Meat consumption is associated with the death of the animals. But does it really have to happen like in the slaughterhouse, full of fear and stress? Mobile, decentralized slaughtering should at least spare the animals unnecessary suffering.

It doesn’t know what’s happening to it. The cattle on the farm in Ratshausen on the western edge of the Swabian Alb go unsuspectingly and fearlessly into the catch box to which they have been accustomed beforehand. It begins to eat, a metal bracket is placed around its neck as soon as the animal’s head is far enough forward. Farmer Maximilian Sauter approaches, puts a bolt gun on the animal’s forehead and pulls the trigger.

Stunned, the animal collapses, is pulled in the catch box on rails into a docked trailer in no time at all, a roller door goes down. Then an incision is made in the resulting closed space, the animal bleeds out within seconds and dies. A death for the animal without pushing and shoving and without the stressful and anxious transport to the slaughterhouse.

This is the concept of mobile slaughter units and that of “Schlacht mit Warning”, which has developed such a unit over the years and has been selling it since March 2019 via the company MST Mobile-Schlachttechnik based in Kandern near Lörrach.

The way to the slaughterhouse is often an agonizingly long one for the animals. Animal rights activists, butchers, organic farmers and also state governments, such as in Baden-Württemberg, are campaigning for the slaughter of cattle and pigs close to the farm – and mobile slaughter units are suitable for this. Nationwide, interest in it is increasing, says the Association of Farmers with Artisan Meat Processing (VHLF). According to VHLF chairman Andrea Fink-Keßler, there are no statistics, but the number of mobile slaughter units is growing.

Farmer Ernst Hermann Maier from Balingen, who developed the mobile slaughter box MSB in 1995, is considered a pioneer in this field. The Lüneburg company ISS Innovative Schlachtsysteme also sells mobile manhole trailers, another variant was developed in Hesse as part of the “Extrawurst” project; there are other German manufacturers.

There are three mobile slaughterhouses from “Schlacht mit Warning” in Baden-Württemberg alone, reports Sandra Kopf, who played a key role in driving the project forward. They cost between 70,000 and 110,000 euros, depending on the equipment. Normally it takes four to six months to build them, says MST Managing Director Peter Brandmeier.

The municipality of Baiersbronn in the Black Forest has bought one, as has a butcher’s shop in Dotternhausen in the Zollernalb district – it’s the system that farmer Sauter has on the farm. He and his boss Sven Balzer, with whom he bought the facility, don’t really care whether the price for the slaughterhouse has already paid for itself. “We’re doing this for ethical reasons.”

The Green Federal Minister of Agriculture, Cem Özdemir, has also decided to expand the mobile slaughtering of animals on farms. However, the collapsing regional artisanal slaughter structure stands in the way of further spread, says Fink-Keßler from the Association of Farmers with Artisanal Meat Processing.

Farmers depend on nearby slaughterhouses when they need to bring the dead animal from their farm and to a slaughterhouse for further processing within 90 minutes.

It is controversial whether mobile slaughtering without long transport is also suitable for large industrial operations or entire regions. “Mobile slaughter is a niche for a few companies, for example with year-round grazing or direct marketing,” says Ariane Amstutz, spokeswoman for the state farmers’ association in Baden-Württemberg. The population’s demand for meat can never be met with this alternative. By far the most animals still have to be transported to the slaughterhouse.

MST managing director Peter Brandmeier, however, can hardly save himself from inquiries, as he says. He received inquiries from the USA or Israel. “The slaughter industry has its back against the wall and hasn’t changed in the last 70 years,” he says. A large meat-processing company from North Rhine-Westphalia has already taken a look at the system.