THE case of slaughterman John McFarlane has again hit the headlines. In 2009, he used a captive bolt gun from the deer abattoir where he worked to kill a woman in front of her daughters.

This is a horrific murder and begs many questions: how was this man able to become a slaughterman? Who licensed him? And why was he allowed to take a captive bolt gun away?

The link between cruelty to animals and violence to people has been made by many psychologists and yet when Animal Aid asked Defra how many people with unspent violent convictions worked in British slaughterhouses, it could not answer as the agency that licenses slaughterers does not even ask this. It does ask about convictions for animal cruelty but since it does no Criminal Records Bureau checks, it has no way of knowing whether the applicant is telling the truth.

In the Middle Ages, the commonly used word for slaughterhouses was "shambles". Our current regulatory system indicates that nothing has changed.

Kate Fowler

Animal Aid

Tonbridge