Animal cruelty charges pressed against slaughterhouse for boiling pigs alive

Animal rights organization Varkens in Nood filed charges of animal cruelty against a slaughterhouse for repeatedly letting pigs drown in boiling hot water. According to the organization, fines from food and consumer product safety authority NVWA clearly had no effect on the slaughterhouse, RTL Nieuws reports.

Between the fall of 2018 and mid-2019 the slaughterhouse had at least four incidents in which pigs were boiled alive. This happened in front of NVWA inspectors, according to reports from the authority. The animals were still alive when they were placed in the scalding hot bath as part of the slaughter process.

The NVWA fined the slaughterhouse 1,500 euros for this violation of the slaughtering rules. But according to Varkens in Nood, that is not enough. “These fines in no way do justice to the seriousness of the crimes. In addition, they have no deterrent effect whatsoever, as is clear from the repetition of the crime,” Frederieke Schouten of Varkens in Nood said to the broadcaster.

The NVWA blacked out the slaughterhouse’s name in its reports, so it is not clear exactly which slaughterhouse is involved. But Varkens in Nood is confident that the police can get this information from the authority.