Eyes on Animals inspected Thomassen Slachthuis in Someren, a medium-sized Dutch slaughterhouse which slaughters cattle and pigs. Upon arriving, cattle from Belgium were being unloaded. They were all fit for transport. As in all slaughterhouses we have visited so far, there was again a pen devoted to placing sick animals. Inside was a lone pig, paralyzed from her waist down. As her meat was likely “still fit for human consumption” she was transported and accepted by the plant. While the “fit” animals were being slaughtered, she had to wait to be first checked by the veterinarian and so as not to “pollute” the clean slaughter line. She was left on a wet concrete floor.
Eyes on Animals will use this example to question the legality of accepting animals in this condition at slaughterhouses. We will also raise the point that these sick or injured animals are put through even more stress than the healthy ones, as they are forced to wait until the end of the slaughter day in the slaughterhouse. There must be a solution to decrease their suffering. Fortunately at this plant the handling, at least during our presence, was much better than the plant we inspected on February 25th.
