Gretna Meatworks

Black Hills Rd, Rosegarland TAS 7140, Australia
Name: Gretna Meatworks
Address: Black Hills Rd, Rosegarland TAS 7140, Australia
LGA/Council: Derwent Valley Council
Council website: dvc.tas.gov.au
Council email: [email protected]
Council phone: (03) 6261 8500
Summary:

Exposed by Animal Liberation NSW in October 2016. Hidden cameras captured workers hitting and inadequately stunning animals, shooting them with a rifle, and often stunning or killing them in front of each other.

Categories:
Last known status: Open and operating
Listing updated: 2024
Listing ID: dcdcd
View on map: Farm Transparency Map
Google Maps
Bing Maps
Nearmap (requires subscription)

New footage captured in August-September 2023 by Farm Transparency Project shows that, in the seven years since first being exposed for horrific animal cruelty, nothing has changed.

------

Formerly known as Gretna Quality Meats. Exposed by Animal Liberation NSW in October 2016. Hidden cameras captured workers hitting and inadequately stunning animals, shooting them with a rifle, and often stunning or killing them in front of each other.

One incident involved a sow who was shot in the head several times with a bolt gun, before workers gave up and went to retrive a rifle, failing to kill her with the first two shots before finally doing so on the third, almost two minutes later while she screamed and writhed in agony.

A "retired" dairy cow with a bloody broken leg was led into the knockbox and left there for roughly 80 minutes before being shot multiple times with the bolt gun. After her throat was cut, it was clear that she was still showing signs of consciousness, leading the workers to shoot her once more with the bolt gun, still failing to render her unconscious as blood poured out of her neck.

Other cows were ineffectively stunned numerous times with the bolt gun after desperately trying to escape the knockbox.

Sheep and goats were packed into two small pens and shot with the bolt gun one at a time in front of each other, the remaining animals growing more terrified with every shot. Some attempted to follow the stunned animals into the kill room - one sheep managed to do so, slipping and stumbling in the blood on the floor as she looked up at the hanging bodies, before being taken out of sight and seemingly killed without stunning.

Pigs were smacked and jabbed with pipes to force them up into the pens where they were stunned and killed in front of each other, flailing and writhing as blood spurted across the walls and floor.

Animal Liberation and RSPCA Tasmania called for the slaughterhouse to be shut down. After a 20-month-long investigation by the Tasmanian government, the slaughterhouse was given the all-clear to continue operating.

Campaigns (2)

Photos (321) View all Upload

Videos (20) View all Upload

Documents (0) View all Upload

No documents found for this facility. Add some now?

Campaign materials (0) View all Upload

No campaign materials found for this facility. Add some now?

News (11) View all

Media releases by Farm Transparency Project (3) View all

  • Cruelty still rampant at infamous Tasmanian slaughterhouse, seven years on

    Tuesday 30 Jan 2024

    New footage from Gretna Quality Meats has revealed that animal cruelty is still rife, seven years after the facility was originally exposed by Animal Liberation in 2016. Footage, released by Farm Transparency Project and captured in September 2023, shows pigs, cows and sheep still blinking, thrashing and trying to stand for minutes after their throats had been slit, as well as cows who are shot in the head multiple times before they collapse.  A 2016 exposé of the slaughterhouse led to calls for the facility to be shut down, including from the RSPCA. Investigators are now saying that nothing has changed. Gretna Meatworks... Read more >

  • Statement in Response to Tasmanian Slaughterhouse Announcement

    Thursday 14 Dec 2023

    All talk, little action The Tasmanian government has just released their response to our shocking exposé of Tasmanian slaughterhouses, and its far from the decisive action they pledged to take just four days ago. Rather than responding to evidence of systemic animal abuse immediately, the government has announced that the most they can manage is to re-investigate the facilities and form a task force to consider developing new animal welfare guidelines. Given that all five slaughterhouses we investigated were already in breach of existing state and national welfare legislation, we fail to see what developing new ones will manage, except... Read more >

  • Major Tasmanian abattoir suspended and four more under investigation after animal advocacy group reveals “systemic animal abuse and regulatory breaches”

    Friday 8 Dec 2023

    View photos and footage: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14oe6RnPEip5M0CMPALvQECagjPiP1tzQ?usp=drive_link Animal advocacy group Farm Transparency Project has released hidden camera footage from five Tasmanian slaughterhouses, in what they’re calling a comprehensive and damning indictment of the state’s animal welfare regulators.  The footage shows the slaughter of sheep, cows, deer, pigs and week-old ‘bobby calves’ from the dairy industry. Many animals are revealed to be killed while fully conscious, including dozens of bobby calves who are captured dying slowly over minutes as they bleed out. Farm Transparency Project is working with... Read more >

Do you have additional information about this facility? You can submit it for review here.