On April the 16th we visited Kurucay slaughterhouse in Bolu. They did some really nice animal welfare improvements wich we want everebody to notice.
1 – The lateral protection of the raceways towards the restraint box used to be open. The animals were able to see objects and people moving around them and therefore refused to walk on. Now the lateral protection is solid and it is much easier to drive the animals towards the restraint box without using so much force. You can see that the animals are much calmer as they are not as distracted or scared.
2 – The first time we visited Kurucay slaughterhouse they used to hoist the conscious animal completely off the floor by one leg before cutting the throat. Now they at least keep the head, shoulders and part of the flank touching the ground. This is a small improvement as the time of hoisting the conscious animal is reduced. Still, these popular trip-floor boxes in Turkey need to be phased out as soon as possible, as any kind of hoisting by one leg is unacceptable.
We want to thank all the responsible people at Kurucay slaughterhouse who put our suggestions into practice and wish to continue working with them on more concrete improvements.
