slaughterhouses

We paid an unexpected visit to the slaughterhouse Wilki in Belgium, which specializes in the slaughter of spent laying hens. The director welcomed us to his company. Eyes on Animals inspectors have inspected a dozen of chicken trucks owned by this slaughterhouse over the last year and made a report about their observations. They observed hens being transported in old and … [Read more...] about Visit to Wilki, chicken slaughterhouse in Belgium

  Today we were welcomed to visit a chicken slaughterhouse in the Netherlands. It is a slaughterhouse that only slaughters broilers (chickens bred for meat-production). When we arrived, some of the broilers in the drawer containers were stored in a dark lairage with electronic fans, the birds appeared calm. CO2 gas is used to stun the chickens. Chickens are stunned in … [Read more...] about visit of a chicken slaughterhouse

  The manager of this plant was open to our unnanounced visit and gave us a short tour inside his plant on the spot. We were however not allowed to take photos.Roughly 70,000 "spent" hens are slaughtered and processed in this plant every day. Six trucks loaded with plastic poultry-crates were in the parking lots. The crates were stacked stably but … [Read more...] about Visit of a slaughterhouse for “spent” laying hens

An Eyes on Animals team was returning to The Netherlands after giving a course to police officers in Belgium on the requirements of the animal protection during transport legislation. The team received a message concerning pig farmers setting up blockades at a number of pig slaughterhouses across the Netherlands, resulting in many trucks loaded with pigs forced to wait in … [Read more...] about Eyes on Animals witnesses pig farmers’ blockades of 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