During our second visit to this plant last year we were pleasantly surprised to see that they had made a couple of important concrete improvements (please see HERE ). This morning we made our third visit to see if they had made any more since then. When we arrived we met with the new veterinarian of the plant. One of the shareholders sold his share to other one, and now it has just one owner and a new name. The veterinarian said that the new owner has financial problems now and thus making further improvements as we had recommended during our second visit proved to be difficult, they need more time.
For this reason nothing much has changed after our last inspection. They added grooves to the floor of the ramp leading to the raceway where we had seen cattle regularly slipping in the past, but it still is not good enough. Today we also say cattle slipping on this ramp a couple of times.
The door next to the restraint box was always open meaning the cattle waiting in line to be slaughtered could see the entire hoisting and slaughtering process. This created fear and caused them to balk and walk backwards. We again told them to keep this door closed and seal the view completely to avoid causing this unnecessary additional stress. The veterinarian said he will take care of the problem, also because he does not want flies to enter the carcass area.
They still use the horrible trip-floor restraint box. During our second visit they were at least keeping the shoulder and head of the cattle on the ground when performing the cut, but this time the slaughterman was again hoisting them fully off the ground and even leaving them waiting for a few minutes like that before cutting their throat, like we had seen during our first visit. We told them we were disappointed that they went back to this unacceptable bad practice, leaving cattle of 450-650kg hanging by one leg off the floor causes excruciating pain and extreme fear. The veterinarian said they have a new chief slaughterman who prefers it this way but promised us to have a word with him about this so that this practice is stopped. During our visit an injured bovine arrive by truck. He could not get up and seemed to be suffering. His throat was cut on the truck and then he was dragged out. It was very difficult to watch but at least they cut his throat on the truck. In other plants we have been to in Turkey and Lebanon they drag injured cattle out while still fully conscious and only cut the throat once the animal is hanging inside the slaughterhouse.
This new young veterinarian was at least open- minded and agreed with our concerns. The owner of the plant was too busy to talk with us but we have her contact details and thus will send her and the veterinarian our report and do all that we can to improve the practices here to at least reduce some of the unnecessary suffering.
