Steve's Country Kills

Steve’s Country Kills is a 'local', ‘private kill’ abattoir, which slaughters cows, sheep, goats and pigs. In 2023, the owner and operator of the slaughterhouse, Steve Long,  was awarded as the Queensland Country Meat Processor Association ‘Processor of the Year’ by the Australian Meat Industry Council. Steve’s slaughters and butchers animals for local businesses, including multi-award winning butcher shop, AJ’s Country Meats, who were named Queensland’s best butcher by the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC), in 2023. 

In 2024, FTP installed cameras inside the kill room at Steve’s, to capture the handling and slaughter of animals over a 2 week period. 

These cameras revealed an incredibly reckless and aggressive approach to the stunning of sheep, goats and pigs. The animals were often frightened and panicked, desperately trying to run to avoid the workers. We also saw multiple animals being roughly handled and thrown across the pen.

It would often take multiple stun attempts before an animal was rendered unconscious, and many animals were sent to the kill room while continuing to struggle and blink - clear signs of consciousness. Goats continued to shake their heads and blink as workers slit their throats. Sheep thrashed and shook on the shackle line. Pigs could be seen trying to raise their heads while gasping and kicking as they bled out.

In the race, cows would repeatedly attempt to avoid being forced into the knockbox, fearful of what awaited them in the slaughterhouse. Their resistance was met with physical abuse, with some struck and shocked with the small animal stunner, to force them to move.

What awaits them in the knockbox is a rifle shot to the head. Some cows were shot multiple times after the first proved ineffective in causing unconsciousness. Many cows continued to thrash around on the kill floor, weakly attempting to raise their heads or kick against the chains as the workers hoisted them on the shackle line.