Shock film of SSC slaughter line dates from 2019, animal welfare activists confirm
A secretly filmed video showing fish at a Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) harvest station on Lewis apparently being killed without being adequately stunned was made in 2019, the organisation behind the film has confirmed.
The video, released by Animal Equality UK yesterday, has prompted Waitrose and the Co-op to suspend taking salmon from SSC until they have carried their own investigations.
Animal Equality is an international organisation which campaigns for better welfare standards for farmed animals and would ultimately like to persuade everyone to stop eating meat and fish.
It specialises in undercover filming to highlight breaches of welfare rules and husbandry practices it regards as unacceptable.
‘Historic, edited film’
Its video of the slaughter line at SSC’s Arnish harvest station shows salmon apparently conscious after going through a stunning machine designed to knock the fish out before their gills are cut.
Some fish are seen being coshed over the head several times, and others are shown apparently dying on the floor after falling off the chute.
In a statement, SSC said the video was a “historic, edited film” showing isolated activity that didn’t meet its stringent welfare rules.
‘Animal suffering’
Abigail Penny, executive director of Animal Equality UK, confirmed the film, which was released in conjunction with a demand for more specific legislation covering fish slaughter, was more than a year old.
“In order to protect the investigator’s identity, I’m unable to provide specific details, though I can confirm that the footage was obtained in late 2019. We remain concerned about the very serious animal suffering that we witnessed on the Arnish slaughter site,” said Penny.
Delayed by Covid
Explaining the gap between filming and releasing the video, she said: “Typically, we release our investigative findings within a matter of weeks or months. In this case we were prepared to release in March, then the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and we didn’t feel it was appropriate at the time that the pandemic was spreading for us to then share this publicly.
“We instead took the opportunity to seek expert review and commentary on our alarming findings. Armed with this footage and expert reports, we put together an open letter addressed to UK ministers and created a strong legal ask off the back of it in the hope that we can prevent similar welfare abuses from occurring in future.
“That letter has had 70 signatories from some of the world’s leading aquatic experts.”
‘Isolated activity’
Since the time of the video’s filming SSC has undergone a change of management following its acquisition by Faroese salmon farmer Bakkafrost, which is spending £39 million a year until 2024 to improve the company’s facilities and expand processing capacity, but stressed that it had followed strict welfare practices before that.
In a statement, SSC said: “We are investigating an incident following receipt of an historic edited film, that shows isolated activity at our Northern harvest station. This activity does not align with our stringent welfare code of practice and does not in any way represent the operations of the company.
‘Thorough investigation’
“We take this matter extremely seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation into this historic incident. To assist our investigation, we have requested full unedited film footage. Given our significant capital investment, training in the proper handling and humane harvesting of salmon, and supervisory and leadership approach, we believe this to be a one-off isolated incident. It is not representative of our strict welfare practice either today nor during 2019.
“Our harvest processing sites are subject to strict, regular audits from third party accreditation providers which ensure we meet globally-leading animal welfare standards. The harvest station has been subject to numerous audits which identified no welfare concerns.”
