Tasmanian Quality Meats has been given the all-clear from the federal government to return to business as usual, despite evidence of systemic animal abuse exposed by us earlier this month.

The slaughterhouse was originally threatened with losing its export license after our footage showed dozens of calves being violently killed while fully conscious, as well as workers kicking, hitting and throwing calves and sheep. But, after pressure from the slaughterhouse and the state government, the federal government has backed down, opting to allow the slaughterhouse to keep its licence to export sheep, and requiring that they replace their restrainer before killing any more bobby calves for export.

While TQM's owner has tried to frame this as a voluntary pause in calf slaughter while they address issues, in reality, the slaughterhouse was already not slaughtering calves at all, as it is in between the dairy calving seasons of Spring and August.

Yet again, the government has refused to take meaningful action for animals, choosing instead to appease the powerful industries that profit from their abuse.

How many slaughterhouses do we have to expose before it becomes obvious that these acts of extraordinary abuse and cruelty aren't accidents or one-offs? It will take more than a new restrainer to fix a system entrenched in violence.

TQM was only the first of the five Tasmanian slaughterhouses we recently investigated from which we have released extensive footage. In January, we will be releasing the remaining footage from each of the other four facilities, and putting pressure on the state government to take real action.

And who knows; we might just pay TQM a visit sometime soon to see their new set-up in person... Stay tuned.