The NVWA has shut down a medium-sized slaughterhouse in the province of Utrecht with immediate effect. "We have found abuses that you hope just don't happen. But unfortunately they did happen here", says Lisette de Ruigh of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. "This disrespectful treatment of animals is unacceptable. We are therefore taking tough action against it."

The abuses came to light after an NVWA inspector saw that a sheep had serious injuries. Investigation showed that the animal could only have sustained these injuries shortly before in the slaughterhouse.

The supervising veterinarian and NVWA inspectors decided to review the camera footage that the slaughterhouse had made earlier. The footage showed a slaughterhouse employee shoving animals by stepping on them, hitting them and kicking them.

The NVWA says that the slaughterhouse must draw up "a thorough plan of approach for structural improvement of animal welfare" before it can start operations again. In the meantime, it is also being investigated whether the behaviour of the employees gives cause for a criminal investigation. RTV Utrecht reports that the NVWA, because of the ongoing procedure, does not want to mention the name of the slaughterhouse.