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Dear supporters,

Working in Turkish slaughterhouses is always frustrating. It is crucial that we are there, because the animals suffer horrendously and need help. It is also not hopeless; numerous improvements are now in place and a shift in thinking has begun. However, after hundreds of years of bad habits, religious traditions and a lack of information on new, more humane slaughter techniques in the Turkish language, change is slow and unpredictable... Never before was that so evident as last week.

The ups : Asalet and I returned to Corlu, the very first and still only cattle slaughterhouse in Turkey to stun cattle (render them unsconcious prior to slaughter).
Thanks to financial help from Toennies and Hunland, we bought them a stunner and installed it last July. The rate of cattle being stunned is up, from 20% in the summer to now 80% because more and more of their customers have seen the benefits with their own eyes, and dropped all their negative misconceptions about stunning not being Halal.

The manager and veterinarian are a pleasure to work with; they are open to this change and eager to learn more. Everyone who works at this plant is being educated, their eyes are opening and a seed of change has been planted.
The downs: On the next day we went to Yalova slaughterhouse. We were told that the director of the plant would accept a stunner and start rendering the cattle unconscious prior to hoisting them up and cutting their throats.

We again asked stakeholders from the livestock industry if they could finance a stunner for another Turkish slaughterhouse, Pezzaioli truck manufacturing company in Italy responded positively. On the morning of February 22, engineers arrived with the stunner and together we installed it.
But as the first cow was rendered unconscious and fell to the ground, one of the cattle traders screamed out that we had killed her, and as one of the guidelines in Halal is not to eat carrion, he claimed the carcass was no longer Halal.

The workers and director who had 5 minutes earlier listened attentively to the instructions on how the stunner works, were now all nervous and the atmosphere changed drastically. We were told to dismantle the stunner and take it back.  

Meanwhile they went back to their regular way of slaughtering cattle, chaining the cattle by one leg or even by their horns, hoisting them all the way off the floor and cutting their throats while fully conscious.
The conditions are disturbing, but we cannot look away or give up. We will work on educating the customers of Yalova or find another slaughterhouse open to the concept of rendering animals unconscious first. 

Please, help us keep up these efforts in Turkey.

Lesley
Below is a short film about this story.
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