Uruguay | Totoral del Sauce | Slaughterhouse Clay | Horsemeat Import
Injured horses that can only stand on three legs.
Horses are moved through low trap-door.
Unloading at slaughterhouse Clay – worker moving horses from above, what frightens them.
When we arrive at the slaughterhouse Clay at 10:30, there are two groups of horses in the pens next to the loading ramp of the collecting station. Some horses Areal ready standing in the raceway leading to the ramp. Apparently, the horses from the collecting station are loaded onto a truck to be brought over to the slaughterhouse,which is located only a few hundred meters away. We notice that these horses all have ear tags, whereas several horses in other pens do not have any. It has to bequestioned if the horses get the ear tags just shorty before being slaughtered. In the group standing closer to the main road, we detect two horses with leg injuries that are unfit for transport. Both injured horses can only bear weight on three legs. They both hold up the injured leg and their posture indicates pain.
At 12:30, a horse transporter arrives at the slaughterhouse Clay and backs up to the unloading ramp. An employee of Clay climbs up to the open top of the lorry and stands on the metal bars above the horses’ heads, what frightens them. He climbs down as soon as he sees us. We note that several horses have auction tags attached to their backs. The horses do not have ear tags. It is very questionable why horses without ear tags but with auction tags are unloaded at the slaughter plant and not at Clay’s collecting station. These horses should first have to go to a collecting station for quarantine, where they get the ear tags. In Uruguay, only horses with eartags can be legally slaughtered. When the trailer is empty, the workers do not unhitchit from the lorry, but move the horses through the low trap-doors between lorry and trailer – a procedure that holds a high risk of head injuries. We note that the taller horses not only have to lower their head but their whole body, as they would touch the trap-doors with their withers and back. Indeed, a grey horse touches the trapdoorwith his back and goes down. A brown horse is severely lame and several horses are thin with their hip bones clearly showing.
