Today Eyes on Animals gave a presentation to an International Team from Meyn. Meyn develops transportation modules and slaughter lines for poultry and is a market leader in this field.
To make animal welfare an important consideration in the development of their future products, Meyn asked us to share our experiences and our ideas.
Among other things we gave feedback on the container systems that broilers are loaded into. We prefer that ‘softer’ materials are used (plastic instead of metal), containers be low (max. 4 drawers high) with each drawer providing more headspace. This will reduce injuries, exhaustion amongst the chicken-catchers and results in less collisions or birds being crushed. We also insist on access doors to help birds in need and improving the ventilation to prevent heatstress during transport and waiting at the slaughterhouse.
We then held a brainstorming session to discuss more rigorous changes. For example, the automation of the catching process to drastically reduce stress, or by stunning hens in the barn so that catching, and transport will become redundant.
Together we shared many common ideas. We hope that a number of them can be realized. We would like to thank the Meyn team and innovation firm ‘Fronteer’ for their enthusiasm, their interest and for the inspiring brainstorming session.
