Slaughterhouses on trial...
One Voice is a civil party in the case involving the slaughterhouse Houdan (department 78) of which has on many occasions already been postponed, finally to be judged this February 21st.
One Voice is a civil party in the case involving the slaughterhouse Houdan (78) of which has on many occasions already been postponed, finally to be judged this February 21st…The terrible images, revealed in 2017 by L214, highlight unsustainable industrial practices.
In the slaughterhouse’s bays, you can read signs that leave you wondering … “Do not push more than 7 pigs at a time into the CO2 supply corridors”, “Respect animals, you will respect yourself”. Pious advice distilled by the management of this establishment ensuring the killing of about 2,500 pigs per week (finally just a small drop in the ocean of slaughter practiced in France by several hundred other structures, sizes and methods vary).
Speech’s … and methods
In Houdan, the pigs are stunned before they are bled and dispensed of, this technique boils down to those who evoke something similar to that of the miners of Germinal. They move the animals to an atmosphere charged with carbon dioxide (CO2). Gas has its “advantages”: the dead animal is less tense than killing them by electrical methods, for example, in addition to contracting the flesh and making them less suitable for cutting, an industrial problem. So, they invested in these techniques for the welfare of pigs destined to for the dinner plate, among the thirty million slaughtered animals per year in France1. We are actually talking about “good” dying and not about well-being. And again, it’s okay…
Extremely violent practices
Before our eyes, there is absolutely no question of their well-being! CO2, during inhalation, causes awful distress in the animal, screaming convulsively in endless seconds before it slips into unconsciousness. But it’s not just that … To get there, in these techno cookers, pigs are driven violently by employees who are quick to accelerate the pace, using electric prods to excessively, hitting out at these pigs piled up on top of one another, because, let’s face it, the facilities are badly designed. The flow is not fluid enough, packed together in the dark, compressed, without access to water. Live pigs that are already meat on which we harp and bang on about, even the veterinarian delegated by the state shows the same example. Worse still, exposure to CO2 seems to have been reduced to speed up the process.
Serious failings
One Voice reminded the judges that pigs are highly studied animals, “a moral subject of extreme complexity and sensitivity.” The least we must do for these sentient beings that are sacrificed on masse on the altar of consumption, would be for the slaughterhouses, without which breeding would no longer exist, is to develop more virtuous practices like that of the breeders.
To marry an economic balance, respect of sanitary conditions and animal welfare is possible. But here, faced with the needs of the industrial flow, there are numerous offenses: non-compliance by these facilities, lack of training of staff for using good practices, only abuse. In short, despicable practices added to the daily horror. Fines incurred personally will be minimal on these defendants, the managers and employees of this slaughterhouse. But they remain highly symbolic: we cannot proceed in this way, especially under a notice board claiming rightly “Respect animals, respect each other…”.
You can also, as more than 500 000 other people in Europe have done, join the citizen mobilization to put an end to cage farming.
(1) Figures 2015, in Parliamentary report on slaughter conditions for slaughter animals in French slaughterhouses