• Animal protection organisation Farm Transparency Project (FTP) has published interactive virtual tours of two Tasmanian slaughterhouses recently exposed for cruelty
• The tours were filmed with 360-degree cameras inside Tasmanian Quality Meats at Cressy, and Scottsdale Pork, during FTP's covert investigation last year
• With the state election just days away, FTP has published the tours - which incorporate footage from hidden cameras - to draw attention to months of inaction by the Rockliff government 

Farm Transparency Project (FTP) has published on its website two interactive virtual slaughterhouse tours, filmed last year with 360° cameras inside the Tasmanian Quality Meats and Scottsdale Pork facilities. The slaughterhouses, along with three others, were exposed for horrific, systemic cruelty following a month-long covert investigation by the organisation.

The tours can be viewed on any computer, mobile device or virtual reality headset, and allow users to explore the facilities at their own pace, moving between a series of connected photographs in which they can look around in all directions, and click on hotspots to view footage captured in those areas by FTP's hidden cameras. 

FTP's Executive Director, Chris Delforce, described the new tool as "industry transparency like you've never seen it before. No members of the public are ever supposed to see what happens behind the closed doors of Australia's slaughterhouses... now they can."

The move comes days before Tasmania heads to the polls in an early election due, in part, to Independent MP John Tucker's dissatisfaction towards the government's handling of the animal cruelty scandal. 

In response to the damning footage which implicated more than a quarter of Tasmania's slaughterhouses, the Rockliff government announced the establishment of an industry-led taskforce to review the situation and deliver a report by March 5. This report has since been pushed until after the election. 

"We want to make sure that when Tasmanians vote this Saturday, they remember the appalling lack of action by this government on what should have been an urgent issue," says Delforce. "This attitude of 'kicking the can down the road' and hoping people forget about it, just isn't good enough. Letting the industry run a taskforce to investigate itself seems like some sort of sick joke - I don't think anyone's going to be surprised when it eventually releases a report to the effect of 'everything's fine, nothing to see here'."

"The announcement of an intention to mandate CCTV cameras in slaughterhouses rings pretty hollow, when you consider that three of the five slaughterhouses we exposed already had CCTV. Unless these cameras are publicly accessible, so that Tasmanians can see for themselves the kind of cruelty they're paying for when they purchase meat and dairy products, nothing's going to change."

"Until then, our new virtual tours are going to be the closest thing available."