Seeds of Light Foundation
The
Slaughterhouse.
By their Fruits Ye Shall
Know them...
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Good Morning Love. Where's our Mummy?
In slaughterhouses all animals die in fear and many die in agony. On arrival at the slaughterhouse the animals are frightened and confused. They are already in a state of stress due to poor transport conditions. Yet they are treated with no compassion and no regard for their fear. Animals do not go to their death easily or happily so slaughter house workers randomly beat, kick and shout at the animals. They even use electric goads and sticks to beat the animals in the genitals.
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In slaughterhouses there is no 'nice' way to kill an animal.
The Slaughterhouse Act says that all animals should be stunned prior to slaughter, supposedly to render them unconscious and insensitive to pain before having their throats cut and bleeding to death.
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Cow being stunned.
However, this is rarely the case: Slaughterhouse workers are on piece-work, ie: they get paid for the amount of animals they kill and process, so they rush to get as many animals killed as possible, consequently many animals are not properly stunned and go to their death merely paralysed.
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Pig being "effectively" stunned.
It is estimated that around 90% of animals are not effectively stunned prior to slaughter.
Cattle Slaughter.
A three and a half inch bolt is propelled by compressed air or blank cartridge which penetrates the brain. Cattle stunning pens are noisy. If the bolt is placed incorrectly or if the animal jerks his/her head, the stun will not be effective. It is evident that this happens very frequently by the number of botched, double shots and incorrectly placed shots seen in skulls of cattle at the end of the slaughtering line. Once the animal has been `stunned', he/she is shackled by a chain around the hind leg to a conveyor and moved to the bleeding area where, still alive, his/her throat is cut (`stuck'). The heart must still be beating to pump out the blood and ensure blood loss. This is how animals die, they bleed to death. Within seconds legs are hacked off and the rendering process begins, regardless of the fact that the animal may still be thrashing around and showing signs of life.
Pigs.
After lives of misery and confinement on factory farms, pigs are transported by lorry to the slaughterhouse - a journey in itself which causes immense suffering. And, like some people, pigs don't travel well. They suffer terribly from stress. Pigs have even been known to die of fright at the slaughterhouse.
Pig and Sheep Slaughter.
Pigs and sheep are electrically stunned. This is done by tongs with electrodes at the end. The tongs should be held in place on either side at the animals head in the correct position for at least 7 seconds. Sufficient current must get through to the animals' brain to induce an electroplectic fit and consequent unconsciousness.
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But, research has shown that the tongs are rarely applied for more than 2 - 4 seconds. This immobilises the animals but does not render them insensible to pain. Sometimes the tongs are used to catch and immobilise the animals, which are loose in their pens. After stunning, the animals are shackled and hung up by their back legs.
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Only when there are a sufficient number of animals hung up on the shackle line, will slaughter commence. Because of slapdash practices by slaughterhouse workers, many animals fall from their shackles to the floor. Because many animals will not have been stunned properly, they start regaining consciousness, only to find themselves hanging upside down with their throats being cut.
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Thousands of pigs and sheep are conscious when their throats are slit. For pigs, the hot tank is the next stage after the knife.
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The shackled animals, some still kicking and writhing, are submerged into a tank of boiling water.
Poultry Slaughter.
Chickens, Turkeys, Ducks. Poultry slaughter is a highly mechanised and automated procedure and the birds are loaded into the system like objects.
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At the slaughterhouse, the birds are wrenched from their crates. Their feet are thrust through metal shackles and they are taken on a moving conveyor belt, hung upside-down, towards their death. Their heads are dragged through a water bath charged with a low voltage electric current. According to the law, poultry should be stunned to render them unconscious and insensitive to pain before having their throats cut. This is done by bringing their heads into contact with an electrically charged water bath through which their heads should be immersed. However, the stunning of poultry is ineffective and unreliable.
Sometimes the electric stunner fails to render the birds unconscious and many just receive painful shocks. Some birds arch their necks or lift their heads and miss the stunner completely. Despite this, the machine carries on to the next stage - the automatic knife, which slits the birds' throats, but, large or small birds can get cut in the eyes, head or breast.
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Millions of birds enter the automatic throat cutter while fully conscious. The next stage is the scalding tank, where the birds are immersed into a tank of boiling water to loosen their feathers. But, if the birds throats are not cut properly or if they miss the knife, they enter the scalding tank alive!
Every day in Britain alone, millions of birds are transported to slaughterhouses and killed in this barbaric way.
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ARE YOU REALLY THAT HUNGRY?
May All Beings Be Happy, Peaceful, Content and Satisfied.
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