Parliament voted to install cameras “in areas where the animals are delivered, kept, immobilized, stunned, and slaughtered”.
The move is planned to be rolled out on January 1st, 2018 following an experimental phase this year.
MPs stressed that the sole purpose of the cameras was to monitor animal welfare (and not workers in general).
The vote came following a parliamentary report that was commissioned by the France's National Assembly in March.
The 225-page report suggested 65 measures to improve the “transparency and the inadequate controls” at the slaughterhouses.
The government called for the report after the emergence of several videos depicting animal cruelty in French abattoirs.
Filmed by animal rights group L214, the videos included images of workers repeatedly bashing sheep over the head, throwing a lamb at a wall, and decapitating a cow that was struggling.
One shocking video from February last year was even filmed at a so-called “animal-friendly” slaughterhouse in France.
An L214 spokesperson told The Local at the time that while camera surveillance was one of the best means to fix the problem, another was for consumers to simply eat less meat.
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