Secret videos reveal workers beating sheep on English and Scottish farms

Wool-shearing footage, filmed by campaigners on 49 farms, appears to show animals being kicked, slapped and beaten with metal clippers

Footage that appears to show sheep being kicked, beaten and abused during wool-shearing on English and Scottish farms has been released by animal rights activists.

Peta Asia carried out an undercover investigation over the summer in the British sheep shearing industry. The 18 minutes of footage released yesterday is part of a wider investigation, in which Peta documented alleged abuse on 25 farms in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Essex, and Northumberland counties. In Scotland they have collected evidence from 24 farms in West Lothian, Fife, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian and South Lanarkshire.