Things are still going badly at a number of duck farms. From new images by animal rights organisation Animal Rights reveals that the ducks are treated harshly before going to slaughter. The organisation also raised the abuses in 2018.
Footage shows employees throwing ducks into crates, throwing the animals and also deliberately stepping on them. According to Animal Rights, the ducks get trapped and it is very stressful for the animals.
Duck breeders deploy special 'catching teams' to load the ducks into crates for transport to the slaughterhouse. Animal Rights filmed at more than five farms from public roads and with drones how the duck catchers operate.
"These new images show that there is still a corporate culture of disregard and disregard for animal welfare," said Erwin Vermeulen of Animal Rights.
Six years ago, activists went undercover at such a trapping unit. They then also brought out footage of animal cruelty. At the time, regulator NVWA imposed fines of 1,500 euros on the companies.
The industry then drew up new rules. For instance, loading had to be done calmly and ducks were no longer allowed to be thrown. The new footage shows that the new rules are not being followed, Animal Rights says.
The NVWA will investigate the footage. "On the footage we see that the people catching the ducks are doing so in an unnecessarily crude way," said a spokesperson. "That is really not acceptable." The regulator is going to try to identify the companies and employees in the images so that they can enforce.
Source: https://nos.nl/artikel/2534477-eendenfokkerijen-gooien-nog-steeds-met-dieren-nvwa-doet-onderzoek
