Crows Nest Meatworks

Established in 2002 as the first export approved, multi-species slaughterhouse in QLD, Crows Nest Meatworks originally operated as a ‘game meat’ abattoir, killing deer, ostriches, goats and emus. In 2012, the company changed hands and was reopened after a long closure, this time to kill sheep, goats, pigs and cows.

Now, Crows Nest kills dozens of animals each week, including sheep, goats, pigs, piglets, cows and bobby calves, who are sent to the slaughterhouse from surrounding dairy farms. 

In 2024, FTP's team of investigators installed hidden cameras at Crows Nest, to record the handling and slaughter of goats, cows, sheep, pigs and calves at the property. Our cameras recorded as these animals were brutally killed, with some maintaining consciousness for minutes after their throats were slit.

Small animals, including bobby calves, sheep, piglets and goats, are paralysed with an electric stunner in a ‘kill pen,’ where their throats are then slit. Multiple animals were seen to continue struggling and blinking as they slowly bled out.

Cows and larger pigs are shot in the head with a handheld bolt-gun, to immobilise them before they are tipped out, hung by the legs and their throat is slit. One night, we returned to retrieve our hidden cameras to find one cow who had been locked in a small box in the race. Desperate and afraid, they struggled to escape the metal box, covered in sweat and foaming at the mouth. 

Crows Nest is owned and directed by Lindsay William Taylor, a local man in his 70s, owner of Taya Meats, who in 2013 was fined $50,000 in the Toowoomba Magistrates Court, after concerned bystanders made a complaint about a field of dead and dying goats owned by Taylor. 

Goats on the property were found not to have access to food or water, except for industrial waste bins which contained the decomposing remains of other animals. Taylor pleaded guilty to four counts of breach of duty of care to an animal as a director and four counts of feeding animal matter or animal contaminated matter to stock, however the court decided to record no convictions. 

Crows Nest is an example of the ineffectiveness of systems that allow animal abusers to continue to profit from the exploitation of animals, even after they have been admitted to neglect and cruelty.