CCTV monitoring in slaughterhouses and on farm can improve welfare compliance and provide evidence for enforcement. Understanding the role and limits of CCTV in welfare protection is important.
CCTV monitoring represents a significant advance in farm and slaughterhouse welfare enforcement. Hidden camera investigations repeatedly demonstrated that welfare abuses occur in environments where they are not expected to be observed - indicating that compliance in the absence of monitoring differs from compliance when monitored. CCTV changes this dynamic. However, footage is only valuable if it is reviewed, and reviews only improve welfare if they lead to consequences. The chain from capture to review to enforcement to improvement must be functional for CCTV to deliver its welfare potential. Its full potential is unrealised where footage is stored but never reviewed.