Today, we paid a scheduled visit to the Mulder slaughterhouse in Twello. With input from Eyes on Animals, Mulder has implemented various improvements to create a calmer, more controlled handling and stunning process, reducing stress for the animals and minimizing errors. During our visit we watched camera surveillance footage from previous days and walked through the system ourselves to see it from the perspective of the animal.
Key Improvements:
- The V-restrainer (where animals are restrained for proper placement of the electrical electrodes) has been stripped and reupholstered, making it quieter and reducing fear among the animals.
- A false floor under the V-restrainer gives animals the impression they can “walk through,” making entry less stressful. Sawdust is spread on the floor to reduce visual contrasts.
- Rubber teats have been installed in the holding pen for young goats to drink warm milk.
- Green lighting has been added to create a calmer environment and minimize shadows in the raceway and bright white light has been placed at the end of the v-restrainer so that the animals want to move in that direction and enter the V-restrainer better. Animals, such as goats, sheep and deer, prefer to move towards more lit up areas rather than towards darker areas.
- Experiments with sheep posters have been conducted to “lure” animals and create a sense of safety, with further refinements planned.
- The bleeding line has been extended, providing more time to check for signs of consciousness and perform re-stunning if necessary before animals enter the slaughter process.
To further improve herding to the V-restrainer, we suggested raising the walls to make employees less visible, placing sheep posters strategically to reduce stress when entering new areas, handling smaller groups, and using camera footage to train staff on proper techniques, such as staying behind the sheep and out of their line of sight.
Mulder expressed great satisfaction with the renovations. The herding process is now so efficient that only one staff member is needed instead of two, as animals often enter the single-file raceway on their own. We thank Mulder for these improvements, which have clearly reduced animal stress and created a more controlled process. We also want to thank Mulder for their advice on the slaughter of sheep in Turkey.
