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A slaughterhouse in Bavaria has been searched and closed on suspicion of animal cruelty. To the ARD-Magazine fact There are videos that suggest animals were slaughtered without proper stunning.
A slaughterhouse in Bavaria was closed on Thursday until further notice on suspicion of animal cruelty. A day earlier, the responsible control authority for food safety and veterinary affairs (KBLV) had searched the company in Aschaffenburg. The KBLV did not want to comment on the exact reasons.
To the ARD-Magazine fact there is extensive video material from the slaughterhouse that the control authority also received from animal rights activists on Tuesday. The images allow the conclusion that the animals depicted on them were probably killed without proper anesthesia. In addition, employees of the slaughterhouse have apparently also been warned about controls.
In the videos, cattle are herded into a metal box. “The heads of the animals are not fixed at all. They can twist to the right and left,” says Friedrich Mülln from the “Soko Tierschutz” association, describing his impression of the cattle fighting on the video material. So the anesthetic can hardly be properly applied.
You can also see how employees at the slaughterhouse try to move the animals into certain positions with electric shocks. “The pictures show pigs and cattle that are still conscious when they suffer the so-called throat cut,” says Mülln. Such a practice is illegal because the law prohibits inflicting unnecessary pain on animals. Animal rights activists had taken the pictures in the past four weeks. The material lies fact uncut before.
Expert: unprofessional and unlawful
“There were cattle that had to be stunned up to three times,” recognizes Kai Braunmiller in the pictures fact submitted to the specialist veterinarian and chairman of the Federal Working Group for Meat Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Consumer Protection (BAG). “Here, too, it must have been noticed that the device has a deficit. A good stunner sees this and replaces it.” In addition, the employees were apparently not sufficiently knowledgeable. “They didn’t check the effectiveness of the stunning on the animal. It’s easy to do on the eye with the lid and pupil reflex,” says Braunmiller.
The expert also refers to the handling of the pigs in the slaughterhouse: the videos show a number of animals rowing their limbs and showing abdominal and gasping breathing. “You didn’t react immediately, but continued the bleeding process in order to then stun later,” explains Braunmiller. The suffering and pain of the animals must be kept as short as possible. His conclusion based on the pictures: “You can’t see that here. Here, the actions are unprofessional and unlawful. Apparently, the company, which is obliged to carry out its own checks, doesn’t notice that.”
Apparently warning of controls via WhatsApp
Slaughterhouses are not only obliged to carry out their own checks, they are also checked by state authorities. The specialist veterinarian therefore asks: “How can it be that such a system – and we have seen many employees who were working there – can run for a longer period of time without the authorities noticing it? That’s definitely not how it works.”
In addition, the slaughterhouse staff was apparently warned about controls by the state authority. fact there are copies of a WhatsApp group from the slaughterhouse that suggest this.
The slaughterhouse was in the headlines years ago – because of animal cruelty. Footage from 2013 documented attacks on pigs. The perpetrators at the time were warned. The business continued.
The public prosecutor’s office has now launched an extensive investigation. Many employees were prohibited from stunning and killing animals for slaughter. The slaughterhouse has been closed until further notice. The slaughterhouse operator declined to comment on the allegations over the phone. According to “Soko Tierschutz”, the reference to the current grievances came from a farmer in the region.