Operating in more than 30 countries, JBT Marel is a global provider of equipment for stunning, slaughtering, and processing animals.
Marel is the manufacturer of the carbon dioxide gas chambers used to stun pigs. The company has 800 installations of these chambers worldwide. Marel's backloader gas chambers are the largest on the market and are capable of stunning up to 800 pigs per hour.
Our investigation into one of Marel's gas chambers at Diamond Valley Pork in Laverton revealed pigs being forced into the chamber by mechanised sliding walls. As they were lowered into the gas, the pigs thrashed around for minutes in pain.
The gas interacts with the mucus membranes in the pigs' eyes, noses, and throats, forming carbonic acid, burning them from the inside. As they struggle to breathe, the pigs frantically push their heads up, trying to reach the oxygen before eventually suffocating. Once unconscious the pigs are shackled by their legs and their throats are slit.
Marel has been part of prominent exhibitions around the world, including in Düsseldorf, Atlanta, and Copenhagen. For over a decade, FoodPro has allowed Marel to exhibit at its events in Sydney and Melbourne. While Marel is far from the only company to profit from animal slaughter, their equipment inflicts a level of suffering which the majority of Australians do not support.
We are calling on FoodPro's Event Director, Louise Brooks, to end their relationship with Marel and to no longer accept them as an exhibitor at FoodPro events.
