Today the EonA and WACPAW team re-visited JFamco slaughterhouse in Accra, Ghana. We were first at this slaughterhouse in 2019 when goats and other animals were being thrown onto slatted-tables, often getting their legs caught and injured, to have their throats caught while fully conscious.
At the time we showed the manager and staff what a captive bolt pistol was and taught them how to use it. We also illustrated much more humane ways of moving goats and other small animals into the killing room – by herding them on all 4 legs or carrying them in, instead of shoving and throwing them. We were positively surprised to see them so interested and quick to copy. At the time we leant them 2 captive bolt pistols so that they could continue stunning the animals, and abandon the bad practice of cutting the throats of animals while fully sentient. Since then WACPAW has regularly returned to check on conditions and re-stock the cartridges.
Today we observed the handling and slaughter, which was fortunately at the same level as after our training. The goats were being stunned and handling was calm. However, one of the captive bolts was broken and thus animals only on one side of the road were being stunned with the leftover stunner, whereas animals in the kill floor across the road were not. We immediately gave them a new 2nd captive bolt pistol so that they would have a stunner at each slaughter-location. We took the defect one with us so that we could repair it back at the WACPAW site. This time we also observed the handling and slaughter of poultry. JFamco has a “ point and kill” service for customers wishing to buy poultry. This means they have a small aviary on location full of laying hens which customers can purchase and have killed on spot. We taught the staff how to catch the birds upright instead of hanging them upside down by their legs. The slaughter of these birds was horrible. Their necks are cut and then they are thrown into a pit to bleed out. However, because there are numerous freshly-cut birds in the pit at the same time, the birds struggled on top of each other and blood flow was slowed, prolonging their suffering.
When we return to the Netherlands we will look into getting a hand-held manual stunner for poultry such as a Ted or Zephyr stunner for JFamco to use. We are also having a local metal manufacturer build poultry slaughter cones for the plant, so birds can be bled out individually and not piled on top of each other. At the moment, this is the best we can do to decrease animal suffering quickly within the reality of today’s situation.
