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Gruesome Video Shows Horrific Animal Abuse At 'Organic' French Slaughterhouse

The video shows animals being slaughtered while conscious and sadistically taunted by employees.
Imagen vía L214/Youtube

The following article contains images that some viewers may find shocking.

French animal welfare group L214 has released a new undercover video exposing cruel practices in a French slaughterhouse.

Four months ago, the same group released a gruesome video secretly shot in a slaughterhouse in Alès, a town in the south of France. The shocking video prompted authorities to shutter the slaughterhouse for two months.

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The slaughterhouse filmed in the group's latest shaming video is a certified organic slaughterhouse in the southern French town of Vigan.

Speaking to VICE News Tuesday, a spokesman for the Vigan mayor's office explained that the mayor had called for "disciplinary sanctions." The spokesperson also confirmed that the slaughterhouse was closed Tuesday morning, "pending a decision by the local authorities" that manage the building.

VICE News was unable to get hold of anyone at the slaughterhouse on Tuesday morning. Speaking to French daily Le Monde Monday, the director of the slaughterhouse admitted that the video appeared to show instances of professional misconduct. Management, he added, would respond to any proven misconduct.

In a statement released Tuesday, France's Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Le Foll said that an immediate investigation had been launched into the claims of animal abuse. The investigation, he said, would aim to "put an end to these unacceptable practices, to shed light on the accusations, and determine where lies the responsibility."

Video via YouTube / Association L214

In an introduction to the video, singer Nili Hadida — one half of French rock-folk duo Lilly Wood and the Prick — explains that the abattoir supplies local butchers and businesses.

The animal rights' group noted that the damning images were shot between June 2015 and February 2016.

According to Ecocert, the agency in charge of organic certification in France, animals "must undergo minimal suffering during slaughter" in order for a slaughterhouse to be certified organic.

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According to the town website, "all of the [slaughterhouse] staff received training and animal welfare certification in February 2014.

And yet, during the four-minute video, employees can be seen mistreating the animals and, in some cases, sadistically taunting them.

At the start of the video, one employee can be seen throwing a sheep up against a metal barrier. Other sequences show animals not being stunned properly, but still being slaughtered while conscious. A worker cuts their throats as they hang by one leg from a chain attached to the ceiling, and flail violently as their  blood spills out onto the floor.

In a report penned for L214, Professor Gilbert Mouthon — a French vet who also acts as a court expert — noted that, "Animals that have not been successfully stunned are not stunned a second time, as is required by the regulations."

Related: This Horrific Video of Animal Cruelty Led to the Shutdown of a French Slaughterhouse

Later in the video, an employee is seen stunning a pig for several seconds, until smoke comes out of the swine's head. A voiceover notes that, when carried out properly, stunning should make an animal "immediately unconscious."

Another employee, whose face is blurred, administers brief electric shocks to a sheep for fun, all the while laughing maniacally.

A man amuses himself by electrocuting a sheep. Image via YouTube / Association L214

One of the last sequences of the video shows cattle being stunned with a captive bolt pistol, which is a stun gun that uses compressed air or an explosive charge to propel a steel bolt into the animal's skull, thus knocking them out. The instrument, however, is not adapted to horned animals, and as a result, the cattle are not properly stunned and are conscious when they are bled.

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"The time that elapses between the stunning and the bleeding can be up to 40 seconds. The animals are never bled within 8 seconds of being stunned," noted Mouthon in his report.

At the end of the video, Nili Hadida urges people to put pressure on deputies and senators and to push for a parliamentary investigation into animal abuse inside France's abattoirs.

Speaking to VICE news Tuesday, L214 spokesman Sébastien Arsac said that a petition to investigate French slaughterhouses had already collected 1,000 signatures within an hour of its launch. The aim of the video, he said, is to stir "outrage" and force people into action.

"Once again, we wanted to engage the consumer," said Arsac. "This video proves that there is no such thing as an organic knife that doesn't hurt."

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This article originally appeared in VICE News' French edition.