Today we had a follow-up visit at the Ivo Hendriksen slaughterhouse in Lichtenvoorde. Ivo Lichtenvoorde mainly slaughters young pigs. During our last visit we witnessed pigs becoming frightened due to loud noises made by the metal gates. Through installing some rubber elements throughout the fencing the noise levels in the slaughterhouse have been brought down resulting in animals remaining much calmer. Further, a big “roll-up” door has been installed eliminating much of the draft in thelairage. Pigs are very sensitive to drafts, which makes this a very important improvement. As to the noise created by the truck doors slamming against the unloading ramp facility during the unloading process, no solution has been found yet. Ivo believes that attaching some PVS/rubber to the truck doors could possibly solve this problem. Eyes on Animals will send them some best-practice examples that other plants and transporters have done to give them some practical ideas that they can put into place.
We are very pleased that Ivo Hendriksen has taken these steps to improve animal welfare and we enjoy their positive and open attitude.
