• Farm Transparency Project has published hidden camera footage captured late last year at the Cowra slaughterhouse in NSW
• The footage reveals workers throwing, kicking, smacking and aggressively electrocuting animals to move them to the kill floor, where many are then ineffectively 'stunned' and killed while conscious 
• This is the 30th slaughterhouse investigated and exposed by the group across NSW, VIC, QLD, TAS and SA in the last two years, completing a pledge made in mid 2023

Farm Transparency Project (FTP) has completed its pledge to investigate and expose 30 slaughterhouses across Australia over two years, with Cowra Meat Processors in central west NSW the latest facility to come under fire for animal cruelty. Hidden cameras installed by FTP in November 2024 reveal the aggressive use of electric prodders to move sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and young piglets; workers throwing, kicking, and smacking animals with metal tools; extremely poor and ineffective use of 'stunning' devices causing prolonged agony; animals being killed while conscious, some having escaped the restraint; a conscious pig drowning in a scalding tank; and the use of a carbon dioxide gas chamber for pigs, a system now notorious for its cruelty. 

FTP has written to the state's slaughterhouse regulator, urging for the facility to be immediately shut down. 

Executive Director, Chris Delforce, says that what was captured at Cowra is the reality of commercial animal slaughter across the country.

"This is an industry entirely incapable of reform or rehabilitation. It is built on violence and cruelty towards animals who we know are just as capable of thinking and feeling as we are. The animal slaughter industry goes to great lengths to hide their practices from the public because they know that, if people had the chance to see what really happens inside a slaughterhouse, most would refuse to support it."

"The reality is, animals is slaughterhouses have little to no legal protection, meaning that the worst suffering and abuse is not only commonplace, it's the standard. Over the past two years, we have investigated 30 Australian slaughterhouses across Australia, from some of the largest, which supply major supermarkets, to small, local operations, known and trusted by their communities. At every single one we have found not only illegal and sickening behaviour by workers, but a systemic culture of casual cruelty and violence."

"The veil has well and truly been lifted. This archaic industry must be urgently phased out in favour of the booming plant-based and cultured meat sector."

Footage and photos: www.farmtransparency.org/facilities/2135c-cowra-meat-processors