DAY 1 of Eyes on Animals International TASKFORCE Meeting

One of Eyes on Animals aims is to work together with inspectors from foreign animal welfare organizations who also conduct investigations in the field. The advantage of working together is that we can exchange experiences and knowlege and can more successfully conquer the same animal suffering occuring in all of our countries. Together we are stronger and more knowledgeable. Another advantage is that we can learn what improvements are taking place in one country, and spread them to other countries still lagging behind. We therefore hosted an EonA TASKFORCE conference. Inspectors from Austria, France, Canada and the Netherlands were present. Today, the first day, each inspector gave a presentation on their most recent investigations, their top concerns and what they would like all members of the taskforce to concentrate on together. In the late afternoon we were on a tour of a poultry slaughterhouse that has stopped using the horrible electric water baths to stun poultry, as this system only immobilizes the birds instead of rendering them fully unconsious before slaughter. They use CO2 instead. Eyes on Animals organized the tour so that each participant could see this alternative themself and be “armed” with first hand information and observation to help them back home try to convince their poultry industry to stop using electric water baths. All of the Netherlands is going to get rid of the standard electric water baths by the end of this year.