Humane slaughter - Gracey's Meat Hygiene - page 150

For sterile collection of quantities of blood, the necessary
equipment (stainless steel hollow knifes, vacuum pump,
sterilisation facilities, anticoagulant injection, contain-
ers, etc.) must be available. The incision at the base of
the neck provides a larger flow of blood evenly and more
hygienically than procedures not so geared. Sterile blood
collection must be efficient and rapid; otherwise the rate
of kill will be considerably reduced.

that may be inherent in cutting the tissues, by measuring
the reaction of blood hormone levels, are likely to be
unreliable since the cut prevents ACTH from the adrenal
cortex reaching the adrenal glands.
A study by Gibson et al. (2009), measuring EcoG
effects in calves, demonstrated that the act of slaughter
by ventral neck incision is associated with substantial
noxious stimulation that would be expected to be per-
ceived as painful in the period between incision and loss
of consciousness.
There have been calls, particularly from animal wel-
fare organisations, that meat produced from animals
slaughtered without pre-stunning should be labelled as
such. This is in recognition of the fact that the significant
quantities of meat slaughtered without stunning are
placed on the market for general sale.

Efficiency of bleeding
It was once thought that the efficiency of bleeding had a
most important bearing on the subsequent keeping qual-
ity of the carcase. Studies have been unable to demon-
strate any correlation between the amount of blood lost
at the time of slaughter and subsequent pH values, water
content, bacterial counts, flavour and tenderness of beef
or lamb. The extra blood retained by the poorly bled ani-
mal is retained mainly in the viscera and skin.
The stunning of an animal by any means produces a
rise in the blood pressure of the arterial, capillary and
venous systems, and in sheep, the normal arterial blood
pressure of 120-145 mm Hg may rise to 260 mm Hg or
over when the animal is stunned prior to bleeding. This
is accompanied by a transitory increase in the heart
rate. Both of these factors will facilitate immediate
bleeding. The importance of immediate bleeding is obvi-
ous when it is realised that the rate of flow of blood from
a cut vessel is 5-10 times more rapid than blood flow in
the intact vessel, and not until 20% of the blood has
been lost does the pressure begin to fall. If an undue
interval is allowed to elapse between stunning and
bleeding, the carcase may be imperfectly bled and may
exhibit blood splashing.

Shechita - Jewish religious slaughter
The Jewish method of slaughter is controlled in Britain
by the Jewish Board of Shechita, and Jewish slaughter
men have to undergo several years of training before
being licensed by the Rabbinical Commission. They
are also subject to annual examination of skills by the
Commission.
In order for meat to be kosher , that is, right, fulfilling
the requirements of Jewish law, animals must be slaugh-
tered and dressed according to ritual methods specified
in the Talmud, the body of Jewish law and legend based
on the Torah which is the substance of God's revelation
to man in the Old Testament (Pentateuch, first five
topics). The reference to Shechita is said to be found in
Deuteronomy 12:21 - 'thou shalt kill of thy herd and of
thy flock, which the Lord hath given thee, as I have com-
manded thee.
At slaughter, the animal must be healthy and have suf-
fered no injury. Pre-stunning of the animal is therefore
forbidden. Animals that do not conform to these ideals
and any defects at slaughter in the form of faults in shech-
ita (act of killing for food) or disease lesions discovered
in the carcase render the meat terefa , that is, unfit for
consumption by Jews. Likewise, animals that lie quietly
and cannot be made to rise must not be slaughtered
according to Jewish ritual. This early recognition of the
inadmissibility of ill or moribund animals for human
food is worthy of note.
Shechita is performed by a shochet , or cutter, who
slaughters the fully conscious animal with a single, delib-
erate, swift action of a razor-sharp knife, the chalaf . It is
roughly twice the width of the animal's neck and is
devoid of any notch or flaw, and has been examined
before the slaughter of each animal. All the soft struc-
tures anterior to the cervical spine are severed, including
the carotid arteries and jugular veins. It is essential that

slaughter without pre-stunning

The Farm Animal Welfare Council (2003) concluded
that slaughter without pre-stunning was unacceptable
since, even under ideal conditions, the basic principles
that pre-slaughter handling facilities should minimise
stress and that unconsciousness should be induced with-
out distress were not satisfactorily observed. However, it
remains a fact that this same accusation could be laid at
the door of many of the other accepted slaughter tech-
niques previously described in this chapter. There is
room for considerable argument as to the pain caused by
the cut itself. It is unlikely that the slaughter process will
be sufficiently stressful to induce the physiological flight
response which would result in endogenous opioid anal-
gesia, and it can be argued that the restraint prevents
normal escape reactions. The cut across the throat sever-
ing the trachea will prevent the normal vocalisation
associated with injury. Attempts to assess the distress