years of mandatory CCTV consistently shows that welfare incident rates visible on camera substantially exceed those captured through traditional inspection. This gap represents welfare harm that occurred during the inspection-only era and is now partially visible but not yet prevented at the scale that proactive monitoring would enable.