Transport and Slaughter

Transport
Excerpted from Vegan Outreach

Turkeys during transport (photo courtesy of Vegan Outreach)

Free-range and organic animals are not typically accorded any special treatment when transported to the slaughterhouse. Cows and pigs stand tightly crammed together in their own excrement, while exposed to extreme weather in open trucks, sometimes freezing to the trailer. (1) These conditions can result in “downers”—animals too sick or weak to walk, even when shocked with electric prods or beaten. Downers are dragged by chains to slaughter or to “dead piles” where they are left to die. (2)

Things have gotten worse; research presented at the 2006 Meat Industry Conference shows: "The number of pigs dying on the way to the slaughterhouse has nearly tripled in recent years."

When it’s time to transport chickens, workers grab the birds and shove them into small crates; they are trucked to the slaughterhouse through all weather extremes. Hundreds of millions suffer from broken wings and legs from rough handling, and millions die from the stress of the journey. (3)

For more information on animal transport, see:
http://www.goveg.com/feat/hellonwheels/
http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_chickens_trans.asp
http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/transport.html

Bird Slaughter
Excerpted from United Poultry Concerns

Chickens, turkeys, and ducks—who constitute about 98% of all animals killed for food every year in the United States—are exempt from the federal Humane Slaughter Act, which applies only to mammals (except for rabbits). It is not surprising, then, that poultry slaughter is rife with abuses, such as:

• Shackling: At the slaughterhouse, the birds usually sit in trucks without food or water for between one and nine hours. Inside, the unnaturally heavy birds (“meat” birds are genetically selected to be very heavy) are hung upside down by their feet, putting a painful strain on their legs and hips. Worse, meat industry specialist Temple Grandin reports “seeing a lot of one-legged shackling” of birds. (4)

• Electrical Immobilization: The birds’ heads and upper bodies are dragged through a splashing water trough called a “stunner.” This cold, salted water does not stun them. It immobilizes them to keep them from thrashing and to paralyze the muscles of their feather follicles so their feather will pop out easily. For this reason, at least 24 million chickens, turkeys, and ducks are tortured every day with volts of electricity in federally inspected slaughterhouses, and further tortured when the machinery breaks down. A former Tyson chicken slaughterhouse worker said that where he worked, birds would be left hanging upside down in the stunner to drown and that he personally saw them “hanging in that position for hours.” (5)

• Neck-Cutting: After being dragged through the “stun bath,” the paralyzed but still usually conscious birds have their necks partially sliced by a rotating machine blade and/or manual neck cutter. Although both carotid arteries must be quickly severed to ensure a rapid death, these arteries, which carry the oxygenated blood responsible for consciousness to the brain, and which are deeply embedded in the bird’s neck, are often missed. In fact, the Poultry Tribune refers to “hopefully hitting the jugular vein” of the birds at slaughter. (6)

• Bleed-Out Tunnel and Scald Tank: The industry tries to keep the birds alive during the slaughter process so their hearts will continue to pump blood; they are hung upside down for 90 seconds in a bleed out tunnel where they’re supposed to die from blood loss, but millions do not die, and unspecified number drown in pools of blood when the conveyor belt dips too close to the floor. Dead or alive, the birds are then dropped into tanks of semi-scalding water. In 1993, of 7 billion birds slaughtered in U.S. facilities, over 3 million were plunged into the scald tanks alive. According to a former slaughterhouse worker, when chickens are scalded alive, they “flop, scream, kick, and their eyeballs pop out of their heads. They often come out the other end with broken bones and disfigured and missing body parts because they’ve struggled so much in the tank.” (7)

Mammal Slaughter
Excerpted from Vegan Outreach

Mammals (except for rabbits and those killed in ritual slaughter) are covered under the Federal Humane Slaughter Act, which means they are supposed to be rendered insensible to pain prior to slaughter, usually from a captive bolt pistol. Though enforcement is lacking, below are descriptions of how the processes are supposed to work.

• Captive bolt stunning – A “pistol” is set against the animal’s head and a metal rod is thrust into the brain. Shooting a struggling animal is difficult, and the rod often misses its mark. (8)

• Electric stunning – Current produces a grand mal seizure; then the throat is cut. According to industry consultant Temple Grandin, PhD, “Insufficient amperage can cause an animal to be paralyzed without losing sensibility. (9)

• Ritual slaughter (usually used for Kosher or Halal requirements): Animals are fully conscious when their carotid arteries are cut. This is supposed to cause unconsciousness within seconds, but because of blood flow through the vertebral arteries in the back of the neck, some animals can remain conscious as they bleed for up to a minute. (10)

Additionally, Temple Grandin, PhD, notes “Unfortunately, there are some plants which use cruel methods of restraint such as hanging live animals upside down.”(11). This can cause broken bones as the heavy animal hangs by a chain attached to one leg.

An article in The Washington Post noted: “Hogs, unlike cattle, are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned to soften the hides for skinning. As a result, a botched slaughter condemns some hogs to being scalded and drowned. Secret videotape from an Iowa pork plant shows hogs squealing and kicking as they are being lowered into the water.” (12)

From October 2003 to May 2004, an undercover investigator working for PETA, took footage at a Pilgrim's Pride chicken slaughterhouse in Moorefield, West Virginia. Workers were filmed violently and repeatedly throwing live chickens into a wall, picking chickens up by their legs and swinging their heads into the floor, and kicking and jump up and down on live chickens. This was documented in the New York Times (" KFC Supplier Accused of Animal Cruelty," July 20, 2004, and the video can be seen on PETA's website.

The USDA oversees the treatment of animals in meat plants through meat inspectors. Arthur Hughes, Vice Chairman of the National Council of Food Inspection Locals, a union of 6,000 federal meat inspectors, states: “Drastic increases in production speeds, lack of support from supervisors in plants, new inspection policies which significantly reduce our enforcement authority, and little or no access to the areas of the plants where animals are killed, have significantly hampered our ability to ensure compliance with humane regulations.” (13) Even when problems are reported by inspectors, the government often ignores them. For example, no action was taken against a Texas beef company despite 22 citations in 1998 for violations that included chopping the hooves off live cattle. (14)