Animal Aid filmed sheep, calves and goats being killed over two days in September 2010. As with Tom Lang Ltd, many of the sheep slaughtered at F Drury and Son had their necks broken and their heads cut off immediately after their throats were cut, despite the law stating that the animals must be left for at least 20 seconds to ensure they are first dead. Of 58 consecutively slaughtered sheep, 45 were killed illegally. Sheep were also picked up by their fleeces and thrown, or dragged into the pen – again, in breach of the law.
Two young calves, barely able to stay upright on the slippery slaughterhouse floor, were left there to crash repeatedly to the ground. Their ordeal lasted three hours.
While the Food Standards Agency accepted that laws were being broken, including ‘the law relating to times that animals need to bleed out’, no legal action was taken. This may have been because the Agency knew already that the government would not prosecute. Instead, the Food Standards Agency ‘recommended improvements to their animal welfare controls’ and temporarily increased veterinary supervision.
Within a year of Animal Aid filming, a worker died at F Drury and Son when he was crushed to death by machinery. The slaughterhouse was ordered to pay a £70,000 fine.