Don't give executioners a chance inside the slaughterhouse

Just a week after the images came out, from the Flemish pig slaughterhouse in Tielt, Belgium, the discussion is still very much alive. The national media has dived on top of the news and society is clearly expressing its disgust.

In any case, one thing is certain: the pig sector is once again against appearances and is still under a magnifying glass for the time being. All this thanks to a few unscrupulous slaughterhouse workers. 

Joint responsibility
The primary process within the pig sector must be conclusive from A to Z to guarantee animal welfare. Pig farmers are responsible for the vast majority of links within this process. Let's say that pig farmers take care of the letters A to W. Farmers have to hand over the final part of the process, in which animal welfare plays a role. This is in the hands of transporters and slaughterhouses. When the pigs leave the yard, a pig farmer's responsibility essentially ends.

For the outside world, this is something different. They regard the process as a whole and judge accordingly. This means that the image of pig farmers has also been seriously damaged by a handful of slaughterhouse employees in Belgium. 

passers-by 
In practice, slaughterhouse employees are often passers-by, who are flown in from all over Europe. Without wishing to generalize, it is striking that an average parking lot of a slaughterhouse is full of a large color palette of license plates. Nothing wrong with that in itself, because thanks to 'Shengen' every European is free to go, stand and work within the continent. For companies, this is vice versa. In addition, nationality or level of education have of course nothing to do with atrocities, welfare perceptions and wrong intentions.

What matters is that the responsibility for the final piece, within the primary process in the pig sector, lies partly in the hands of flex workers and passers-by. These can seriously damage the image of the benevolent farmer. Of course, the incident in Belgium is an outrageous incident, which is miles away from the day-to-day running of practice. However, it is naive to ignore the incident. Apparently things can also go horribly wrong close to home, namely in Belgium and last year in France. With all its consequences. As a result, pig farmers, and those who care about the sector, have become embroiled in a hard-to-win 'well-being' discussion with public opinion. 

Zero Tolerance Policy
Due to incidents such as at the Flemish slaughterhouse, organizations such as Varkens in Nood have a right to exist. They are now taking the opportunity and have made an appeal to (former) employees of a slaughterhouse to report abuses to them. Ed Albers, a Rotterdam businessman, has even offered 3000 euros for those who report. The pig sector is therefore again under stricter supervision.

In principle, society has a 'zero tolerance policy' for livestock farming, which means that even the smallest abuses are widely reported. In other words, nothing can go wrong. Even a compilation with only a few small incidents, spread over a longer period of time, can seriously damage the image of the entire sector. The welfare system in the pig sector is therefore only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. The COV is inside her future vision outspoken, short shrift of any form of 'freeride behaviour' of any chain party whatsoever. An excellent move.

It may also be time for permanent camera surveillance within European slaughterhouses. In France is that already the norm. In this way, the pig sector shows complete transparency, (flexible) workers can no longer express their frustrations, sensational whistleblowers do not have to report and 'well nothing' games can actually be parried.   

Wouter Job

Wouter Baan is editor-in-chief of Boerenbusiness and Food Business. He also closely follows the raw materials markets and focuses on animal proteins such as dairy and meat. He regularly interviews leaders from the agricultural sector and the food world.

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