slaughterhouses

Today we inspected Compaxo, a Dutch pig slaughterhouse, killing 600 pigs per hour. We watched the unloading of several pig trucks and the handling of the animals before and during slaughter. This plant uses electricity to stun the animals, instead of the now common but highly-debated method of CO2 gas. We were told that they were under pressure to switch to CO2 because … [Read more...] about Inspection of a Compaxo pig slaughterhouse in the Netherlands

Eyes on Animals visited a slaughterhouse today that performs ritual slaughter. Eyes on Animals is principally against slaughtering animals without prior-stunning, but does give credit to the owner who has designed his plant and trained his employees so that there is less stress. In comparison to other ritual plants we have visited, it was indeed much better. Should ritual … [Read more...] about Ongoing investigation into animal treatment at slaughterhouses

For the past 3 days, a team of Eyes on Animals investigators has been visiting slaughterhouses in Benelux. The team observed unacceptable levels of animal stress and suffering, and several violations to the EU slaughter directive as well as to the Halal rules. Due to the nature of this investigation, further details are still confidential but Eyes on Animals will do … [Read more...] about Ongoing investigation into animal treatment at slaughterhouses

Eyes on Animals inspected Benelux's largest rabbit slaughterhouse, located in Belgium but with 80% of its rabbits coming from the Netherlands. We were relieved that despite it being a halal plant, the rabbits are put through a stunner before being bled. The slaughter speed was also slow enough to give the stunners and cutters time to do their job properly without missing … [Read more...] about Inspection of a rabbit slaughterhouse in Benelux

Eyes on Animals dropped by Van den Pesch Slachthuis, a small slaughterhouse in Brabant that is known to take culled-dairy cows. In the waiting pens we observed a number of cows in questionable shape, particularly one that was crippled with swollen joints on both her hind legs and one of her front legs. The slaughterhouse owner explained that they came from only 20-30km … [Read more...] about Inspection of culled-dairy cattle awaiting slaughter at a small Dutch slaughterhouse

It has been an on-going discussion: meat quality is in direct conflict with animal welfare when poultry are stunned with electricity. When the amper and voltage are set high enough to guarantee that the birds lose consciousness before being slaughtered, their "carcasses" lose value due to the many blood spots caused by the shock. Therefore, most birds are purposely not … [Read more...] about Tour of a Belgian chicken slaughterhouse that uses gas instead of electricity to stun the birds

VION is one of the world's biggest producers of pig meat and has many slaughterhouses. Its main office in in the Netherlands as it is a Dutch-owned company. Eyes on Animals met with them to find out why they are not participating yet in the project of totally phasing out pig castration in the Netherlands. They explained that they would also like to stop castration but that … [Read more...] about Meeting with VION

Eyes on Animals made an unannounced visit to Dik Slachthuis, a slaughterhouse in Holland that specializes in the killing of young calves, adult cattle and sheep. The plant made a good impression as the workers were calm with the animals and the plant also insisted that the animals be stunned first (even though most of the meat was going for halal but they felt that … [Read more...] about Welfare concern at a slaughterhouse in northern Holland

Eyes on Animals observed the handling and slaughtering of pigs at Slachterij Boom in Erp, a medium-sized pig slaughterhouse in southern Holland. This is the first slaughterhouse where, during our unannounced visit, we did not observe any sick or injured pigs, or rough handling. However, the kill floor was full of blood as they hang and cut the stunned pigs directly above, … [Read more...] about Visit of a Dutch pig slaughterhouse