Eyes on Animals was asked to speak at the NVWA congress, where over 200 Dutch government inspectors of livestock transport, slaughterhouses and farms attended. Margreet gave a talk on the legal issues concerning poultry transport, the need for a new design of transport containers and organized training for chicken catchers. Monique gave a talk about the alarming condition some “suspect” pigs are arriving in at Dutch pig slaughterhouses and that are still being accepted by government inspectors, and the fact that they are often left in wet, cold concrete pens all day to be slaughtered separately at the end. She illustrated some improvements to these pens that two slaughterhouses in the Netherlands undertook. And Lesley, together with Herman Klompjan (truck driver with 33 years experience who has now started his own consultancy business to improve animal welfare during transport “Consultancy Animal Welfare”) gave a talk what criteria a livestock truck must fulfill before it is to be accepted for the transport of live animals. We showed examples of how a truck that is not well equiped can be disastrous for the welfare of the animals once they start their long journeys. We really enjoyed the other talks on this day and want to thank the NVWA for inviting us. We also met some very motivated and caring inspectors from the NVWA that we look forward to staying in touch with.
