Dutch slaughterhouses skin calves alive, petition

This is a 19 June 2018 Dutch video by the Party for the Animals, in which their MP Esther Ouwehand advocates stopping animal abuse in Dutch slaughterhouses.

From Anneke Kooijmans – Avaaz in the Netherlands today:

Dear friends across the Netherlands,

A calf was skinned alive. Only when the butcher went on to chop off the thrashing animal’s feet did the inspector intervene. And this is just one of the many examples of animal torture in Dutch slaughterhouses. Agriculture Minister Schouten can put an end to the horror by imposing higher fines and making it easier to shut down slaughterhouses in case of repeated violations!

The minister has said that she wants to take measures. Before the parliamentary debate about torture in slaughterhouses we need to show her that citizens from across the country are watching and expect her to act!

Add your name – Avaaz and whistleblowers will deliver our voices to the Minster and we’ll place full-page ads in national newspapers:

No more animals skinned alive!

This is the most recent in a long series of scandals involving the Food Safety Authority NVWA. Each year 1.5 million farm animals are burned alive in farm fires, 3.5 million chickens were killed after a badly managed fipronil insecticide contamination, and recent undercover footage showed that ducks in breeding farms are routinely kicked and beaten to death. Just imagining my beloved pets being tortured in these horrendous ways brings tears to my eyes — that no value is attached to the life of farm animals is horrible and needs to change.

Carola Schouten grew up surrounded by animals. Now, as Minister, she has her hands full with one horrible animal torture scandal after another. She has already said she wants to change the way slaughterhouse inspections are done — but many inspectors have ties with the industry and will push back.

Let’s make sure the Minister keeps her foot down. Add your name here.

No more animals skinned alive!

Avaazers love animals. Tens of thousands of us donated to fund undercover journalism in slaughterhouses, and we’re already exposing the brutality of this practice. And more than 750,000 European Avaazers took action against farm fires. Let’s raise our voices again, to make sure that no more animals are skinned alive.

With hope and determination,

Anneke, Alice, Elana, Diego and the entire Avaaz team

More information:

Animals boiled alive in Dutch Slaughterhouses (NLTimes)
https://nltimes.nl/2018/06/20/animals-boiled-alive-dutch-slaughterhouses

In Dutch:

Dieren levend gekookt en gevild in Nederlandse slachthuizen (RTL Nieuws)
https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nederland/dieren-levend-gekookt-en-gevild-in-nederlandse-slachthuizen

Dierenartsen noemen lage boetes na gruwelen in slachthuizen ‘absurd’ (Zembla)
https://zembla.bnnvara.nl/nieuws/dierenartsen-noemen-lage-boetes-na-gruwelen-in-slachthuizen-absurd

Minister: slachthuis eerder sluiten bij misstanden (RTL Nieuws)
https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nederland/politiek/minister-slachthuis-eerder-sluiten-bij-misstanden

Images of baby animals reduce people’s appetite for meat say researchers, who found that the effect is much stronger for women than for men. The findings may reflect women’s greater emotional attunement towards babies and, by extension, their tendency to empathize more with baby animals. Also, meat is associated with masculinity and images of tough men who consume meat for muscle building protein, along with prehistoric ideas of the male as hunter: here.