Video footage from a western Sydney abattoir under investigation for animal cruelty shows pigs being battered over the head with a metal pole.
The NSW Food Authority on Thursday halted slaughtering at Hawkesbury Valley Meat Processors at Wilberforce after it received video footage showing "acts of gross animal mistreatment".
The footage, shown on ABC's Lateline program on Thursday night, depicted images of a slaughterman at the abattoir bashing one pig seven times over the head with what appeared to be a metal bar.
GRAPHIC WARNING: Watch footage here
Another pig was hit 13 times, apparently because it had not been stunned properly and remained conscious ahead of slaughter.
Other images showed sheep still apparently conscious after having their throats cut.
Cattle were shown repeatedly being shocked with electric prods at a rate believed to be far in excess of accepted standards.
At one stage, what appeared to be a rat ran across the blood on the slaughter room floor.
Veterinarian Mark Simpson, who compiled a report based on the footage, said there appeared to be more than 100 acts of cruelty.
"The footage I viewed and my understanding of the law led me to believe there were more than 100 breaches of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act," Mr Simpson said.
The closure of the Sydney abattoir comes after videos showing the mistreatment of cattle in Indonesia halted live animal sales last year.
Animal Liberation campaign manager Emma Hurst said the footage showed "grotesque cruelty".
"It is absolutely hideous. Last year we saw footage from cattle live exports in Indonesia and some of the most horrific scenes in that footage was of cattle being slaughtered while fully conscious," she told Lateline.
"Here in Australia, at this abattoir, we are seeing the same thing happen."
The NSW Food Authority said the video footage, which was supplied by the ABC, showed the slaughter of sheep, cattle, goats and pigs that breached the Food Regulation 2010 and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1979.
An investigation involving the RSPCA was under way, it said.
The company employs about 20 people and carried out halal and non-halal slaughter.
A spokeswoman for the abattoir confirmed it was under investigation but declined to comment further.
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