The humane slaughter law typically states that a humane slaughter method is whereby the animal is rendered insensible to pain by mechanical, electrical, chemical or other means which is rapid and effective before being shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast or cut. Anyone violating this law shall be criminally prosecuted. This is how the U.S. government humane slaughter law reads.
This federal law states that the animal must be rendered insensible to pain by a single blow. The law also states that this stunning process must produce immediate insensibility and knock the animal unconscious before the animal proceeds down the slaughter processing line with a minimum amount of excitement and discomfort to the animal. Furthermore, before processing the animal and after stunning the animal it must be in a complete state of unconsciousness and remain in this condition throughout shackling, hoisting, sticking, cutting and bleeding. Also, the U.S. Department Of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors are supposed to stop the slaughter processing line if any one of these legal mandates is violated.
Unfortunately, USDA inspectors are given limited access to areas in the slaughterhouse where violations are most likely to occur. However, the USDA may not be strictly enforcing federal laws set forth in the U.S. government’s Human Slaughter Act of 1958 because the USDA is also in charge of promoting the meat industry it is also supposed to be regulating.
Since 1985, 2000 mid-sized slaughterhouses have disappeared. Today, half of the nation’s cattle are killed in 14 high-speed processing plants which, due to downsizing, calls for a dramatic increase in the production line speed with a minimum of down time. Slaughterhouse operators may not even stop the production line for injured workers, contaminated meat or living, ineffectively stunned animals.
Slaughterhouse workers may get hurt when they are forced to skin and cut up live, struggling animals, which is why, live or not, the first thing that gets cut off are the animals’ feet and legs. Also, a conscious animal that is thrashing around may cause sterile muscle tissue to become contaminated with feces and other adulterants which can possibly move freely into the cooler and eventually into the food channels at the supermarket.
Remember, no law can stop animals from being slaughtered while still conscious, moving, screaming and blinking with their eyes literally almost popping out of their heads from the horrific pain and carnage. Slaughterhouse workers have testified that up to 30% of the animals they slaughter may be inadequately stunned before processing so basically they are cutting them up alive and conscious.
First, the animal may be shocked with cattle prods to force it from the holding pen down into the knocking box. Animals which do not move quick enough may be shocked repeatedly, with some even possibly tortured by sticking the electric cattle prod into the animals’ mouths, an act which has been caught on hidden camera. In the final analysis, the money-making speed at which the production line operates takes precedence over the Humane Act of 1958.
The next step in the slaughter process, a stun operator or knocker hits the animal in the center of the forehead with a gun housing a steel bolt. Done properly this will knockout the animal and the animal will collapse. Then the shackler chains the animal by the leg and it is hoisted upside down. The sticker comes along and cuts the animal’s throat. Then the legs are cut off. The head is cut off and the animal is skinned and gutted. Slaughterhouse workers complain that in the haste to keep the processing line most profitable it has to keep moving fast, so the animals too often are hit too many times with the cattle prods causing the animals to act crazy and jump all over the place by the time the animals get to the knocker.
If an animal falls down while going to the knocking box the production line may not stop and the animal gets trampled by others going by. The animals are typically in a state of panic by the time they reach the knocking box area. Slaughterhouse managers may want to process 300 animals an hour. This means that for the stun gun operator the production line may be going too fast to effectively knock out each and every animal, so what happens? The production line may not likely stop at all. Consequently, animals may get butchered alive!
Some knockers need 30 seconds to stun just one animal but there may not be enough time and since the animals are terrified and jumping all over the place, the animal may not get hit in the forehead as planned, but instead it gets hit in the ear which has little, if any, effect. However, slaughterhouse plant supervisors may insist that the line keep moving so the animal simply gets shackled and hoisted up anyway alive and kicking! Some knockers may feel there is rarely enough time to do their job humanely.
Animals hung upside down alive face horrendous acts of brutality. Still struggling and screaming, their legs and feet are cut off with huge clippers, then the belly ripper cuts the hide while several skinners rip the skin right off the live, screaming and kicking beast. All this has been caught on hidden cameras.
Some production line workers may stick the live animal in the spinal cord to try and paralyze it to keep the animal from moving around, which is not legal, but regardless, the animals’ brains are still working. Plant worker testimony states that thousands of animals get slaughtered alive! The workers cannot stop the brutality on the line for fear of losing their jobs. Speed on the processing line boosts company profits. Truly humane slaughter will hurt profits. The line may not even stop for fecal contamination. USDA inspectors too often may not have been watching the butchering on the production line since 1998 when slaughterhouse processing plants were allowed to start policing themselves more instead of being policed by government inspectors. Consequently, manure, pus and other adulterants may get into the butchering process. When the USDA used to thoroughly inspect the killing line the line would stop if an animal was being cut alive or processed in a contaminated environment…but conceivably not anymore.
SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCES: HUMANE FARMING ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE SUMMER 2000 and ANIMAL PEOPLE NEWS JULY 2000