Eyes on Animals Good Newsletter

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Eyes on Animals and Animal Welfare Foundation organizing a 2-day seminar in Istanbul (Turkey) for veterinarians and slaughterhouse personnel

Due to the serious suffering observed in many slaughterhouses we inspected in Turkey, we are organizing a 2-day Workshop on how to decrease suffering for Turkish veterinarians and slaughterhouse personnel. The Workshop will be held on Oct. 25 and 26 at the Veterinarian Faculty of Istanbul University.

The Dean of the Veterinarian Faculty and the top veterinarian professor will give the opening speech, and Dr. Eser from Germany, a professional teacher in how to perform slaughter with as little suffering as possible will be the trainer. EonA/AWF will illustrate current problems and practical cost-effective solutions which Turkish plants can afford. A meat-scientist from Belgium will give a talk about how animal-welfare has a direct impact on meat quality, to convince Turkish slaughterhouse operators that ignoring welfare can cut into their profits. An official Turkish veterinarian from the Ministry of Agriculture in Ankara is also coming to give advanced warning on the brand new "welfare-at-slaughter" legislation the government is currently drafting. Several companies producing modern slaughter equipment that is considered the most humane at the moment will be present- it is our hope that Turkish plants will then feel motivated to invest in new equipment that avoids having to hoist and hang cattle upside down by their legs, as currently done overall in Turkey. A Dutch company that trains cattle farmers in humane farming has donated already 10 of their books on cattle behaviour, in the Turkish language, that we can hand out during this seminar.

It is a lot of work preparing this, but we think such an educational seminar is a vital step in changing bad habits and also assisting Turkish plants in changing, keeping the doors open and concrete changes moving in!

Eyes on Animals helping decrease animal suffering during slaughter in The Netherlands

Eyes on Animals has been busy also in the Netherlands trying to improve the welfare of animals brought to slaughterhouses. Together with a well-respected animal-welfare scientist from Wageningen University we inspected and gave advice to two large Dutch pig slaughterhouses on what steps they could take inside their plants to decrease suffering. Replacing electric prods with instruments that do not cause as much pain, sprinkling corn in the lairages to reduce stress and prevent pigs from fighting, limit shadows and reflections causing animals to hesitate and panic, reducing noise and keeping automatic doors from pushing or scaring animals. We have already received a confirmation from one of the plants that he is going to implement all 3 of our recommendations and the Wageningen scientist is joining us again in October when we are invited to a third pig slaughterhouse seeking advice.

Although we cannot save one animal from death, we can ensure that 10,000 animals per day in each of these pig slaughterhouses suffer less.

Dutch government keeps promise of tightening control on poultry transports

In 2013, after having received many alarming reports from us and after holding several meetings with us, the Dutch government finally announced to tighten the control on transports of poultry, especially the longer distance ones. They have kept their promiss and recently informed us that after having inspected a sample of 39 poultry trucks, both during transport and loading, the Minister of Agriculture proposes several legal actions to take in the future, namely:
- more inspections at the moment of catching (thus on-farm)
- replacement of crates that are broken and actions taken when broken crates are observed
- check if water and feed is available for birds going on longer distances and if this system works

The Dutch government also considers making GPS systems and forced ventilation mandatory on poultry transports and improving the design of the chicken crates.

This is a good example of how our reporting and lobbying can really shake up the authorities and lead to structural measures to improve animal welfare.