Today we visited Başkent slaughterhouse again. We shared some updates and then made a little tour in the plant. The last time we had visited this plant they had made a number of improvements we had recommended during our first visit. Please see HERE.
Unfortunately today, during our third visit, we couldn’t observe any further positive changes this time. Today we were not at all pleased with the way the staff was handling the animals. They used electric prods on the bulls’ genitals and hit them hard with sticks. The floor of the restraint box is still higher than the raceway which means the cattle still risk getting their leg stuck and then crushed, as we saw during our first visit (https://youtu.be/On-qkoXeKwc). Today we observed a bull almost get his leg caught between restraint box’s platform and ground again like we filmed on October 2014. It made us realize that such accidents are most surely happening everyday here. They still have not made any serious plans to improve or replace this unacceptable type of restraint box. As long as the Turkish government does not make them illegal, we can only keep trying to convince the owners of plants to make more ethical choices. We won’t give up but are truly disappointed in the treatment of animals here still.
