This morning we met with the Deputy CEO and PR of Bonafarm and Head of Quality Management and Food Safety at the slaughterplant Pick, which is under the umbrella food group of Bonafarm. The current Pick pig plant in Szeged will soon close and they will build a larger brand new slaughterhouse. Currently they use a very old CO2 system, where animals are stunned by CO2 only 1 or 2 at a time. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss their plans for their new plant to see where updated animal-welfare ideas could be incorporated into their upcoming plant. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the current two available methods of stunning pigs- with gas and with electricity. We discussed new ideas put into practice at other pig slaughterhouses we have been to to reduce stress during lairaging, handling and movement.
They expressed that they are open and very interested in putting as much thought as possible into the plans to avoid making mistakes that are costly to correct after the plant is already built. We will stay in touch with them, as well as the Dutch company that they chose to purchase their new stunning system from. We would like to thank them for the meeting.
