Kosher chicken slaughterhouse stormed by vegan group East London Chicken Save
Animal rights activists blocked a lorry carrying crates stuffed full of chickens to a kosher slaughterhouse on an industrial estate in Fish Island, on the edge of Hackney Wick, and stormed the building.
More than a dozen people holding banners emblazoned with slogans like “End All Animal Oppression” shouted “Shame on you!” at staff working for Kedassia Ltd.
They chalked on walls outside “If you love animals stop paying for their deaths. Go vegan” and “Animals feel pain, fear. They want to live. Stop hurting them.”
Police attended, and the chalk graffiti was later removed – apparently by Tower Hamlets Council, according to workers at the slaughterhouse.
The action was the first by a new vegan group calling itself East London Chicken Save, which has uploaded onto YouTube footage of the animals being brought in to be killed.
A man calling himself “Earthling Ed”, who uploaded the video, wrote: “The chickens in the truck were extremely disfigured and many had huge sores on their bodies.
“The tiny crates that they were in were stacked on top of each other meaning that the birds were constantly defecating on one another.”
Another vegan activist wrote: “There were probably about 1,000 chickens crammed into tiny, filthy crates… Many of the chickens were disfigured and had injuries all over their fragile bodies. Is their suffering really worth your meal?”
Issac Feldman, food business manager for Kedassia Ltd, confirmed there was a protest outside the slaughterhouse on 8 November.
He said: “They are obviously entitled to their opinion – people are entitled to their opinion – although if you look on their Facebook site it seems a bit over the top.
“But fine, there are some people who do feel very passionate about not eating any meat, and if they feel genuinely about that, fine.”
He added: “We are licensed by the Food Standards Agency. We are working within the law. We have a government vet there all the time. We are operating a lawful business, and that’s why the police responded to our call.
“They trespassed to our site with force, and I suppose they scared some staff.
“We employ something like 40-45 people, so we generate employment. We generate, obviously, tax and the rest of it, and we are running a lawful site, and therefore it’s frustrating, to put it mildly, the way they behave.”
The protest had been “quite rowdy”, he said, adding: “All I can say is that the Food Standards Agency, which regulates the transport and the animal welfare from A-Z, is very tightly regulated.
“I’ve been to abattoirs in Europe and North America and Israel, and the rules are clearly far more enforced in the UK.”
He said his company, which does business in red meat as well as poultry, had “spent thousands” on animal welfare.
Scotland Yard confirmed no protesters were arrested. East London Chicken Save informed them of protest beforehand, and police were present to “facilitate”.
East London Chicken Save says it will carry out vigils outside the slaughterhouse fortnightly.
Update at 12.04pm on Monday 14 November: Sabrina Ramsey from East London Chicken Save denied the group alerted police to the action beforehand. She said the group “didn’t feel the need” to contact police in advance and described the event as “a peaceful vigil, not a protest”.
I’ve seen those chickens been taken there before and they are in terrible conditions. There is also no vet on site when I have asked them before. Awful place that needs to be shut down!
Why is the highlight of the animal cruelty not mentioned? The chickens looked in horrendous conditions in fact some of the worst I have seen. Many of them arrived dead. Most of them with sores and missing feathers. This is disgusting. Pure animal cruelty.
You are an inhuman, murderous, cruel business.
Those suffering chickens and ducks are in a terrible state of health and this demonstrates the poor ethics of your company from start to finish. At least now London and the world can see this for their own eyes as pictures do not lie. You are a disgrace and the people will not stop until you are shut down. You did not have a vet their so do not lie to cover up this atrocity.
Those poor birds were completely traumatised. What an awful existence. Shame on those profiting from oppression and murder. You have to be a sadist to work somewhere like this. Absolutely sick.
You have no right taking the life’s of this innocent helpless pure souls. You are animal abusers and murderers
You can look at the video in this article and see how DISGUSTING the conditions are for these chickens! They are defecating on top of each other due to their confinement in the crates. Absolutely horrible. Also they are liars as they didn’t have a vet on site, in many of you YouTube videos the protesters are asking where the vet is and they have no answer.
The chickens here are already dying in crates. It’s a horrific place
You only need to watch the video to see the hideous conditions that these animals are kept in, disgusting and shameful. Also the slaughterhouse is simply lying as there was no vet on site and that is evident in some of the YouTube footage on ‘London Vegan Actions’ channel. They constantly ask a vet to be called and the slaughterhouse workers and the police can’t provide one because there wasn’t one there.
If they can lie about that what else can they lie about?
I saw the footage and was heartbroken to see these precious innocent beings in such awful conditions, there is no reasons for these businesses to be operating. They need to be shut down.
This place needs to be investigated by the authorities. The owner and workers clearly have no regard for animal welfare as they are accepting birds that are in terrible condition. Where is the source? Both places should be shut down. Disgusting. Tower Hamlets council environmental health officers should witness a delivery of these poor birds and take action against the owners whose terrible practices have now been exposed.
I can only imagine the conditions these poor birds were kept in! Judging by how they look it would have been disgusting! And people are eating these animals?! Wake up!! This is cruelty to animals!
Poor hens, absolutely disgusting treatment. Good on the activists for actually doing something!
You only are need to look at the videos and lots of footage that is all over the internet to see the awful conditions of those chickens and the containers they are in. You are obviously not regulated enough,not enough on the spot checks done of your so called business, where welfare standards in the first place are not even high enough and you have abused those. A vet should have come like was asked for but you quickly wanted to kill the evidence… in fact DEFRA should have come. You are animal abusers. These activists did a fantastic job of uncovering the truth, shame on you and your murderous business!
As a society we think we are peaceful and kind yet we still have places where we systematically mistreat and kill animals. This is disgraceful. Good job for the activists that were present on the scene trying to bring this atrocity to light!
Remember that it once was legal to perpetuate atrocities to human beings, so you should not be using the law to justify the murder of these animals.
It’s not just specific to this slaughter house. We want to spread love and kindness. All sentient beings deserve protection, care and a life worth living that doesn’t end in horror just for the sake of a meal. Human lives are precious and so are the lives of non humans. It’s one struggle, one fight, human freedoms, animal rights. A call to kindness is a call to kindness for ALL. These people were doing their best to stand up against one of the great injustices of this world, which is the horrific abuse of animals for the pleasures of people.
People need to face the reality of their choices and the impact these have. To say that highlighting abuse, torture and murder is “a bit over the top” is a disgrace to all humanity. Why choose to consume the flesh of beings that are still babies, have seen no light, been unable to move and feed properly due to their breeding, deficated all over eachother and sat in their own waste for weeks, diseased, sick birds – why choose them to swirl around your mouth? Someone who has experienced so much pain and suffering, to use them to sit rotting in your gut? Animals are not food. Let these people who have no good intentions keep taking your money, afterall that is their only interest.
I think killing an animal for a bit of food we don’t need is wrong. Plain and simple. Eating animals is cruelty. Well done to those walking the walk and not just talking the talk
The animals were injured, diseased and even dead in many cases. They are just babies they do not deserve this. There was absolutely no vet on site as claimed, and the thrills that the staff get from the pain they inflict upon innocent beings is nothing short of psychopathic. Many important animal welfare laws are broken in this house of torture it needs to be shut down. Followed swiftly by all the other concentration camps that facilitate the murder of around 56 billion animals per year globally.
The poor animals are not treated with any love or respect at this place. It breaks laws on so many levels. SHUT IT DOWN.
The activists acted out of compassion and necessity. People need to know the truth.
This place is extremely brutal and sadistic.
As others have pointed out, there was no vet on site and despite several requests for one, the police confirmed that the chickens would not be seen by a vet.
Given the condition they were in, it seemed inevitable that they wouldn’t be able to use all those chickens. We pleaded with management to give us the sick/injured ones that couldn’t be used for food. They refused even though we assured them that we have contacts who run sanctuaries and are fully qualified to care for them. They wouldn’t spare a single chicken. They’d rather exterminate the ones they can’t make money from than hand them over to a caring environment.
Dear Issac Feldman,
In a world where Donald Trump can become the President of an entire nation, “working within the law” means nothing. Wake up, take responsibility and stop tip-toeing around the truths that have been revealed. The vegan activists scared your staff? The images of your “products” scare me. Also, maybe you should consider firing the “Government vet” for entirely neglecting their duties to bring care and treatment to sick and injured animals. Exactly what is a government vet? I can only imagine where their loyalties lie…
Shame on you Kadassia – and that’s just “putting it mildly.”
Amazing effort LCS, thanks for revealing to us what is going on behind closed, sadistic doors.
The slaughterhouse owner would say it was ‘over the top’ because these poor creatures are viewed as products not living, sentient beings. It looked like the chickens were in horrendous conditions after a torturous lorry journey. Good on the activists for doing something, recognising & exposing the plight of these creatures; I’m hoping to attend their next vigil in fact!
Outright lies, there was and seldom is a vet on sits, and regardless of what provision is there it obviously isn’t working, you only have to look at these videos to know that. Absolutely abhorrent.
I am appalled by the mistreatment apparent in the footage seen. How do you justify this? The birds were clearly diseased, in pain, stressed and kept in atrocious conditions. Why is regulation so lax? Why is this acceptable? Why are your animal welfare standards so low? I am disgusted to see that this is what happens when you think noone is watching.
Slavery was legal once. Legality does not imply moral or ethical. One only needs to see the pitiful state of those chickens to know they have endured miserable short lives, Zombie chickens. How can such horror exist in 2016?
There’s no excuse for animal abuse!
If you are on the side of those that are committing murder, maybe re-evaluate your opinions.
These activists NEEDED to step up because – d’ya know what? – sometimes the law is completely backwards and it is time to say, ‘No! Killing these innocent animals and stuffing them in a cage their entire life is not O-f*cking-kay’.
Eat something else.
Learn some compassion.
Go Vegan.
This is such a horrible thing. Chickens aren’t commodities or food. Spend some time with a chicken to realise they are entities with their own personality. Stop this abuse already. We will not give up on our fight.
The bravery fostered by the enlightened perspective of the activist is in itself a source of great hope for the future of humanity and the Planet as a whole.
This article is ridiculous. The chickens were in horrendous conditions. Many couldn’t open their eyes. They had broken wings, terrible sores all over their bodies, cuts, many were dead or dying. Legality means nothing. It was only 65 years ago priests were handing out picnic baskets and giving children the day off school to go and watch a lynching. (Burning black people Live) and that was very much legal. Your business is operating under filthy conditions. Anyone who sees this video will know. This place needs closing down. Along with ALL slaughterhouses. You profit off murder. It is DISCUSTING
And as for your lies… there is a vet on siteating? We chanted and pleaded with police to call a vet so where was your on site vet? In fact why would you have a vet at a slaughterhouse ? To resuscitate the dead chickens? I didn’t think so.
Why the condition of the chicken has not been mentioned? U can cclearl see it on the video!
The law is not the arrow on a moral compass, and to say this slaughter house works within it is a phrase used to pull the wool over our eyes this Kosha chicken slaughter house embodies hell on earth, do not embarrass the publics intelligence by making out a vet was to hand this is a business of death and the murder of innocent animals they arrived to the gate traumatised diseased and nothing but an end product to the industries eyes.
This needs to end NOW they are sentient beings and have a right to their own life on this earth.
You talk of a vet bring present….A personal account from a slaughterhouse vet said “‘ I was helpless to their suffering, as I feared for my safety if I had pointed out malpractice”. Think about it, these are also workers on the pay role of this establishment. The slaughterhouse workers have become desensatized to the killings, they are paid by numbers they kill daily, so it is purely about speed for them, brutality does not come it. We must remember that none of this is about ‘the practice or welfare’ it is about the ‘USE’. These beings are not ours to use in the first place, for reasons of palatable pleasures…
The video clearly shows the animals are treated without any compassion by the workers in the slaughterhouse. The chickens are so young and scared, you can see they are ill and covered in each others faeces. In this article they say they are running a lawful business, they are murderers and our law makes this a business. A business that is protected by the police! They say they generate employment suggesting this as a positive! They are employing people who do not value other beings lives and encouraging them to lose all compassion they may have once had. They are creating murderers that have no remorse.
As we all know just because something is in the law that does not make it right.
These people are heroes! I am vegan and every time I think about those poor animals my heart sinks. Animals have a nervous system who make them feel pain and joy, just like we do.
Torturing defenceless and voiceless living beings is something that only cowards could do.
Thank you Earthling Ed, you are a strong beautiful human being, those like you give me faith in humanity.
Mahatma Gandhi — ‘The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.’
Please save the animals from horrible deaths by going vegan, we can create a more peaceful world by leaving animals off of our plates.
The problem with this is that the slaughter house spokesperson refers to food standards agency protocol. Our point as vegans is that chickens and other animals are not food. We don’t care for high food welfare standards when the animals should not be food. Regardless of if a chicken has an amazing life, they are still transported starved, dehydrated and in camped conditions where they constantly soil onto one another. Then finally their throats are slit. This is wrong and if you see yourself as a decent human you need to ask yourself why you fund it.
I recommend everyone to watch cowspiracy and earthlings and to open up their heart, animals feel pain too.
Also if the staff were scared, just imagine how scary it is to be stuffed into a funnel and watch others of your kind have their throats slit, knowing you’re next
we will fight endlessly for the animals…. halal slaughterhouses and the chickens they kill are amongst the filthiest and unhealthiest going…you can buy halal chicken from the muslim butchers at a fraction of the price you would pay anywhere else. why?? because they have no regulations to make them use proper “care” so are not having to pay out so much to breed them … meat eaters you really do not know what you are eating!!!
Thank goodness we have groups like East London Chicken Save exposing this cruelty. No living being deserves to be treated like this. Just because they aren’t human doesn’t mean they don’t suffer. It’s a horrible shame that people still support these horrible Industries.
These poor chickens were in cramped cages on top of each other, some were dead, some were slowly dying and all in their own mess. How anyone can support and pay for this just for a meal?!. Chickens are incredible animals and have personalities just like cats, dogs and all other animals. This place was vile, the protesters asked for a bet to be called over and over and they didn’t. To treat beings in this way is disgusting. It’s 2016 and people do not need flesh to survive. Make the connection people, and stop funding this vile industry!
The slaughterhouse lied! They did not have a vet anywhere near!
The condition of these animals is appalling. I don’t think anyone can defend this unless they have no regard for other living feeling beings.
It’s not about ticking boxes set by the government on welfare standards – it’s about looking at the individual animal and seeing that they are suffering a great deal. They were very distressed and dying in unimaginable pain, this is clearly documented in the video.
If this was a truck full of dogs or cats do you think you would have expanded on describing the conditions of the animals in your peice? The pain those poor birds were in is disturbing. Their red raw skin from sitting in their own waste. Awful.
This is not how a so-called civilised society should be treating others, be it dogs, cats, chickens, ducks or our own kind. Govegan.org.uk
What a bunch of Dishonest fraudulent liars These chicken protesters are!!!!!!!! That clip in the middle of chicken Slaughter is NOT Shechita – it has been copy and pasted from elsewhere – thats not the Kosher method! !!!! Can’t trust anything you post now!!!!!!!!
Chickens are in dire conditions. It is as though they have given up. Endless cruelty of man <\3
An unlawful, illegal act made legal by a govt who are run by devils to satisfy the greed of non vegans. Why? Is this what humans are for? To inflict pain on other living creatures.
I cried when I saw the state of those poor chickens…victims of the meat trade.
Saying they are working within the law means nothing when clearly what they are doing is causing extreme suffering to innocent beings.
It’s high time everyone sees what really goes on and I can only thank activists such as these for being brave enough to go forth and speak out for the animals and bring their voices to the ears of the public.
That is the exact method that they use at this slaughterhouse because that is the exact equipment that they have. Killing cones, google it. They’re in the slaughterhouse along with the other equipment. You sound ridiculous.
Utter Rubbish Get Your facts right first!!!! You clearly have no idea what you are talking about! !!
Everybody needs to look at the video on 6 mins 40! OMG It’s shocking.
This is unbelievably cruel.
Halal and Kosher slaughter need to be banned!!!
What you see in that video is NOT I repeat NOT the Kosher method .It has been taken fromelse where!!! Get your facts right before judging or it just makes you look stupid and in imform.