Animal rights organization Animal Rights Watch denounces CO2 stunning

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Wages – Screaming pigs try to break out of their tightly locked cages in panic, frantically trampling over each other. Traces of blood on the metal bars indicate that the animals are injured. The photos and videos taken by the animal rights organization Animal Rights Watch (ARIWA) are intended to show how much the animals suffer before they are slaughtered in an animal welfare slaughterhouse in Lohne (Vechta district). ARIWA says it has filed a complaint against the company. Meanwhile, the management of the medium-sized slaughterhouse has denied the allegations.

“Brutal process”

According to ARIWA, stunning pigs with CO
2
generally a “brutal and cruel” process. The alleged events in the Lohne slaughterhouse are therefore not an isolated case. According to a statement by the German Legal Society for Animal Welfare Law, the process causes “considerable pain and suffering” in the animals, as the carbon dioxide irritates the mucous membranes and leads to breathlessness and feelings of suffocation. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the greatest risks to animal welfare in the slaughter process throughout Europe come from misconduct by inadequately trained staff.