Dear donors and friends,

We have just returned from Ghana where we, together with the local inspection organization WACPAW and stunning expert Dr. Fuseini, gave animal welfare trainings to more than 150 slaughterers, transporters and agricultural students. We also visited several slaughterhouses and cattle markets - to give immediate advice and assistance to animals in distress.

The animal suffering that we saw in Ghana is burned forever in our memories. The completely exhausted cattle being tugged on by their broken tails, the cattle that were transported with all four legs and neck tied up, the cattle that collapsed time and time again when unloaded... the animals that suffered long agonizing deaths after having their necks cut while still conscious and the tethered goats that were screaming while being thrown down from the trucks... The sheer panic and pain that these animals have to go through is almost unbearable.

But we also have hope. Our visit to Ghana shook people awake and delivered concrete results.

RESULTS

In Ghanaian slaughterhouses, the animal's throat is cut without stunning. We therefore purchased and had flown over four captive bolt guns and 8000 cartridges. We donated the captive bolt guns to the Agricultural University of Cape Coast and the University for Development Studies in Tamale. Both universities have a slaughterhouse on campus where many animals are killed every day and meat is sold. The captive bolt guns we gave them are now used to stun all animals before slaughter and to train slaughterers to stun their animals. A major achievement!

The slaughterhouse in Tamale, which was chaotic and horrible, is keen on the design we made on how to improve the slaughterhouse dramatically. As a result, live animals will no longer be dragged through the slaughterhouse and animals will be put out of their misery faster. Also, the drain-pit at the entrance of the slaughterhouse, which animals regularly fell into and injured their legs, will be covered.

At the slaughterhouse in Cape Coast animals only lost consciousness after a long struggle. The knife with which their throat was cut was not sharp enough and the throat wound made contact with the ground. This complicates the bleeding out and, in addition, causes incredible pain. The animals also had to wait for several minutes while they were already tied up in the slaughter area because the slaughterer still needed to sharpen his knives. We also saw that dressing procedures were carried out on animals that were still conscious. We have convinced the slaughterhouse to use sharper knives, to bring animals to the slaughter area only when the slaughterer is ready (to avoid the tethered animals waiting even longer), to monitor the consciousness of the animals before dressing procedures are carried out and to use a v-shaped table to hold sheep and goats - so that the throat wound does not come into contact with the ground.

We advised the cattle market in Tamale to build two proper loading ramps, so that animals can walk by themselves into the truck. Until now animals are beaten, tugged, dragged and lifted with a high degree of violence towards the trucks. We have also raised the issue that the animals have water permanently available and a separate and quiet space made for injured and weakened animals. WACPAW is currently working on these ideas.

We are relieved and proud that together, with the amazing people of WACPAW and Dr. Fuseini, we were able to put some concrete steps into practice right away. But we also realize that structural animal-welfare improvements are only possible if we persist and carry out regular checks. In the coming months, WACPAW will ensure that slaughterhouses, cattle markets and transporters actually do take action. Eyes on Animals will advise them from a distance and visit Ghana again in 2018.

We would like to thank you, our donors, very much. Thanks to your financial and emotional support, our team was able to go to Ghana to record the abuses, give advice and provide assistance.

To continue our project in Ghana, we will need some more financial help. For example, we would like to purchase more captive bolt guns, so that more Ghanaian slaughterhouses can also stun the animals prior to slaughtering them. We also want to check on more slaughterhouses and livestock markets. Will you help us?

IBAN: NL73TRIO0212364219 / BIC: TRIONL2U

Thank you very much, also on behalf of Dr. Fuseini and the team of WACPAW,

Lesley and Madelaine

Abdul-Rahman Safian, Executive Director WACPAW:
"WACPAW is grateful to EonA for the recent training of Ghanaian academics, slaughter operatives, veterinarians and other stakeholders in the meat industry. The training and provision of captive bolt guns has resulted in a number of abattoirs now stunning animals before killing them. What a change this makes!”