The animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming has called on the Department of Agriculture not to reopen livestock marts after the foot-and-mouth crisis ends. It wants the closures to continue on animal welfare grounds.
It has circulated an eight-minute video of incidents it filmed at a number of marts in the Republic during November and December last year showing excessive beating of animals.
In conjunction with a German animal welfare group, Animals Angels, Compassion in World Farming called for an end to bad practices in marts and a move to direct selling where animals would not have to move through that system.
Its director, Ms Mary-Anne Bartlett, said while the undercover investigators had found that standards were generally good, they had uncovered some serious problems.
"In particular, there were many incidents of cattle at marts being excessively beaten with sticks, sometimes around the head and face." Other unacceptable practices filmed during the investigation included injured animals being accepted at some livestock marts; a cow with an overgrown hoof which hindered its walking and a blind sheep being auctioned.
She said the film also showed cattle and calves being pulled by their tails and falling on slippery floors and sheep being lifted and pulled by their fleeces.
"The main problem we found was excessive beating of animals, which should not be allowed in marts. Beating animals to make them move is simply a sign of unskilled handling," she said.
"We want our video to be used to educate staff at livestock marts. We will be doing a follow-up investigation to reassess the situation." Ms Bartlett said both organisations wanted to see livestock marts remaining closed after the foot-and-mouth crisis and livestock sold from the farms to the abattoirs.
"Since foot-and-mouth, direct selling has been in operation and it is working quite well. There is no reason why this system should not continue." She said the organisations had sent copies of the video to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, and to farm and mart groups asking them to discuss with them, as a matter of urgency, how such practices could be stamped out.