Covert filming by animal rights charity Hillside Animal Sanctuary at the Staffordshire slaughterhouse of “high class” family butchers S. Bagshaw and Son resulted in the slaughterhouse being closed down last year and operative Anthony Bagshaw being jailed this month for mindless cruelty to the animals before slaughter.

Bagshaw, 36, was filmed kicking a pig in the face, throwing sheep onto a concrete floor, hitting sheep on the head with a metal stun gun and metal shackles and, with the help of two other men, crushing a pig behind a metal gate and causing it to scream in pain.

Bagshaw was jailed for two months for nine incidents of the cruelty and another eight months for food safety offences, as well as being banned from any involvement with farm animals for 15 years. Sentencing him the judge at Staffordshire Crown Court described the cruelty as “wanton” and told him “Your ill-treatment of a number of animals was a shock, even to an observer with no interest in the welfare of stock for slaughter”.

According to Hillside Animal Sanctuary the vast majority of their investigations are not taken seriously by the authorities.