Today Eyes on Animals returned to Emir Adak abattoir, a small abattoir outside of Istanbul that primarily slaughters sheep, and occasionally a bovine. The sheep are housed in a stable inside the slaughterhouse and customers can come, select a sheep and have him or her slaughtered, to take home the meat cuts home later. The manager, and one of his main customers ( a well- known religious writer of books on Islam, Mahmut Elgörmüs), were very open towards us when we first visited them almost 2 years ago. Back then we had told them about the welfare advantages of stunning the animals before tethering their legs and cutting their throats. We showed them what a captive bolt stunner was, how it worked, and Asalet explained how it is fully in line with Islam. Mahmut was especially enthusiastic. He regularly distributes meat to the very poor, but also cares very deeply for animals. He is now one of the most outspoken person with religious authority supporting the use of stunners.
He always renders the animals unconscious prior to slaughter and is gentle towards animals. Today we checked on their stunner, took all parts out to clean them and put fresh grease on it. It still works well. We made sure they also had enough cartridges left. During our visit some other customers were present, including a family with a daughter of about 15 that was crying as she was so disturbed to see a sheep previously being slaughtered while fully conscious. We took this opportunity to talk to all of them about animal-welfare, and show them how a captive bolt stunner works. They know now that this service is available at Emir Adak, and will request stunning next time. It is a slow process to educate so many people in Turkey, but we feel strongly that this is the only way to make a permanent and positive change.
