Junior economic affairs minister Martijn van Dam has suggested placing surveillance cameras in all Dutch slaughterhouses to make sure animal welfare rules are not being broken.

Van Dam made the comments in the wake of the Belgian abattoir scandal, which broke after campaign group Animal Rights took secret videos of pigs being abused and dragged round by their ears.

Van Dam said he hoped the abattoirs would agree to place cameras voluntarily but did not rule out making them a legal requirement. Placing cameras would allow the food safety board to better monitor events inside slaughterhouses and make sure the rules are being observed, Van Dam said.

The Dutch slaughterhouse association has said it welcomes the suggestion and that remote monitoring could lead to lower costs. ‘We are the only sector which pays towards its own monitoring,’ chairman Frans Wouters told news agency ANP. ‘If camera surveillance led to fewer physical checks, companies would profit too.’

The Belgian animal rights group claims some 60 Dutch butchers, some with specific quality labels, bought meat from the abattoir, which has since had its licence revoked.