The EU slaughter law requires medium and large sized slaughterhouses to have an Animal Welfare Officer (AWO) who is responsible for the welfare of the animals and who needs to stay current on the developments of animal welfare. Therefore, this person needs to take a course: the AWO- course.
It’s always been unknown to us what is taught during this course and what knowledge the AWO has and doesn’t have. Now that we do know, we can focus on assisting the people responsible for reducing animal suffering as much as possible.
The broad and interactive course taught us in detail how to ensure the welfare of the animals as much as possible. Their welfare before slaughter as well as the technical aspect was discussed extensively including the stunning of the animals, the different types of devices and rendering them unconscious using CO2.
We are very grateful to Bristol University and lecturer Andy for supplementing and expanding our knowledge through this course.
