Anonymous people reveal animal cruelty at Australian Inghams poultry producer factory using CCTV footage

March 21, 2013

Anonymous people submitted a video depicting employees of, an Australian poultry producer, to. The video displays at an Inghams plant in, , south-west of Sydney. The video was recorded without the employees' knowledge over a two-week period in February. Animal Liberation maintains that the footage is legitimate.

Spokesperson for Emma Hurst stated to Sydney Morning Herald, "You can see a total disrespect of these animals. There are scenes where they've put the music up very, very loud, the workers are screaming, jumping about, dancing, picking up the turkeys, dancing while holding onto the turkeys, throwing them onto the shackles, and just that whole mentality as though these animals don’t have feelings, that they're objects."

Using, over 140 hours were recorded, depicting 136 incidences of animal cruelty as well as aggravated animal cruelty, resulting in the animals' death or severe conditions. Ms. Hurst said, "Hanging upside down, their legs are already brittle, and we've got footage as well where their legs have actually ripped off from their bodies ... and the legs have been tossed around."

Animal Liberation and the (RSPCA) are again calling for the mandatory installation of CCTV cameras in all Australian abattoirs. RSPCA New South Wales chief inspector David O'Shannessy told the ABC that surveillance and inspections of abattoirs should be commonplace in Australia. "The CCTV would certainly send a strong signal to those people working with animals that their welfare is of the highest priority."

Inghams CEO Kevin McBain released a statement saying that an investigation had been launched into the "intolerable incidents". "We condemn the animal abuse we have seen in the footage and will &mdash; as a matter of urgency &mdash; work to review, retrain and reinforce our animal welfare standards throughout our organisation"

The and the  are continuing to investigate the video.