MP Gary Streeter has signalled his support for a campaign to introduce mandatory CCTV into slaughterhouses.

One hundred MPs have signed a parliamentary motion to support the fitting of independently-monitored CCTV cameras into all slaughterhouses.

Animal Aid’s call for mandatory CCTV began in 2009 when the campaign group first placed fly-on-the-wall cameras inside UK slaughterhouses.

Over the past six years, hidden cameras have revealed that nine out of 10 randomly chosen slaughterhouses were breaking animal welfare laws.

They recorded a litany of abuse, including animals being kicked, slapped, stamp­ed on, picked up by fleeces, legs and ears and thrown into stunning pens.

Animals were improperly stunned or suffered painful and sadistic electrocution instead of being stunned. In one non-stun slaughterhouse, the conscious animals’ throats were hacked at with a blunt knife.

Elsewhere, animals were punched in the face and had shackle hooks embedded in their heads.

In March 2012, two men were jailed as a result of Animal Aid’s footage for beating and burning pigs with cigarettes.

The campaign for mandatory CCTV with independent monitoring of the footage is widely supported.

As well as the public showing strong support via a YouGov poll and a Number 10 petition, it also has the backing of Unison, the union representing meat hygiene inspectors and slaughterhouse vets.

Animal protection groups such as the RSPCA and Compass­ion in World Farming are supporting the campaign, along with MPs from across the political spectrum.

Ten leading supermarkets, along with Booker and Freedom Food, all insist their slaughterhouse suppliers have CCTV cameras fitted, but the footage is not yet monitored thoroughly by an independent body that can take robust action should welfare breaches be revealed.

Animal Aid’s slaughter consultant Kate Fowler said: ‘There is no excuse for the savagery we filmed inside slaughterhouses, and yet it went on right under the noses of vets who are stationed there to monitor welfare.

‘Currently, taxpayers are charged millions of pounds every year for a welfare system that is failing animals.

‘Clearly, things must change. We need a robust system, and CCTV – if independently monitored – can play an important part in deterring and detecting welfare breaches.

‘We are very grateful for the support of compassionate MPs, who can see that action must be taken to hold the industry properly to account.’

Mr Streeter, MP for South West Devon, said: ‘I support the general principle that animals should live well and die well.

‘Because of public concern over standards of care in slaughterhouses, I see no reason why CCTV cannot be used to bring public reassurance that all is well. Professional, well-run abattoirs would have nothing to fear.’

A spokesman for Gage’s Farm Ltd, an abattoir in Newton Abbot said: ‘We already have CCTV and are independently monitored. There are full-time vets and a meat inspector on site who can observe what goes on here, so we have no problem being observed.’

The abattoir was targeted by Animal Aid in 2010, when the campaign group covertly filmed three employees at the slaughterhouse, claiming the film showed livestock being ‘kicked, slapped, thrown and improperly stunned at the abattoir.’

The case was later dropped.