20. February 2018

Argentina | Buenos Aires | Lamar slaughterhouse

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Our team visits slaughterhouse Lamar at early morning. The lairage area is crowded with horses. An employee starts hosing them down, splashing water also in their faces. The floor of the pens is wet and gets very slippery. The handling of the horses is unprofessional and rough. At the entrance of the stunning chute, one or two employees are hitting the horses with flags and sticks to make them enter the chute. Most horses are frightened and reluctant to enter the building and some are hit frantically. We observe the animals in the lairage area and detect that some of them are extremely emaciated, injured or lame. A white horse has a bleeding injury on the forehead, likely from transport. In Argentina, cattle trucks are used to transport horses and their trap-doors are much too low, causing head injuries.

Like in the years before and despite our numerous complaints, the large paddocks behind the plant still offer no shelter from sun and rain. There are still no isolation pens for animals that require specific care, neither are emergency killing procedures applied to animals that are severely injured and in pain. According to Article 3 of EU Regulation No 1099/2009, which also applies in third countries exporting meat to the EU, animals shall be spared any avoidable pain, distress or suffering during their killing and related operations.