• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • EYES ON ANIMALS – Watching out for their Welfare
  • English
  • Nederlands
  • Deutsch

Eyes on Animals

Watching out for their Welfare

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
DONATE
  • About us
    • What we do
    • Our team
    • Key Figures
    • Contact
  • News
    • Latest news
    • Good news
    • Bad news
    • Featured news
    • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Inspections
    • Farms
    • Markets
    • Transports
    • Slaughterhouses
    • Special projects
    • Other
  • Training
    • Police
    • Truck drivers
    • Poultry-catchers
    • Slaughter personnel
    • Training Material
    • Request a training
  • Industry Tips
    • Animal transport
      • Cattle
      • Pigs
      • Poultry
    • Slaughterhouses
      • Cattle
      • Pigs
      • Poultry
      • Ritual slaughter
    • Educational videos
  • Publications
    • In the media
      • Print
      • Television
      • Radio
      • Videos
    • Newsletters
    • Special reports
    • Training Material
    • Annual reviews
  • Future Vision
  • Help us
Home » Our inspections » slaughterhouses » Visit of Vion cattle slaughterhouse in Tilburg (NL)

Visit of Vion cattle slaughterhouse in Tilburg (NL)

October 22, 2013

Today the Eyes on Animals/Animal Welfare Foundation team that is working on getting welfare improvements at the Turkish slaughterhouses, met in Tilburg to get a tour of the Vion cattle slaughterhouse. The purpose of today´s visit was to see the equipment used, to get ideas for how we could reduce the suffering of cattle being handled in the Turkish slaughterhouses. Although no slaughterhouse is a nice place for animals, the conditions inside Vion were significantly calmer, less stressful and less painful for the cattle than what we saw inside the slaughterhouses visited in Turkey. We are eager to make recommendations based on today´s visit to the Turkish slaughterhouses when we return in December. 

A serious problem that we saw in Turkey was the mounting of bulls. They do this when they do not know each other and want to establish a new hierarchy. Unfortunately, it lead to several of the bulls falling down on the slippery floors and hurting themselves. At Vion they have installed anti-mounting bars above the bulls. This prevents them from mounting each other and thus avoids injury. 

turkeymounting      22.10.2013_Vion_Til_bull_corridor_anti_mount__1

Turkey: bulls mounting each other and risking injury            Vion Tilburg: anti-mounting bars to prevent injury

The floor at Vion was constructed so that defecation and urine could slip through, keeping it dry and anti-slip. Unfortunately in Turkey the floors were so wet and slippery that many cattle fell down.

falling_down          screenshot.428

Turkey: sippery wet floors caused animals to fall down               Vion Tilburg: the floor is anti-slip and kept relatively dry

At Vion we also noticed that they placed solid panels along the corridor to ease the movement of the cattle (prevent shadows from being created which make animals balk, avoid legs getting caught…). In Turkey the corridors were not solid and it caused stress because some animals did not want to move forward due to the distractions.

divider          22.10.2013_Vion_Til_anti-view

Turkey: shadows and other distractions                              Vion Tilburg: Solid sides help ease movement and keep animals calm

 

When a cow or bull suffers an injury during transport to Vion, he or she is rendered unconscious with a captive bolt pistol on the truck and only then dragged out with hydraulic chains towards the kill floor to be slaughtered. Sadly in Turkey, they do not have the right equipment or installations to humanely handle seriously injured animals nor will they accept using the captive bolt pistol due to the meat no longer being considered Halal. Injured animals are dragged out when they are still fully conscious. We are going to encourage the Turkish plants to set up emergency equipment so that the injured animals can at least be bled out from the edge of the truck instead of being forced to go through the slaughter process, which caused so much pain.
 

electric_shock           screenshot.431

Turkey: animals arriving at slaughterhouses that are seriously in pain are still forced out while conscious and suffer greatly.   

22.10.2013_Vion_Til_emergency_equipment

Vion Tilburg: emergency equipment to handle animals arriving in pain- after being rendered unconscious on the truck, this chain and
trolley drags the unconscious animals towards the kill floor. This avoids forcing the injured animal to walk himself there and to experience the pain.

This visit showed the team again clearly that with proper equipment and good handling one can at least greatly reduce the suffering animals experience at slaughterhouses before being slaughtered. It left a much better impression on us than did the plants in Turkey that we visited in June. We would like to thank Vion for opening their doors to us and we hope to assist the Turkish plants in putting these ideas into practice. As long as people insist on eating meat and dairy from animals, we feel it is of utmost importance that everything is done to reduce the pain and stress during their slaughter.

  • share 
  • tweet 
  • share 
  • save 
  • email 

Filed Under: slaughterhouses

Primary Sidebar

Search

Featured

Appeal against decision of NVWA concerning wounded sows at Lunteren pig assembly centre

On March 8th, 2021 we found a truck parked at Lunteren assembly centre with two seriously injured … [Read More...] about Appeal against decision of NVWA concerning wounded sows at Lunteren pig assembly centre

Featured

EonA director interviewed on Studio Plantaardig Podcast

Lesley Moffat from Eyes on Animals was guest on Studio Plantaardig today.  Listen to the interview … [Read More...] about EonA director interviewed on Studio Plantaardig Podcast

Our most recent newsletter

Dear friends,

I first discovered the bad side of factory-farming and industrial slaughter when I was a young girl of twelve.
When I visited a livestock market I saw a pile of sick animals left for dead behind the building. At a huge industrial poultry slaughterhouse, I saw dozens of live chickens walking around the bloody floor…

 

Read more…

Subscribe to our newsletter

Eyes on Animals op Twitter

Twitter feed is not available at the moment.

ANBI

Footer

Donate with Paypal

Paypal Eyes on Animals
One-time donation:
Monthly donation:

Reading Material

  • In the Media
  • Newsletters
  • Special EonA reports
  • Legislative texts
  • ANBI

Our Amsterdam Office

Amsterdam House Hotel
Eyes on Animals main office is in downtown Amsterdam, at the Amsterdam House Hotel. The generous and warm-hearted hotel owner donated to Eyes on Animals, free of charge, a beautiful room where our inspectors can work, hold meetings and store their material.

Copyright © 2023 · Eyes on Animals | Website by Webkompaan