The SAP inspection service has been auditing slaughterhouses with its specialists for many years with regard to animal welfare during slaughter.
We carry out these audits on a private law basis. We do not carry out official controls!
The audits are based on animal welfare-specific inspection criteria drawn up by the SAP inspection service. These are based in part on legal requirements, but go beyond these in various areas. From November 2021, the following documents will apply to the assessment of slaughter lines:
The checklists and tools for the slaughterhouse audit can be found in the Infodesk.
From 2021, only slaughterhouses with which direct contractual agreements can be concluded will be audited.
These agreements ensure that the slaughterhouses audited by the STS inspection service
- are assessed in accordance with a publicly accessible standard under private law
- comply with clear rules and deadlines for rectifying any deficiencies found
- are publicly listed with the STS and assigned to a quality level with regard to animal welfare standards on the basis of the current audit results.
Further information is currently only available in German and French.
Why do SAP experts visit slaughterhouses at all?
Slaughter is the last step in the life of a farm animal, which cannot be prevented when animals are raised and kept for meat, milk or eggs.
However, there are many things that can be done to spare the animals a lot of stress, fear and pain and thus suffering in the last hours and minutes. The right structural measures, the sensible choice of equipment and tools and good training of the staff in the slaughterhouse are the keys.
As a pragmatically working animal welfare association, we see it as indispensable not only to preach animal welfare but to actively work on improvements and not to look the other way during the animals' last walk.
Over the last 10 years, the SAP inspection service has built up a high level of expertise in slaughtering and animal welfare. It offers audits in which animal welfare-relevant areas in slaughterhouses are analysed and assessed and deficiencies are identified. Such audits are carried out both in Switzerland and abroad.
Who supports the STS slaughterhouse audits?
In recent years, various label organisations, as well as companies in the retail trade and meat processing, have given the STS inspection service considerable support in gaining an insight into slaughterhouses in Switzerland and in some cases abroad. They have also exerted pressure for improvements as far as possible.
Sorted in chronological order of the beginning of the cooperation, the following organisations were particularly involved:
Coop Genossenschaft, IP-SUISSE, Migros Genossenschaftsbund, Lidl Schweiz, Kagfreiland, Demeter, Bio Suisse
Impact of the audits
In contrast to the animal husbandry and animal transport inspections in the label area, the SAP inspection service has not had any sanctioning options vis-à-vis the audited slaughterhouses. Therefore, with our auditing offer, we primarily focused on pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each individual slaughterhouse and on intensive contact to implement animal welfare improvements both in the overall concept of each slaughterhouse and in the small but important details.
As a result of our audits and our advice, many slaughterhouses have made great efforts in recent years and implemented improvements in the area of animal welfare, some of which were or are associated with substantial investments. Major steps have been taken in favour of animal welfare.
Other slaughterhouses, however, still have clear deficiencies. At present, we and the organisations that support us have little opportunity to directly enforce improvements against such farms. The fact that individual slaughterhouses do not implement any improvements, despite corresponding indications from the SAP inspection service, is not acceptable in the medium term for the SAP itself, for label organisations and for slaughterhouses that are striving for improvements.
From 2021, the SAP inspection service will therefore only audit slaughterhouses with which direct contractual agreements can be concluded. The main objective is to make the current audit results publicly available in aggregated form.
Slaughterhouses that work well can thus highlight their performance in a positive way. Slaughterhouses that do not allow audits by the SAP inspection service or do not comply with agreements to remedy deficiencies found will be clearly recognisable as such in future.
The SAP inspection service is currently in regular contact with around 30 mainly medium-sized to large slaughterhouses. There are over 500 slaughterhouses in Switzerland, but most of them are small to very small slaughterhouses.
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