At this slaughterhouse 100km east of Izmir where we were this morning, they were at first letting the cattle out of the restraint box immediately after cutting their throats open. It was horrible as cattle remain alive and fully sensitive to pain for at least 40 seconds and often even for several minutes after being cut.
A lot of blood has to first come out before they lose consciousness. Releasing them out of the restraint box so quickly meant that they were falling onto their open wound, and parts of the installations were hitting their open wound while they were fully sensitive to pain and alert of the terror. We immediately asked them to wait at least 2 minutes after cutting and until all signs of consciousness are gone before releasing them from the restraint box. For the next animal they waited therefore a bit longer (see video) but still not long enough and we fear that as soon as we leave they will go back to being fast. Time is money.
This plant had bought a stunner a few months ago as they were interested in using it but they decided today not to use it. Some unexperienced person from the Ministry wrote to them that the stunner causes trauma to the animal ! As if cutting the throats of a conscious animal and hoisting them up by one leg does not cause way more trauma !!? We are now encouraging them to do at least post-cut stunning now. Post-cut stunning is when you stun the animal immediately after cutting the throat, to at least minimize the length of time the animal is in excruciating pain and panic. Sadly that is the only realistic “least bad” option we can maybe get in place here.
