Food regulators in Britain are investigating whether to require video surveillance cameras in slaughterhouses in order to enforce animal cruelty laws.

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Last year, the animal rights charity Animal Aid circulated recordings of animal abuse it took secretly at slaughterhouses in a controversial campaign that included footage of pigs being stamped on and inappropriately stunned.

In response to public uproar, several of the larger slaughterhouses installed surveillance video systems in order to monitor activity at the plants.

Now, the government is investigating whether to make those voluntary measures mandatory, according to a paper that was expected to be presented to a Food Standards Agency board meeting next week.

Kate Fowler, head of campaigns for Animal Aid, told the Guardian: "It is heartening to see ministers are looking at ways of doing this. We see the FSA regularly but ministers have so far declined to meet us. We have had to push quite hard to get them to this point. There is a long way to go but we are planning to see this through."