Eyes on Animals met with delegates from JAMTI (Japan Meat Technology Institute), university researchers and several managers from pig abattoirs in Japan to discuss how pig slaughter could be improved so that suffering and stress are decreased. The focus of our presentation was on a project we carried out at making high-through put automatic electric stunning much more reliable and animal stress limited, in an effort to avoid CO2 gas stunning (CO2 gas unfortunately causes pain and respiratory distress).
As Japan’s slaughterhouses are relatively small in size and use electric stunning, our project was of particular relevance to them. Additionally, Japan has just completed the study visits on animal welfare in several foreign countries and are now preparing a manual for proper handling of animals aiming to promote animal welfare practices into Japanese slaughter plants and make animal-welfare a more important part of the process.
We would like to thank them for their keen interest and questions.
