Eyes on Animals dropped by Van den Pesch Slachthuis, a small slaughterhouse in Brabant that is known to take culled-dairy cows. In the waiting pens we observed a number of cows in questionable shape, particularly one that was crippled with swollen joints on both her hind legs and one of her front legs. The slaughterhouse owner explained that they came from only 20-30km away, and that it is better they be slaughtered than left in such a state at the farm.
He says there is still too much of a gray zone as to when an animal is unfit for transport. He also expressed his frustratin that such animals must wait until the end of the day to be slaughtered, to avoid contaminating the slaughter line. “Such animals should be slaughtered right away”, but the government doesn’t allow it. Eyes on Animals shares this concern- injured animals that are still thought to be fit for human consumption are always made to wait until the veterinarian arrives, and until the slaughter line is done for the day before they are put out of the misery. Why can there not be a 2nd slaughter area for those animals still considered fit enough for transport but better off being put out of their suffering quickly? Eyes on Animals will look into this, as we have seen other slaughterhouses with a second slaughter area for those animals that could contaminate the main slaughter line.
