• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • EYES ON ANIMALS – Watching out for their Welfare
  • English
  • Nederlands
  • Deutsch

Eyes on Animals

Watching out for their Welfare

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
DONATE
  • About us
    • What we do
    • Our team
    • Key Figures
    • Our Vision
    • Contact
  • News
    • Latest news
    • Good news
    • Bad news
    • Featured news
    • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Inspections
    • Farms
    • Markets
    • Transports
    • Slaughterhouses
    • Special projects
    • Other
  • Training
    • Police
    • Truck drivers
    • Poultry-catchers
    • Slaughter personnel
    • Training Material
    • Request a training
  • Industry Tips
    • Animal transport
      • Cattle
      • Pigs
      • Poultry
    • Slaughterhouses
      • Cattle
      • Pigs
      • Poultry
      • Ritual slaughter
    • Educational videos
  • Publications
    • In the media
      • Print
      • Television
      • Radio
      • Videos
    • Newsletters
    • Special reports
    • Training Material
    • Annual reviews
  • Help us
Home » Our inspections » slaughterhouses » Follow-up visit with Toennies pig slaughterhouse, Germany

Follow-up visit with Toennies pig slaughterhouse, Germany

December 5, 2014

Today Eyes on Animals, together with a team from the Animal Welfare Foundation and Tierschutzbund Zürich, met with the Chief Executive Officer from the department of Animal Welfare at the Tönnies Group of Companies.

The purpose of today’s visit was to hold a follow-up discussion with Tönnies from what EonA started with them last January- about the need for more research into a completely new, alternative stunning method, as the current two systems (electric and CO2) both have negative effects on animal-welfare. We also wanted to see what further improvements they put into place since our last visit.
Again we were really pleased to see how engaged the plant has been to do things as correctly as possible to keep suffering and stress to a minimum. Of all the slaughterhouses we have visited, they have taken the most steps. But this is not to discourage other plants, we hope to encourage them to do the same so that animal suffering is reduced in more places.

05.12.2014_ToenniesTönnies has installed coloured lighting in the lairage and raceway that creates fewer shadows and has a calming effect for the pigs. They are thinking of removing the automatic doors in the raceway so pigs are not pushed but let to go at their own pace via trained workers. Electric prods are forbidden and even some of the plastic paddles have been replaced with gourd rattles. The noise created by these gourd rattles is loud enough to make the pigs stand up but soft enough to not startle or scare them. Additionally they are small and thus cannot be used as a tool to hit animals. Like Euro-Meat slaughterhouse in Belgium, they have also installed large speakers in the lairage and play melodious classical and soft pop music on it, that has a positive effect on both the animals as on the workers. To hear the music playing in their lairage, click HERE.

05.12.2014_Toennies2They still sprinkle corn in the empty lairage pens before pigs are placed in them, to give the pigs something pleasurable to distract them with, to avoid outbreaks of fighting but also reduce stress from being in a novel but barren environment (click HERE to watch a short video clip of this). They are also planning workshops in the near future for the pig farmers that supply them with pigs. As Dr. Temple Grandin makes clear, part of the reason pigs are stressed in the lairage pens of slaughterhouses is because at the farms they were not made familiar to novel situations and to people. A good pig farmer is one that walks calmly within the pig pens everyday to get them used to people and action.

As long as slaughter takes place to satisfy the ever-growing demand for meat that is beyond our control, we are pleased about Tönnies’s engagement in animal-welfare improvements and acting as pioneers in new ideas that can reduce suffering and stress as much as possible. We will continue negotiating and facilitating meetings with the right players to hopefully get a new stunning method in place one day soon that does not create the suffering still seen in CO2 and electric stunning systems.

  • share 
  • share 
  • share 
  • save 
  • email 

Filed Under: Our inspections, slaughterhouses Tagged With: pig slaughterhouse

Primary Sidebar

Search

Featured

Dutch transport company Van Os implicated in serious transport fraud involving Irish calves

Once again, serious violations have been uncovered in the transport of calves from Ireland. Last … [Read More...] about Dutch transport company Van Os implicated in serious transport fraud involving Irish calves

Featured

EonA talks at European Parliament in Brussels

February 19, 2025

Today we gave a talk at the European Parliament. We were invited by MEPs Anja Hazekamp and Sebastien … [Read More...] about EonA talks at European Parliament in Brussels

Our most recent newsletter

Dear friends,

It’s not every day that an animal-welfare organization takes on the challenge of redesigning a large pig slaughterhouse and their animal handling techniques, but that’s exactly what we did in 2020.

Read more…

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe

* indicates required

Eyes on Animals op Twitter

nos NOS @nos ·
21h

Zorgwekkende toename CO2, vooral doordat natuur minder lijkt op te nemen

Reply on Twitter 1923633161113596200 Retweet on Twitter 1923633161113596200 9 Like on Twitter 1923633161113596200 28 Twitter 1923633161113596200
faunabeschermin De Faunabescherming @faunabeschermin ·
21h

De @edesevos brengt de situatie haarscherp in beeld @HogeVeluwe
📯🐺

Reply on Twitter 1923630072579170305 Retweet on Twitter 1923630072579170305 12 Like on Twitter 1923630072579170305 20 Twitter 1923630072579170305
dierenpolitieob Dierenpolitie Oost-Brabant @dierenpolitieob ·
16 May

Afscheid kunnen nemen van je dieren, nog 1 keer naar het bos, etc…St.Ambulance Wens maakt ’t mogelijk. Zo waardevol wat deze vrijwilligers doen voor mens en dier 🙏 Bekijk de site voor meer info, en misschien wil/kun jij ook helpen (SJ) @Meldpunt144 @DierenLot @StAmbulancewens

Reply on Twitter 1923273595796472243 Retweet on Twitter 1923273595796472243 13 Like on Twitter 1923273595796472243 66 Twitter 1923273595796472243
Load More...

ANBI

Footer

Donate with Paypal

Paypal Eyes on Animals
One-time donation:
Monthly donation:

Reading Material

  • In the Media
  • Newsletters
  • Special EonA reports
  • Legislative texts
  • ANBI

Our Amsterdam Office

Amsterdam House Hotel
Eyes on Animals main office is in downtown Amsterdam, at the Amsterdam House Hotel. The generous and warm-hearted hotel owner donated to Eyes on Animals, free of charge, a beautiful room where our inspectors can work, hold meetings and store their material.

Copyright © 2025 · Eyes on Animals | Website by Webkompaan