On Monday June 8th Eyes on Animals visited Plukon poultry slaughterhouse in Maasmechelen (Belgium). The broilers are now being transported in a new container system from Stork company. The new design of the transport containers have side access doors so that birds that need treatment or care during transport can be accessed and helped. Thanks to these new access doors, we … [Read more...] about Access to poultry during transport now possible with Stork’s new containers
chicken transport
Inspection of emptying out of a laying-hen farm
Tonight a team from Eyes on Animals was conducting random inspections of animal transports on the roads in the Netherlands. We spotted two empty Polish poultry trucks heading towards a farm in Drenthe (NL). We followed in order to check on how the hens at the egg farm would be handled during loading before being transported for slaughter in Poland. Birds were held upside … [Read more...] about Inspection of emptying out of a laying-hen farm
Animal welfare course and EonA Dutch catching of Rondeel chickens with catchers from Den Ouden Oirschot
On Monday evening - for the first time in The Netherlands – the company “Rondeel” chose to catch and load an entire flock of their 3500 birds with us using the much more humane “EonA Dutch method”. Normally, chickens are grabbed by their legs (3-5 per hand) and then stuffed headfirst into transport crates. With the EonA Dutch method, the chickens are picked up a maximum of … [Read more...] about Animal welfare course and EonA Dutch catching of Rondeel chickens with catchers from Den Ouden Oirschot
Eyes on Animals gives a talk at the Organic Food exhibition in Zwolle, NL
Today Eyes on Animals was present at the Organic Food Exhibition (BioBeurs) in Zwolle, the Netherlands. We were invited to give a talk about how poultry can be caught and loaded in a much less cruel way than the universal current commercial method. We talked about the training course that we developed for chicken-catchers and the recent trainings we held to … [Read more...] about Eyes on Animals gives a talk at the Organic Food exhibition in Zwolle, NL
Improving design of poultry transport conatiners with Meyn, NL
During one of our training courses of Belgian highway police, we stopped a truck transporting Dutch broilers to slaughter and witnessed a number that were injured. The head of one bird was crushed from the drawer being shut above, several wings were caught between the metal bars and the upper floor and the humidity inside the truck was high. More attention for these risks … [Read more...] about Improving design of poultry transport conatiners with Meyn, NL
Dutch poultry transporter and organizer fined
Last summer, Eyes on Animals checked the arrival of poultry trucks to a large chicken slaughterhouse in the province of Utrecht. We saw poultry trucks parked in the sun for hours which caused chicken to literally die of the heat. The slaughterhouse director refused to talk to us. We therefore immediately called the Dutch authorities to file a complaint. Based on our … [Read more...] about Dutch poultry transporter and organizer fined
Chicken transport crates with the cruel flap-door now banned
For a long time crates with small flap doors were used to transport hens to slaughter. During our inspections of chickens being caught and loaded at the farm for transport to slaughter, we observed that these flap doors caused a lot of horrible injuries. Wings, heads and feet were often crushed. Recently the Dutch authorities made the decision to forbid these crates … [Read more...] about Chicken transport crates with the cruel flap-door now banned
Wilki replaces old broken poultry-crates with better ones
A few years ago, Eyes on Animals observed how the Belgian transport and slaughter company “Wilki” regularly picked up “ spent” laying hens on farms in the Netherlands. We were very disappointed by the condition and quality of the crates they were using. Many of the crates were broken, and thus were at risk of collapsing (crushing the birds inside) under the weight of the … [Read more...] about Wilki replaces old broken poultry-crates with better ones
Rondeel to switch to more ethical method of chicken-catching
Good news! Yesterday we met with the General Manager of Rondeel, a company that runs four chicken-farms in The Netherlands and produces eggs and poultry-meat according to higher welfare standards. He agreed with our idea to use the much more gentle method of chicken-catching, called "The EonA Dutch Method" next time they will empty out one of their barns. Eyes on Animals … [Read more...] about Rondeel to switch to more ethical method of chicken-catching
Inspection of chicken-catching in Woudenberg, the Netherlands
Eyes on Animals conducted an inspection of chicken-catching at a breeding-hen farm in The Netherlands. Tonight two poultry-transport trucks and a catching team showed up to load all the birds and send them to slaughter in Poland. The handling was rough. The birds weighed 4.2 kg each. The catchers grabbed them by their legs and hung them inverted, two birds per hand and … [Read more...] about Inspection of chicken-catching in Woudenberg, the Netherlands
