Today we brought the German Slaughterhouse Tönnies and slaughter- manufacturing company V-Cons together. We have previous positive experiences with both companies that are flexible, very open-minded and innovative when it comes to animal-welfare. Our reason for organizing this meeting was because we wanted to introduce them to eachother in the hope that they could work together on finding a “humane” alternative to CO2 to stun pigs before slaughter. Toennies has the research center and funds, and V-Cons is run by welfare-scientists and skilled engineers that like a challenge. Especially a challenge that could lead to a serious benefit for animals.
We were thrilled to hear that research will start already next month and they will stay in touch with each other on further steps. We will keep up the ‘polite pressure’ to make sure the momentum stays. Imagine one day soon when pigs no longer are stunned with aversive means but in such a manner that they lose consciousness with little stress before or during the process. Not only would this be a serious improvement for the pigs, but we know industry people who will also feel better to make the switch.
Thank you to these industry players for their dedication to this topic and we wish them lots of success. We wish to also thank the slaughterhouses that first allowed us to film the behaviour of the pigs in CO2 to initiate this discussion on alternative possibilities, and to the Animal Welfare Foundation for creating political interest in the topic.
To read an article about our concerns and hopes for a realistic humane alternative, click HERE.
To watch our film, click HERE.
