METHODS OF KILLING

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11437, 6 February 1923, Page 3

METHODS OF KILLING

VETERINARIAN’S VIEWS SEARCH FOR. THE EFFECTIVE WAY. PRESENT SYSTEMS EXAMINED. The slaughtering of stock has presented a problem to the men engaged in..the meat trade which is not readily solved by a man with the humanities at heart. The question of the most humane method recently occupied the attention of Major Wilmot C. Quinnell, M.R.C.V.S., who recently delivered an address upon the subject before a body of scientists. SPARING THE ANIMALS. “An active endeavour to discover and relieve animal suffering and especially to prevent it,” was the definition of the “111101300 method” given by Major Quinnell. In England the meat trade last year had urged that an inquiry must l>e held by the Government into the whole question of the use of mechanical implements in slaughtering. The speakers, after dealing with the necessity of sparing the animals killed any unnecessary pain, went on to deal with the methods in use. In all these which involved the destruction or injury of the brain there was danger of defective bleeding. This was the case, also, of shooting, poleaxing, and pithing with a spear. The blood constituted about one-twelfth of the weight of the body, and the recumbent position was associated with diminished force of circulation, and should be avoided when possible Struggling or convulsions elaborated harmful physiological alkaloids in the blood by' the ceils of living animals, rhere was ample proof of this in poisoning cases. METHODS OF KILLING. The methods of slaughtering were then passed in review. Pole-axing, which held in the caise of cattle, caused mutilation of the brain and hindered complete bleeding of the carcase. Also the operations of killing and bleeding were carried out on the same floor, and the condition did not facilitate accurate sticking. Spearing, the usual method in vogue in the slaughterhouses of Australasia, caused convulsions, which sometimes lasted a considerable time, governed by the extent of the injury to the spinal cord. Apart from this, it was the practice in some slaughterhouses to run a number of cattle into the pithing pen at one time, so that the killing was> done in sight of the others which caused them unnecessary suffering. Also, the use of the spear must be in skilled hands, and sometimes even an experienced operator missed the vital spot at the base of the skull, and the animal became infuriated. Pithed animals did not seem to bleed well, spearing giving rise io the retention of much, blood round the neck region. SHEEP AND CATTLE.

The method of killing sheep, in which the windpipe, principal .blood vessels of the tliroat and spinal cord were severed, was effective in dispatching smaller animals expeditiously and painlessly, and had no detrimental market effect upon heads, brains, or tongues. But it would be a great advantage and more humane if pigs were stunned with a mallet as they were hauled up to an overhead bar. The speaker then dealt with the Jewish method of slaughtering cattle. Th 3 beast had a rope with a slip-noose placed around its neck and fastened to a ring in the flooring. The head was pulled down close to the ring, and the 6east was thrown by taking a second noose round its hook or hind shank. The leg fastening having been firmly secured, the head was twisted back and the operator, with a razor-edged knife, about fifteen inches in length, cut through the neck to the spinal column. The time from cutting the throat to the final threes was about four minutes as a rule.

This method was essentially a humane one, as in the sheep insensibility at once supervened, but in, the case of the cattle the cutting of the throat was repulsive. .MECHANICAL MEANS.

Mechanical methods of killing were then dealt with. Shooting, said the speaker, had no advantage over the ordinary modes of slaughter in daily use, alid possessed the deterrents of a certain amount of danger, the fact that the method was not particularly humane, as animals were not’always rendered unconscious. The animals did not bleed very readily, and the keeping qualities of the meat were affected. In the case of pigs and sheep, the heads and brains had their market value reduced. BEST OF ALL. Stunning, followed bv bleeding, the method adopted for slaughtering in America, was what the speaker urged. After being stunned they were suspended by the hind-legs, and the large anterior thoracic blood vessels were opened, thus ensuring rapid and complete drainage of the blood from the carcase. This method was more humane, the operation of sticking was absolutely painless, and only tactile nerves remained in operation—unconscious reflexes. Under this system the best results were obtained, and the Queensland Meat Company, at Brisbane, which put through from 300 to 400 cattle daily', had adopted it. “In my opinion,” said Major Quinnell, finally, “there is no method so far devised that is more efficient in causing swift, sudden, and painless death as the employment of hammer and knife, and it should one day become the universal method of slaughtering stock for food:”