Today our team dropped by the Maret meat packing plant in Tuzla. Maret is the largest distributor of meat in Turkey that sells to supermarkets etc…
They get meat from 17 different slaughterhouses, including one of their own. We wanted to tell them about the common problems we see at Turkish slaughterhouses and ask that they put pressure on their suppliers to modernize their plant and improve handling of animals. We are invited to inspect their plant next time we are in Turkey. Maret knew a lot about the problems we have been raising here in Turkey and agreed that it was time for slaughterhouses to improve. They think this will happen quickly now that the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture is writing upcoming first-ever legislation on animal-welfare during slaughter. They also informed us that they are slowly pulling back from purchasing meat from a slaughterhouse in Kazan that we made a public complaint about last year, because it was absolutely horrible and the boss was not interested at all in welfare. Soon they will stop using that horrible supplier all together.
