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Dear donors and friends,

On the brink of the new year, hereby our last newsletter of 2017. In recent months, thanks to your support, we have been able to do a lot for the animals.

Therefore we would like to share our successes, big and small, with you, to enter the new year with a positive feeling.
 

ZDF documentary landed like a bom 

The documentary broadcasted on the German television channel ZDF about the export of European cattle had a major impact. The German political party CDU called on the EU Commissioner for Agriculture to immediately prohibit the export of slaughter animals to third countries. Even the German farmers' organization WLV demanded an export ban. Watch the documentary and the interview with our director Lesley Moffat here. The images were made by inspectors from Eyes on Animals and AWF|TSB and are not suitable for sensitive viewers.

Stricter rules now for goat farms after we exposed cruelty 

This summer we exposed major animal suffering on a goat farm in The Netherlands. In a letter that the Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Carola Schouten, recently sent to the House, it was confirmed that there were 34 dead goats in the stable we inspected and another 50 in the cadaver bin. No less than 16 still-living goats were in such bad condition that they had to be euthanized immediately by the veterinarian authorities we had called in. In addition to the letter, the MPs received the Plan of Action to reduce the high mortality in goat kids. This plan states that from 1 January 2018 onwards dairy goat farmers are obliged to keep a record of the lamb mortality on their farm. If it is too high, the farmer must develop a plan of action to reduce mortality. If the plan does not help, then the milk can no longer be sold. Our inspection made a difference! Naturally, we will continue such inspections to continue the exposure.

Manufacturer adapts poultry-containers 

Something as simple as a floor that is too slippery can have major consequences for the welfare of chickens during transport. They slide about, cannot keep their balance and injure themselves. After we released video images of this problem, the company Meyn - one of the largest manufacturers of poultry containers and slaughter lines in the world - decided to change the flooring of all of their transport containers. Now the floors will be anti-slip. A small step that makes a big difference for millions of chickens!

Egg label “Kipster” dedicated to improve welfare during catching 

After Rondeel, now a second poultry company has announced that they want to improve the catching and loading of their laying-hens, Kipster. The current method of catching, in which 3-5 hens are grabbed by their legs, held upside down and stuffed headfirst into crates, does not suit the higher-welfare standards that Rondeel and Kipster are trying to achieve. Eyes on Animals therefore negotiated with both egg companies and successfully convinced them to enforce the more animal-friendly 'Swedish' method of poultry-catching. Here the hens are grabbed 1 or 2 at a time and kept upright, supported under the breast – and placed feet first into the crate.

Dutch poultry slaughterhouse reduces stress 

At poultry slaughterhouse Remkes, chickens are transported to a gas stunning tunnel on a conveyor belt while they are in crates. Here the chickens are rendered unconscious before slaughter. During our visit we saw that the conveyor belt caused a lot of stress; the conveyor belt moved abruptly and made a lot of noise: something that chickens are very sensitive to. On our advice, the company has adjusted the settings of the conveyor belt whereby it moves more smoothly and produces less noise. Read more about this visit

Fines for animal welfare violations during transport 

Together with the Polish highway police, Eyes on Animals and TSB|AWF stopped and inspected several livestock trucks. Monetary fines were imposed for overloading, the absence of partitions and poor maintenance. Read more about this enforcement here

Rubber mats for calves in Dutch slaughterhouse 

Recently we visited calf slaughterhouse Vitelco. As with other slaughterhouses in The Netherlands, animals arriving with abnormalities (for example, an infected tail or laming) are only allowed to be slaughtered at the end of the day to avoid the unfounded risk of contaminating the slaughter line. These weaker animals thus have to wait for hours at the slaughterhouse in a stressful environment.These calves at Vitelco were waiting on a cold concrete floor. We therefore asked the managers to put down rubber mats so that they at least had something softer and thermally insulated to lie down on. Vitelco organized this right after we made the recommendation. Of course, a rubber mat is only a small gesture, but is reduces some of the suffering.  Read more about this visit
Further:
  • We were hired to give a presentation about the welfare advantages of keeping calves with their mothers on dairy farms at an international conference for dairy farmers organized by the company Lely. Read more…
  • We gave animal-welfare training courses to 20 chicken-catchers from poultry service company Pots. Read more…
  • We have talked again with supermarket chains such as Marqt and Jumbo to keep up the pressure for them to sell milk from dairy farms where the calves are not taken away from the mother cow but kept together for 3 months...
  • We gave a 2-day training course to a group of officials from the South Korean Ministry of Food Safety about animal welfare regulations in Europe.
  • Our colleagues visited the slaughterhouses in Ghana again, so that our points for improvement are implemented and the suffering of animals will be reduced. Read more…
Without your help we could not do our inspection work. Every single gift, big or small, is really needed and very welcome!
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Eyes on Animals · Postbus 59504 · Amsterdam, NH 1040 LA · Netherlands

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