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| a cow being stunned (picture from ca4a.org) |
| Approximately 750, 000, 000 animals and 650, 000 tons of fish are slaughtered each year for food in Britain. The number of fishes is not known because they are weighed, and small fishes are thrown back dead into the sea, because it is illegal to land them. Anglers catch an additional number of fish, and an unknown number of birds and rabbits are shot. (Table 1) Methods of Slaughter Farm animals are stunned by electricity or percussion, and killed by cutting the blood vessels in the neck, causing exsanguination. The halal and shechita method, used by Moslems and Jews, involves cutting the neck without stunning the animals. Shooting may be at close quarters, e.g. of horses, or from a distance, e.g. birds and rabbits. Fish caught at sea or by anglers die of asphyxia, when they are taken out of the water; anglers sometimes throw fish back after withdrawing the hooks; the fish may then die of inability to eat, or microbial or fungal infections. Trapping, snaring and hunting are rarely used in Britain for animals which are to be eaten. Two Kinds of Stunning Most animals in Britain are stunned. Bailhere's Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary (1988) defines it as "producing unconsciousness of head in carbon dioxide, gas, electrical shock ... all of them aiming to allow the animal to bleed out while it is still alive. An animal that is dead before it has bled out will be unsuitable for marketing." The latter definition regards stunning as rendering an animal unconscious, and the exsanguination as the cause of death. However, the Oxford English Dictionary (1989) says that the aim of stunning is "to deprive of consciousness or power of motion [my italics] by a blow, a fall or the like." The author of this entry gives paralysis as an alternative to loss of consciousness. The captive bolt may penetrate the skull and destroy brain tissue, or cause a considerable rise in intracranial pressure. These result in instantaneous loss of consciousness (as a knock-out does in boxing), followed by collapse of the animal. If the brain tissue is not destroyed, the animal may come round, if the carotid arteries and jugular veins are not cut soon ("sticking"). Instant unconsciousness occurs if the aim is accurate, the animal is still, and the device works. Electrical stunning involves passing a large voltage across the animal's brain. Slaughtermen, butchers, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, Compassion in World Farming and most people who eat meat, assume that the electric current causes instantaneous unconsciousness, so that the animals feel no pain. Unfortunately, there is evidence that this assumption may not be warranted. next |
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