Organic Supermarket chain ‘Odin’ has decided that from now on their pigs will be slaughtered at Thönes Naturverbund in Germany, because of the low slaughter speed and calmer treatment of pigs.
In 2015 Eyes on Animals visited Thönes Naturverbund and we shared our positive findings via a website-article and film. Thönes Naturverbund has developed a system in which pigs walk to the stunner via a curved raceway and have a choice between two entrances (so they are not forced in one direction). There is considerably less stress when moving the pigs through this system, especially compared to other slaughterhouses we’ve visited. In addition, the employees, because of the low slaughter speed, have more time per pig enabling them to carry out their task more calmly. Because this raceway design at Thönes Naturverbund is receiving positive attention, other slaughterhouses (for example Grossfurtner in Austria) are now motivated to rebuild their raceway resulting in reduced stress, both for the animals and workers.
Pigs at Thönes Naturverbund are electrically stunned; rendering them unconscious instantly and not, as is the case with CO2 gas stunning, after 20-30 seconds of panic, pain and fighting for breath. Odin’s own research, which included visits to several different slaughterhouses, also showed Thönes Naturverbund as the most humane slaughterhouse.
Eyes on Animals is delighted that Odin conducted its own research and has consciously chosen Thönes Naturverbund instead of a large scale slaughterhouse where animal welfare is less important than speed.
Click here to watch our movie about Thönes Naturverbund >>
Read our website article about our visit to Thönes Naturverbund >>
Read the Press Release by Odin (in Dutch only) >>
Watch a film by DW news about the impact of slaughter-speed >>
