Why Do We Stun? Before explaining how it is, I first want to reinforce how important it is to processing plant workers that animals do not feel pain. Up to this point in this Slaughter Process Series, I’ve explained how humanely raising animals on the farm maximizes meat quantity and quality, and how proper handling once they arrive at the plant avoids injuries that can cause bruising. However, putting animals down is arguably the most important time to make sure that animals experience zero stress. Why? If an animal perceives a threat to its well-being, its heart rate will speed up and adrenaline, a hormone and neurotransmitter that provokes the natural “fight or flight” response, will be released. The adrenaline chemical is extremely damaging to the meat, and it measurably diminishes carcass quality. Here is some science:
As I explained in the introduction to this series, farms and slaughterhouses are not the same thing. If independent, the farmer gets to choose the processing plant his animals use. If contracted with a corporation, the corporation will usually choose. Either way, the slaughterhouse that is used will be selected based on proximity and how much money the producer makes. If a plant routinely causes harm to animals, not only will it be penalized in inspections, but farmers will cease to bring their animals because they won’t be getting the maximum profit. So how do slaughterhouse workers insure that animals do not suffer? Every animal must be rendered unconscious (stunned) before any harm comes to them. The act of stunning is not actually what kills them, it just makes them insensible so they do not feel the pain of the actual death. Stunning has been developed and innovated over the past half-century, allowing it to become impeccable. To pass the audit that Temple Grandin helped develop, 100% of animals must be effectively stunned. There are many ways that an animal can be stunned, and what works best for one species might actually be cruel for another. Here are the most common methods of achieving this: Captive Bolt Gun This is the most common method for cattle, but it’s also a good choice for pigs, sheep, goats, horses, and camels. Cattle are driven in a single file line into a stunning box. Temple Grandin recommends putting a light in this box to make animals feel comfortable coming near; animals are naturally drawn from dark to light areas. Basically, a captive bolt gun fires a blank cartridge into the animal’s skull to destroy the brain. This does not stop the heart from beating, so the animal is technically still alive. The gun operator must be trained to appropriately use the equipment so as they successfully stun the animal but don’t cause harm to any other pieces that have value as byproducts. The gun must be positioned in a specific place on the animal’s head (stunners use a different place depending on the species) that will allow the cartridge to bypass the skull. Here is a video narrated by Temple Grandin, that follows cattle through a plant and explains the design of stunning shoots:
Here is another video of a captive bolt gun being used properly:
Electric Stunning This method involves an electrical shock putting the animal’s brain into an epileptic state. It is considered effective to use on swine, sheep, goats, and ostriches, but is probably most common in poultry. Electric prods can be applied to the animal’s head, jaw, or neck. Unlike the captive bolt gun, electrical shock does not destroy the animal’s brain, and the animal will eventually regain consciousness, so it’s important to speedily kill the animal so this doesn’t happen. For both this and the captive bolt gun, making sure that stunning equipment is clean and fully operational is very important. Stunners should be checked daily. Here is a video of chickens being put into a comma using electrical shock:
Here is a video of sheep being stunned using an electrical shock, on site with famous chef, Gordon Ramsey:
CO2 Gassing Another way animals can be stunned is by enclosing them in a chamber that is filled up with high concentrations of carbon dioxide. Gassing is most common in swine. This is the most costly approach, but it allows large numbers of head to be stunned at one time, making it feasible for large plants. Many researchers believe this is the least humane method because they are concerned the animals feel pain associated with suffocation. Argon gas is currently being researched and may improve welfare in the future if allowed to be put into practice. Here is an explanation from Temple Grandin about the welfare of gassing in pigs and how the facility should be designed:
Here is a video of pigs being driven into the chamber and stunned using CO2 gas. As you will notice, there is some fretting of the pigs when the gas is released, but they fall unconscious within seconds. The first part of the video does a good job of showing how pigs are moved about, the actual stunning happens at 2:30:
In Conclusion Animal welfare activists refuse to believe that these methods are effective at rendering animals insensible because of viral videos showing what appear to be animals struggling to get free or crying out in pain after they have been stunned. Rigorous audits and thorough investigating have proven that alertness after stunning is extremely rare, but, for the last post in this Slaughter Process series, I will be showing some of these videos and explaining why they are either taken out of context, or are not the reality of modern day processing. After an animal is stunned, their throat is slit, which is the way that the animal actually dies. As you can see on a few of the videos, the animals are usually hung upside down to expedite blood loss. Sometimes, electrical currents are pulsed through the corpses to further speed up blood loss (this is often filmed by undercover activists who think the bodies jolting from the electric current are actually live animals struggling to get free—of course, the people they show them to are equally ignorant). The next post in this Slaughter Process will follow the animal post mortem to assess carcass handling in terms of food safety. Read previous posts in this series: Introduction Welfare on the Farm Temple Grandin Transportation Unloading & Holding
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