Today we were visited by 4 French managers of a large pork company which has 3 slaughterhouses in France, one of which uses electric stunning. They visited us in order to see the improvements we made at a large Dutch pig abattoir and see if they could put some of the better practices in place in their own abattoirs.
We started with a short introduction, presented a film showing the “before” and “after” situation of the Dutch abattoir and then the manager of the Dutch pig abattoir gave us all a tour on the work floor. There, we showed everything from the moment that the pigs are unloaded to the moment they are electrically stunned and slaughtered. They were very impressed by how much less noise there was compared to other pig abattoirs and that the workers were not rushing the pigs.
After the tour there were many questions. The French company has already made plans to replace their current animal herding tools with the ones we use that do not create noise or pain. We also discussed the lay-out of their abattoir to see if they too could reduce the tempo by 50% by installing a second stunner and raceway. We will all stay in touch. All in all a positive experience that will lead to at least less stress for all the millions of pigs slaughtered each year at the Dutch and French plants. We would like to thank both the Dutch company and the French company for taking animal welfare seriously and working on improvements. This is refreshing and positive.
