EonA team was invited by an egg farmer to his laying-hen farm tonight in Drenthe to check how his 9000 spent-hens will be caught and loaded for transport to slaughter. He was open to our opinion and to exchange ideas on how to improve welfare and to test out the "EonA Dutch method" of catching the birds together with the catching crew. Normally all spent laying-hens are … [Read more...] about Inspection of chicken-catching at a farm in the Netherlands
transport
Eyes on Animals part of EU project on guidelines for better animal-welfare during transport, Brussels
In 2015 Eyes on Animals was asked to be a stakeholder in a 3-year EU-project to identify best practices on how to better protect animals from suffering during transport. Today was the second meeting to work on these guidelines. Our knowledge and evidence from the field was important to show what really goes on in practice, both the bad practices and the improvements some … [Read more...] about Eyes on Animals part of EU project on guidelines for better animal-welfare during transport, Brussels
Checking pig trucks in line at VION slaughterhouse, Boxtel (NL)
Today we made an unannounced visit to the pig slaughterhouse VION in Boxtel. The purpose of this visit was to check the pig trucks and to discuss with the drivers possible improvements to the trucks to improve animal -welfare. The loading density of the pigs on the trucks we checked on was in accordance with the EU legislation, nevertheless we thought that the pigs in some … [Read more...] about Checking pig trucks in line at VION slaughterhouse, Boxtel (NL)
Meeting with the Dutch authorities (nVWA)
Today Eyes on Animals met with government officials and inspectors from the nVWA at their headquarters in Utrecht. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the complaints we sent in about livestock transport violations and poor conditions on several farms and to catch up on other on-going issues such as best-practices, chicken-catching, livestock truck design and on-farm … [Read more...] about Meeting with the Dutch authorities (nVWA)
Eyes on Animals and TSB/AWF give a talk to Dutch authorities about livestock truck design and animal-welfare
Roughly 40 officials from the Dutch government, responsible for checking on livestock trucks on the road and handing out the approval certificate of the livestock vehicle, attended our 2-hour presentation on "truck-design". We showed photos and videos showing how the design of the truck and its water systems, dividers, fans, floor space etc... can have a huge impact on the … [Read more...] about Eyes on Animals and TSB/AWF give a talk to Dutch authorities about livestock truck design and animal-welfare