The EonA and WACPAW team visited a slaughterhouse in Accra before flying home. The handling of the goats was really rough, they were dragged, hoisted and literally thrown onto a metal bar table where they then had their heads shoved down and got their throats slit. Some would land with their thin legs caught between the bars, causing serious pain. We immediately interfered and showed them how to move the goats inside and restrain them more humanely as well as how to stun them before cutting their throats.
We also managed to stun cattle before they had their throats slit today. In previous years this plant did have a captive bolt pistol imported from Germany, but it broke down and since they have gone back to the old-fashioned cruel way of slaughtering animals. The workers struggle the cattle down on the floor, tie their legs up and then cut the throat while fully conscious. Today we were able to keep the bovine in a natural upright position and render them unconscious first.
This slaughterhouse did have an electric stunner for pigs, also from Germany, which was a positive surprise. At the time of our visit no pigs were present so we could not check on the pig slaughter conditions. The owner spent 3 years in Germany working at a slaughterhouse so had become familiar with the principles and benefits of stunning.
In November WACPAW will give all the workers an official 2-day training. The manager is in favour of stunning of all animals and they will use our captive bolt pistols that we will give him after the official training session.
Short film about this slaughterhouse and what we showed the workers
