HEWITT SLAUGHTERHOUSE HAS BEEN PROSECUTED!

Following the recent prosecution of ex-calf dealer Derek Whittall who faced an animal keeping ban, fines and community service, I am pleased to announce that G. & G.B. Hewitt slaughterhouse in Cheshire has been fined as a direct result of our undercover investigation.

You will remember that this slaughterhouse was where tiny calves, as young as nine days old, were viciously killed. We also filmed cows, bulls, pigs, piglets and sheep being slaughtered in the most horrific ways, which launched our Scammed! Campaign in 2021. Highlighting the systematic failure within slaughterhouses, which included inept Official Veterinarians, ineffective CCTV, preannounced FSA audits and underreporting of non-compliances, we showed that no animal could ever be ‘protected’ at their time of slaughter.

Despite our hugely disturbing findings that included a conscious piglet being thrown into a scalding tank to drown, pigs having their ankles and legs cut too soon after having their throats slit, shackled ‘spent’ dairy cows arriving emaciated and two bulls being terrorised for 40 minutes by workers, the slaughterhouse and its workers only received monetary fines following the case by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

All defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced as follows:

• G. & G.B. Hewitt Ltd (slaughterhouse operators) fined £19,500, £100 statutory surcharge and £500 costs
• Gerald Hewitt fined £1,000, £100 statutory surcharge and £100 costs
• Matthew Arden fined £1,050, £105 statutory surcharge and £100 costs
• Stephen Mayren fined £1395, £139 statutory surcharge and £100 costs
• Mark Hewitt fined £525, £52 statutory surcharge and £100 costs
• Paul May fined £525, £52 statutory surcharge and £100 costs
• Joseph Arden fined £160, £34 statutory surcharge and £100 costs

These are the names of guilty animal abusers, but it is likely that they still work at the very same slaughterhouse or within the industry itself.

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Although a prosecution brings some form of justice to the victims who suffered at the hands of Hewitt abattoir workers, you can see that individual fines amounting to mere thousands of pounds do not make up for the tragedy that we filmed inside the slaughterhouse’s walls.

Our Scammed! campaign continues to expose the systematic failings inside abattoirs and this prosecution is a clear reflection of this. Animals were tormented, terrorised, electrically shocked and cut open whilst still alive, yet the CPS believes that fines as low as £160 are adequate.

There is only one way to help animals in slaughterhouses: NEVER fund it! No level of welfare legislation, nor reforms, will ever ‘protect’ animals. We must not allow the exploitation and commodification of vulnerable, kind and self-aware animals like cows, pigs and sheep, and promoting ‘higher welfare’ only adds to the rhetoric that it’s acceptable to exploit and kill someone.

This prosecution divides our consciences: While it is better that this company and its workers face some form of repercussions for their actions, it nevertheless exposes the system for what it is: a failure.

Without our undercover investigation, funded by your kind donations, the stories of these animals would never have been made public and the workers would have continued getting away with abusing and mutilating them in what can only be described as a nightmare situation. We must continue exposing what is being purposefully hidden by animal farmers and slaughterhouses. With your support through donations, joining protests and helping us spread the word, we will continue fighting for a kinder future for everyone.

As always,

For the animals.