slaughterhouses

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

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 … [Read more...] about Inspection of a Dutch slaughterhouse