No slaughterhouse - no sausage, Rače, 2021-2022
New footage from hidden cameras shows that the infamous Košaki slaughterhouse is not an isolated example of the company's careless attitude towards animal suffering. Even in the slaughterhouse of the agricultural cooperative Rače, which was built according to modern European guidelines, workers routinely abuse animals with electric batons, and the stunning of animals before slaughter is deficient or even not carried out.
In the footage, it appears that one pig was tied by the leg to the slaughter conveyor belt without prior stunning. This pig bled to death in panic and was probably fully conscious. We also listed a huge number of cases of improper stunning with an electric shock - judging by the internal criteria of the slaughterhouse itself. In almost half of all the stunning attempts seen, the electric current was not high enough to ensure a temporary loss of consciousness in the animals. These animals were subjected to a high probability of being slaughtered physically paralyzed and at the same time conscious.
Indifference in the relationship with animals can also be seen on the slaughter line for large animals, where during the morning slaughter of pigs, we observed very long time intervals of 2 minutes on average from the electroshock to the cut of the jugular veins - the absence of consciousness during slaughter is said to ensure a time interval of up to 15 seconds. Some of these pigs even start breathing, a clear indicator of awakening from unconsciousness, but the slaughterers ignore this. On the same line, signs of cattle consciousness like breathing and even mooing are also ignored. And even in the case of seemingly correct stunning, the vast majority of bulls clearly react to the incision of the skin on the neck and again to the stabbing, but these signs do not noticeably disturb the slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians.
Additional explanations:
- in the context of the publication in the Košaki slaughterhouse, based on one isolated case of a slaughterer who exercised his aggression and violence, the general opinion prevailed that slaughterers are all sadists. Based on the footage, this is not true. Slaughterhouse workers are mainly cold and indifferent towards animals. A muted empathy for animals is essential to this profession, as butchers must ultimately kill them with a knife. But this same absence of compassion in turn leads to negligence towards the suffering of animals, as described above.
- Regardless of whether we are talking about organically raised bulls from the mountains, dairy cows, Panvita's piglets or sows from Ljutomerčan; the animals come to the slaughterhouse alive, and leave it in pieces. There can be nothing 'humane' about this process and there should be no pretence about it.
- We will shortly hand over the unprocessed footage and the written report to the regional inspection service UVHVVR
