Shut down slaughterhouses

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Over the past 10 years, Farm Transparency Project has entered over one hundred Australian slaughterhouses, factory farms and knackeries, revealing the horror within to an often stunned public. Yet, Australian slaughter industries, including meat, dairy and eggs, continue to lie to consumers, claiming that what happens behind the closed doors of farms and slaughterhouses can somehow be humane.

We won’t rest until we reveal the depth of the systemic and inherent animal abuse in the animal slaughter industry - abuse that is completely unnecessary, especially given the vast array of easily accessible plant-based alternatives.

Over 2023 and 2024, we will investigate, expose and release new footage from 30 Australian slaughterhouses, exposing the brutal final moments of animals bred for food in this country. 

It’s time for a national conversation about the mass suffering we’re inflicting on animals and whether that could ever align with our values, when most Australians consider themselves animal-lovers and when there’s already such a vast array of easily-accessible plant-based alternatives. 

What we want

A just transition to slaughter-free food production

The technology which would allow us to transition away from commercialised animal slaughter already exists. With emerging technology and innovation in the plant-based food sector, we are more than capable of feeding our country without suffering and violence. Our government needs to move away from meat, dairy and eggs, and towards slaughter free food production. This includes:

• Investing in plant-based food production.

• Redirecting the millions of dollars in public funding, which currently funds the meat, dairy and egg industries, away from slaughter-based food production and into plant-based alternatives

• Supporting vulnerable workers to escape the slaughter industry. Developing a just transition for workers in these violent industries, linked to high levels of mental illness and brutality, into alternative roles. 

Complete legal protection for farmed animals

Most of what is done to farmed animals in farms and slaughterhouses is only legal because of outdated exemptions to our animal welfare laws which mean that what would be illegal if it was done to a dog or a cat, is legal when done to a pig or a cow. We are calling for complete legal protection for farmed animals, which would mean an immediate end to the commercial breeding, confinement and slaughter of all animals bred for food. 

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Most of us see ourselves as animal lovers; yet our actions may be contributing to the abuse and violent slaughter of individuals who live, breathe and feel just as much as our dogs and cats. 

Boycott Animal slaughter 
The only way to be sure you’re not supporting the abuse of farmed animals, is to stop eating them. Take the pledge today to leave animals off your plate and live vegan. 

Help us shut down slaughterhouses
Workers using the bodies of sheep and pigs as punching bags, hitting them as they hang suspended on the shackle line, or as they are pulled onto the kill table to have their throat slit. Pigs screaming as their heads are clamped in electrified paddles, some left stunned but conscious for minutes as they blink and look around in terror. Sheep and goats stabbed in the head over and over again as they thrash and try desperately to run backwards on the moving conveyor belt, forcing them towards their deaths. Cows trying to stand after being shot in the head multiple times, then dying in agony as they bleed out on the kill room floor. Our investigations have revealed horrific suffering in slaughterhouses across Australia proving without a doubt that slaughter can never be humane. Show your support for a slaughter free food system by signing our petition today. 

Donate to support this campaign
Your donation will help us continue our work to investigate and expose commercial animal abuse in Australian slaughterhouses.

• Major loss for press freedom: Federal Court grants injunction to block slaughterhouse cruelty footage

  Media release: Wednesday 13 Aug 2025

  The Full Court of the Federal Court has allowed an appeal from the Game Meats Company slaughterhouse, ordering a permanent restraint on the publication of footage depicting animal cruelty and illegal activity at the company's facility in Eurobin, Victoria, which was illegally obtained by animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project last year. The court granted copyright of the footage to the slaughterhouse, setting a new legal precedent likely to have wide-reaching ramifications for press freedom and political discourse over public interest matters. Farm Transparency Project has been ordered to destroy all copies of the footage.  The appeal was launched...
• In court today: slaughterhouse appeals decision to allow animal cruelty footage

  Media release: Friday 1 Aug 2025

  A Victorian slaughterhouse is appearing before the Federal Court to appeal a decision which allowed the publication of footage of the slaughter of animals, which was illegally obtained by animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project last year at the Game Meats Company slaughterhouse in Eurobin, Victoria.  The slaughterhouse claims that the court erred in its decision to not grant a permanent injunction to block the footage, which contains evidence of animal cruelty and illegal activity.  The appeal follows a five-day trial in August 2024, where FTP admitted to trespassing at the facility and installing hidden cameras to capture footage...
• 30th slaughterhouse exposed for cruelty in two years

  Media release: Monday 26 May 2025

  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...
• Ducks killed without stunning at Sydney slaughterhouse

  Media release: Wednesday 16 Apr 2025

  New footage captured at a Sydney poultry slaughterhouse shows chickens and ducks being killed while fully conscious and able to feel pain. The video showed workers placing ducks on the shackle line after the electrified stun bath, then slitting their throats. Other birds lifted their heads out of the bath, avoiding the water and remaining conscious. The footage was published by Farm Transparency Project and was captured in November 2024 when hidden cameras were installed inside two NSW poultry slaughterhouses.  Footage captured at Tinder Creek duck slaughterhouse in the western Sydney suburb of Tennyson shows chickens and ducks having their...
• 'Stabbed and decapitated while conscious': cruelty reported at seven QLD slaughterhouses

  Media release: Friday 14 Mar 2025

  Animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project has released footage captured inside seven QLD slaughterhouses over a six-week period in August-September 2024.  The footage, obtained through the use of covert cameras installed by the group, shows multiple breaches of state and federal animal welfare legislation, including ineffective stunning, abusive handling of animals, and animals being slaughtered while conscious and aware. At one facility, a sheep is stabbed multiple times and decapitated while still conscious, while pigs are seen drowning in the scalding tank.  Farm Transparency Project is calling for the immediate closure of all seven facilities, which have been reported...

See all 36 media releases

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