The Australian government has demanded a probe into practices at Israel’s largest slaughterhouse, after an investigative report on Channel 2 News alleged serious abuse of cattle on its way to slaughter.
Sunday’s report (Hebrew) showed workers at the Deir al-Assad kosher meat factory in northern Israel beating the animals in an effort to hurry them onwards to the slaughter. The men kicked and hit the cattle with sticks, dragged them across the floor by their legs, and repeatedly hit them with a metal gate to push them forward.
Australia, which supplies around half of the cattle on the Israeli market, demands fair and humane treatment of the animals even after they’ve left its territory. After becoming aware of the footage, Australian officials have demanded an investigation from the Israeli Agriculture Ministry.
The ministry told Channel 2 on Sunday it would treat the case seriously and remedy any failings of policy to prevent such treatment from recurring.
A metal gate moving cattle forward at the Deir al-Assad kosher meat factory in northern Israel (Channel 2 screenshot)
The Dabah company, which runs the slaughterhouse, said meanwhile that it had always striven “to provide optimal conditions to the animals in its facilities” and claimed the workers were acting against company policies. Dabah said it had fired the offending employees and would ensure such incidents did not happen again.
