His Excellency
Hatem Seif El Nasr
Ambassador
Embassy of Arab Republic of Egypt
Dear Ambassador,
Compassion in World Farming’s new film entitled A Path to Better Futures? – the need for implementation of the OIE recommendations on animal welfare contains extremely distressing footage of the slaughter of animals in Egypt.
Indeed Compassion in World Farming’s Chief Executive Philip Lymbery says that it is the most distressing film he has ever seen in his 20 plus years working in the field of animal welfare.
The film
The film was shot in three countries – Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia. The following scenes in the film were all shot in Egypt:
We see slaughtermen severing the leg tendons of cattle with a knife in order to make them easier to control.
Cattle are beaten on the head with a large pole. In some cases it takes several blows before the animal is so dazed that it falls to the ground, at which point its throat is cut.
In some Egyptian abattoirs the slaughtermen do not perform a proper full cut across the throat which would produce rapid death. Instead they simply stab the knife into the neck. Even after several such stabs, the animals remain standing on all four legs while they slowly bleed from the neck. Eventually – sometimes minutes after the first stab -– the animals collapse to the ground.
We see a camel being slaughtered so ineffectively that it remains standing after the knife cut. Only after a minute does it eventually fall to the ground.
Finally we see a bovine being slaughtered in the street. He is hacked and slashed by three men with knives and takes an extremely long time to die.
Action needed
Everything shown in the film is in breach of the OIE standards on animal welfare during slaughter. As a member of the OIE, Egypt is obliged to comply with its standards.
I urge Egypt to take immediate action to ensure that slaughter operations are carried out in accordance with the OIE standards.
Yours sincerely,
