What is the best way to euthanize Livestock?

Ninas

Ninas

Jedi
Hello Everyone,


In light of many Facebook Videos that keep popping up on my Newsfeed about the pain that Animals go through when they are being butchered, and all of the posts of Cows, Chickens, Ducks, Pigs, etc. being slaughtered inhumanely, I got to thinking, what would be the most humane way to dispatch livestock according to the C's?

Like, What is the best, least painful, most humane way to kill a Cow, or a Horse, or a Pig, or a Chicken?

I understand that Humans need Meat to survive and the best protein is derived from Animals, however, it does get to me when I see the way that they are treated before dying.

Does anyone know if the C's have ever mentioned the appropriate method or way that (let's just say it) an Animal should be slaughtered? :huh:


In Austria for example: They drug the Pigs with CO2 before cutting their throats but the Pigs are terrified, still, I can't help but think that this is much better than what they do in the States and other places, where they just turn them around and cut their throats or worse...

Please see Video below for reference…

https://www.facebook.com/VGT-Slaughterhouse-Scandal-1684300075178604/

What do you think?
 
We have steers, alpacas and chickens. I have agonized about how best to kill chickens and have come to the conclusion that breaking their neck is quick and as painless as it gets. We have a device which does this but you can also do it by hand, lots of videos on the internet about how to do it.

As far as larger animals are concerned, we have them corralled with a companion or two, and the home kill man calmly strolls up and shoots them in the head with a 22 rifle and them quickly slits their throat. I have witnessed this with 4 animals so far and can attest that it is quick and painless, they literally do not know what is going on. We then quickly move their companion animals back to their paddock while the home kill man skins the animal, guts it and takes it away to the butcher.

None of that sounds nice, but it is our responsibility to carry it out and witness what is going on
 
At our property, dealing with all culling is my responsibility. Besides dealing with our own livestock, I also get to dispatch the pests and predators we trap on the property. There are 2 in particular, feral cats and possums.

Feral cats are big brutes of things, heavily boned and only bearing a faint resemblance to the domestic cat and these represent about 50% of the cats we catch. The rest are domestic cats whose owners have tired of them and who dump them in the bush in the countryside as an easy way to get rid of them. Cats create a real issue for us. They hunt chicks and in some case chickens (we have lost 2 full size hens to feral cats)as well as just wipe out the native birds and other native fauna. They are very cunning and quite difficult to trap.

However once trapped there is the issue of killing them humanely. When we moved to our property 3 years ago, a neighbour told us the best way was to drown them in a stock water trough. We were appalled and thought less highly of the neighbour until we had to deal with the issue ourselves. I thought that shooting them would be the best option. However the first (and only) cat I tried to shoot was a complete debacle. First it is really hard to get a kill shot as the cat is leaping and snarling in the trapping cage. It took me 6 shots before the darned thing died and frankly it was horrible. As my neighbour pointed out after the event, it was also dangerous due to the risk of a bullet ricocheting off the metal cage. So now we drown them. I drop their cage in the stock trough. leave them about 30 seconds then place their bodies in our offal pit.

Possums are an introduced pest from Australia. They are omnivores, opportunistic predators and strip fruit trees and vege gardens. Ultimately we no drown those as well

Hard facts, but these are the best ways I have found to deal with these animals
 
We had a long discussion about this here once too because it does prey on the mind. I had read once that one reason people commit suicide in their cars with CO2 was because it was completely painless - you just feel tired and go to sleep. So that was where I ended up: put the critters in a CO2 chamber. I guess if you had a number of them to do at once, it would actually work faster because they would all be using up the oxygen. Probably would want to put some kind of harness on them beforehand and have a ceiling hoist that moves around on tracks or something to pick them up for processing.

I've read that certain African tribes live on the blood of their livestock and just bleed them periodically to get some blood. The critter doesn't die, just heals up to be tapped again and again. It seems that they may actually get used to being bled regularly and don't put up a big fuss. If that is the case, perhaps one way would be to just open a tap in a major artery/vein and let them bleed out. That is also supposed to be a "gentle" way to go.

But both of these ideas involve time and some complicated maneuvers. I guess the shooting them in the head and then cutting the throat is about as quick and efficient as it gets. I suppose that there is a hoist of some sort to hold them in place for the bleeding out and processing?
 
As far as larger animals are concerned, we have them corralled with a companion or two, and the home kill man calmly strolls up and shoots them in the head with a 22 rifle and them quickly slits their throat.
Click to expand...

May I ask why you have a companion in there with them?
One thing with halal slaughter/butchering, is that it is to be done solo, (like in a small enclosed place which can be cleaned before bringing in the next animal) so as not to terrify the other critters of the herd/flock. We should be as kind as possible in every way when taking a life.
 
Yupo said:
May I ask why you have a companion in there with them?
One thing with halal slaughter/butchering, is that it is to be done solo, (like in a small enclosed place which can be cleaned before bringing in the next animal) so as not to terrify the other critters of the herd/flock. We should be as kind as possible in every way when taking a life.
Click to expand...

Some time ago I also did research on the topic of the most humane way of killing cattle. And the way Flashgordonv described (casually walking by and then one shot in the forehead) appears to be the most "stress free" method for the animal. Of course a gun with silencer is preferable (and if possible).

The reason for having other animals around is also stress related, as they will be more stressed if they will find themselves suddenly alone, separated from the rest. Sometimes, especially with beef cattle, it is very hard to separate them and catch one specific cow. Veterinarians know it very well, since it can take hours just to single out one beef cow. That's why a gun with silencer is better, because this way other cows won't even realize what happened if they will suddenly see another cow falling down. And then the rest of the animals can be led to the paddock before the skinning process. But then, it is probably hard to find professionals like this everywhere that can do this kind of slaughter, not to mention having a silencer.

I also heard that in some places in Europe (maybe also in US?) there is even a "moving slaughter house", where after killing the animal they put it on the hoist and do the skinning in the car. But this service is apparently pretty pricey.

With pigs, especially when slaughtering a bunch of them, indeed doing it with CO2 appears to be the least stressful. They are very sensitive animals, and will stress out no matter what, especially if they need to be moved from one location to another. So for them CO2 is really like going to sleep.

BUT, in order for it to be really humane, it should be done in a well-organized manner, so pigs wouldn't realize what was about to happen. Here is an example of extremely bad executing of this method. Basically in this case pigs had all the prior indications possible of what was to come, so surely it turned out to be rather horrible. But if done properly, it appears to be the best way that was invented so far. Even Temple Grandin, cited in the article, said that this was "an example of a humane practice being poorly executed."
 
When I lived in the country, we would get steer yearly from our neighbor down the road. He would put the steer in a paddock the animal was familiar with. Another man was in a blind outside the paddock who put it down with a .22 rifle and then cut the throat for the bleeding out. It happened so quickly the steer barely had time to realized he was alone. The rest of the herd was far away, and had no idea what was happening. It seemed as humane a way to do things as possible.
 
herondancer said:
When I lived in the country, we would get steer yearly from our neighbor down the road. He would put the steer in a paddock the animal was familiar with. Another man was in a blind outside the paddock who put it down with a .22 rifle and then cut the throat for the bleeding out. It happened so quickly the steer barely had time to realized he was alone. The rest of the herd was far away, and had no idea what was happening. It seemed as humane a way to do things as possible.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good combination.
 
Laura said:
We had a long discussion about this here once too because it does prey on the mind. I had read once that one reason people commit suicide in their cars with CO2 was because it was completely painless - you just feel tired and go to sleep. So that was where I ended up: put the critters in a CO2 chamber. I guess if you had a number of them to do at once, it would actually work faster because they would all be using up the oxygen. Probably would want to put some kind of harness on them beforehand and have a ceiling hoist that moves around on tracks or something to pick them up for processing.

I've read that certain African tribes live on the blood of their livestock and just bleed them periodically to get some blood. The critter doesn't die, just heals up to be tapped again and again. It seems that they may actually get used to being bled regularly and don't put up a big fuss. If that is the case, perhaps one way would be to just open a tap in a major artery/vein and let them bleed out. That is also supposed to be a "gentle" way to go.

But both of these ideas involve time and some complicated maneuvers. I guess the shooting them in the head and then cutting the throat is about as quick and efficient as it gets. I suppose that there is a hoist of some sort to hold them in place for the bleeding out and processing?
Click to expand...

Yes indeed. The Home Kill man has a truck with a hoist. He lifts up the carcass, skins and guts it, (we get to dispose of the guts into the offal pit) and then hauls the carcass into the truck and takes it to the butcher for processing. This method of disposing of the animals sounds harsh, but it is really quick and efficient. We always make sure we are there to witness it as well. All part of the process of raising your own livestock
 
Yupo said:
As far as larger animals are concerned, we have them corralled with a companion or two, and the home kill man calmly strolls up and shoots them in the head with a 22 rifle and them quickly slits their throat.
Click to expand...

May I ask why you have a companion in there with them?
One thing with halal slaughter/butchering, is that it is to be done solo, (like in a small enclosed place which can be cleaned before bringing in the next animal) so as not to terrify the other critters of the herd/flock. We should be as kind as possible in every way when taking a life.
Click to expand...

Good question. The reason is that these are herd animals, and they become really afraid if they are penned by themselves. Their whole life has been led associating with other animals, with which they form strong bonds and to separate them leads to extreme distress.
 
Laura said:
We had a long discussion about this here once too because it does prey on the mind. I had read once that one reason people commit suicide in their cars with CO2 was because it was completely painless - you just feel tired and go to sleep. So that was where I ended up: put the critters in a CO2 chamber. I guess if you had a number of them to do at once, it would actually work faster because they would all be using up the oxygen. Probably would want to put some kind of harness on them beforehand and have a ceiling hoist that moves around on tracks or something to pick them up for processing.

I've read that certain African tribes live on the blood of their livestock and just bleed them periodically to get some blood. The critter doesn't die, just heals up to be tapped again and again. It seems that they may actually get used to being bled regularly and don't put up a big fuss. If that is the case, perhaps one way would be to just open a tap in a major artery/vein and let them bleed out. That is also supposed to be a "gentle" way to go.

But both of these ideas involve time and some complicated maneuvers. I guess the shooting them in the head and then cutting the throat is about as quick and efficient as it gets. I suppose that there is a hoist of some sort to hold them in place for the bleeding out and processing?
Click to expand...

After viewing the video myself and from what I've read on this thread, the thought occurred to me about indoctrinating the Animals, but this would only be possible if a Slaughter House is willing and committed to following the best possible standards, and as Laura mentioned, it could be somewhat time consuming…

The Factory/Slaughterhouse could be set up in such a way as to have Metal Partitions set up along a passage. There would be one path that separates into two, via these divisions. One path would lead out of the Factory and it would only be used to indoctrinate the Animals that this is routine and nothing is going to happen to them, and the other would lead to Slaughter via the CO2 Method and the partitions would be used to block off the view to the other Animals of the actual Slaughter. The first few times, it's understandable that the Animal would be confused and scared, but after doing this several times and leading them to Freedom, they would just start to take it as routine.

I don't know, but it's the best that I can come up with in regards to Mass Production becoming more Humane :huh: Any thoughts?
 
Yupo said:
As far as larger animals are concerned, we have them corralled with a companion or two, and the home kill man calmly strolls up and shoots them in the head with a 22 rifle and them quickly slits their throat.
Click to expand...

May I ask why you have a companion in there with them?
One thing with halal slaughter/butchering, is that it is to be done solo, (like in a small enclosed place which can be cleaned before bringing in the next animal) so as not to terrify the other critters of the herd/flock. We should be as kind as possible in every way when taking a life.
Click to expand...

Halal butchering is not very pleasant to the critter and undoubtedly leads to stress hormones being released and contaminating the meat. Basically, the main difference is that the animal is blessed and usually NOT stunned before his throat is cut. This kind of animal slaughtering as been banned in some EU countries because it is not humane.
 
Laura said:
Yupo said:
As far as larger animals are concerned, we have them corralled with a companion or two, and the home kill man calmly strolls up and shoots them in the head with a 22 rifle and them quickly slits their throat.
Click to expand...

May I ask why you have a companion in there with them?
One thing with halal slaughter/butchering, is that it is to be done solo, (like in a small enclosed place which can be cleaned before bringing in the next animal) so as not to terrify the other critters of the herd/flock. We should be as kind as possible in every way when taking a life.
Click to expand...

Halal butchering is not very pleasant to the critter and undoubtedly leads to stress hormones being released and contaminating the meat. Basically, the main difference is that the animal is blessed and usually NOT stunned before his throat is cut. This kind of animal slaughtering as been banned in some EU countries because it is not humane.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's not very pleasant. See also here. The Farm Animal Welfare Council (Fawc) concluded after a study of this practice that: "such an injury would result in significant pain and distress ... before insensibility supervenes. Fawc is in agreement with the prevailing scientific consensus that slaughter without pre-stunning causes pain and distress."

"One Muslim organisation, the Halal Food Authority, already insists on the slaughterhouses it regulates stunning animals first on welfare grounds, as long as they are still alive when their throats are slit. But in other halal and almost all kosher slaughterhouses, animals have their throats slit without prior stunning which would render them insensible to the pain. Religious groups say that doing so would be against their interpretation of religious texts."
 
I did some checking and apparently pro-Halal people site a research, where EEG and ECG recordings were taken during Halal slaughter and during Western method of slaughter with stunning. Well, if this research was done properly, their findings are rather interesting. But not in a sense that it makes Halal slaughtering the most humane one. I actually still think that animals do feel pain and distress in this kind of slaughter.

But in my opinion it shows in a pretty clear way that stunning animals isn't at all a humane way of slaughtering. One shot in the brain seems like the best way of doing it. Slaughter houses don't want to do it primarily because they can't drain the blood properly afterwards. If the heart stops, there is no circulation and no proper blood drainage.

That is basically the main reason why Halal slaughter is being done the way it is being done, because Kosher meat should be completely devoid of blood before consumption. They even add salt to the meat in order to remove all the leftover blood. For example, if you buy kosher meat in Israel (which is all meat, except for "Russian stores" that sell pork), you shouldn't add salt while cooking and before tasting it, because it can be already salted enough.

Here is the summary of the research and experiment. In my personal opinion, even if in this particular experiment Halal slaughter looked better in comparison to stunning, it doesn't mean that Halal is humane. Notice that reactions varied between animals. In comparison to both methods, a shot in the brain that is done by professional is the best way for the animals.

The investigations had the following results:

a) For slaughter by ritual cut:
1. After the bloodletting cut the EEG initially is the same as the EEG before the cut. There is a high probability that the loss of reaction took place within 4 – 6 seconds for sheep and within 10 seconds for calves.
2. The zero line in the EEG was recorded no later than after 13 seconds for 17 sheep and no later than 23 seconds for 7 calves.
3. Thermal pain stimuli did not cause an increase in activity.
4. After the cut the heart frequency rose for calves within 40 seconds to 240 heart actions per minute and for sheep within 40 seconds to 280 heart actions per minute.

b) For slaughter after captive bolt application:
1. After captive bolt stunning all animals displayed most severe general disturbances (waves of 1-2 Hz) in the EEG, which almost with certainty eliminates a sense of pain.
2. The zero line in the EEG was reached for 4 calves after 28 seconds.
3. For two sheep the cerebral cortex activity only stopped in one half of the brain, whilst it continued in the other in the –region (up to 3.5 Hz) until the bloodletting cut.
4. The bloodletting cut resulted for all animals in a brain activity (e and d waves).
5. Thermal pain stimuli caused an increase in activity in one sheep.
6. The heart frequency rose directly after stunning to values above 300 actions per minute.

In summary the following conclusions are possible:

1. Slaughter after captive bolt stunning

A. Calves
After captive bolt stunning most severe general disturbances (waves of 1-2 Hz) occurred in the EEG, which almost with certainty eliminates a sense of pain.

B. Sheep
Similar disturbances were also seen in sheep, but besides the somewhat higher frequency there are still clearly superimposed waves. For one animal waves could be recorded after pain stimuli until after the 200th second. Apparent cramps were registered for all sheep with the exception of one animal.

2. Slaughter in the form of ritual cut

A. Calves
After the bloodletting cut loss of reaction (loss of consciousness) occurred with high probability within 10 seconds. A clear reaction to the cut could not be detected in any animal. For 7 animals a zero EEG was recorded no later than after 23 seconds. Cramps occurred in the animals regularly only after the brain currents had stopped.

B. Sheep
After the bloodletting cut loss of reaction (loss of consciousness) occurred after 10 seconds the latest. A clear reaction to the cut could not be detected in any animal. The zero line was recorded no later than 14 seconds after the cut. Cramps only occurred after the zero line had been detected and were much shorter than after captive bolt stunning.

The slaughter in the form of ritual cut is, if carried out properly, painless in sheep and calves according to the EEG recordings and the missing defensive actions.

During the experiments with captive bolt stunning no indications could be found for proscribing this method for calves.

For sheep, however, there were in parts severe reactions both to the bloodletting cut and the pain stimuli. A proof of the reliable effectiveness of captive bolt stunning could not be provided using the methods applied.
Click to expand...
 
I've heard of a new way the some people are using to slaughter pigs, it is to take the animal to a separate pasture and get them drunk, I think they do it by injection when the animal passes out they kill it. Seems like pretty good way to go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom