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Meat kills!

Killing is a terrifying, bloody process

Each year in the UK alone, more than 900 million animals are slaughtered for food. That's about 2.5 million animals killed every day; 100,000 an hour; 1700 per minute and 30 every second.

Sheer terror

Inside slaughterhouses, traumatised animals are often prodded and beaten to hurry them along. Sheer terror can cause them to shake and defecate uncontrollably.

Time to die

To render them insensitive to pain before they have their throats cut, animals are 'stunned' using a variety of methods. All too often, however, stunning goes wrong. Even when it is effective, if the animals are left for too long after stunning has taken place, they will start to regain consciousness. This may be before having their throats cut, or whilst they are hanging, bleeding to death.

Slaughtered cow

The annual victims include...
around 850 million chickens
2 million cows and calves
9 million pigs
15 million sheep and lambs
20 million turkeys
20 million ducks and geese.

Cattle:

To stun cattle, a 'captive bolt' pistol is used. This fires a retractable rod into the brain to knock them out. But incorrect placement of the gun leads to many animals not being stunned properly. Cattle next have a chain tied around one leg and are hauled upside down to have their throats cut.

Pigs, sheep and lambs:

Pigs, sheep and lambs are stunned using tongs, which fire an electrical current through their brain. Sloppy work means they may receive agonising shocks to the face or head. Meat producers often use too low a current for effective stunning, in order to protect 'carcase quality'. Along with the problems of inaccurate placement of the tongs and of them being applied for too short a time, the use of a lower current increases the chance of animals being conscious when their throats are cut. Research has shown that many pigs meet this fate. After stunning, pigs and sheep are also shackled upside down by one back leg. Investigators have witnessed thrashing, conscious pigs slipping their shackles, dropping headfirst to the ground spurting blood from their necks, and being hoisted back up again to die. Some slaughterhouses kill pigs with carbon dioxide gas, which causes severe respiratory distress. They can be seen hyperventilating and trying to escape from the gas chamber.

Sheeps heads

Workers may be paid on a 'per animal' basis: the more they kill, the more they earn. It is hardly surprising that ensuring the animals are treated compassionately is not a priority.

Chickens and turkeys:

To stun chickens and turkeys, the birds are first shackled upside down - which in itself causes immense pain and distress - and are then dunked into an electrified tank of water. Dangling wings often touch the water first and receive agonising shocks. Many birds raise their heads, miss the water completely and are fully conscious when they are dragged past the neck-cutters. Even this stage may not kill them outright and some are alive when they enter the feather-loosening scalding tank.

In 2003, the Farm Animal Welfare Council (the Government's independent advisory body) published a report on slaughter. It contained no less than 94 recommendations for how welfare at the killing factory should be improved.

Their concerns covered every second from the animals' arrival to the time of death, including: animals having to wait between one hour and two days in the slaughterhouse holding pen before being killed, often with no access to water; the use of electric goads to hurry them along; slippery floors causing animals to fall and injure themselves; noise levels (from both machinery and other terrified animals) causing distress; inefficient stunning, and too long a gap between stunning and throat-cutting. They also raised the issue of animal welfare being further compromised by '[worker] complacency, caused by performing arguably a 'routine' task on living animals' - in other words, the slaughtermen being so desensitised to what they are doing, they just don't care.

Slaughtered chickens

Modern high-speed abattoirs can slaughter about 100 chickens or 5 pigs or sheep per minute.

Fishing

The number of fish killed each year must run into billions. When hauled up from the deep, fish undergo excruciating decompression, which can rupture their swimbladders, cause their eyes to pop out and push their innards out through their mouths. Fish caught in nets will die of crushing or suffocation, or have their bellies sliced open on the decks of the ships. On commercial fish farms, salmon, trout and other species are reared in dirty, cramped, underwater cages and pens. Salmon are killed by first being clubbed on the head and then having their gills cut so that they bleed to death. Many trout are condemned to a slow and agonising death by suffocation in air or on ice.

Meat kills. Save lives. Go vegetarian.

Fish suffocating in nets

Look closely at this picture - fish trapped in nets, suffocating, with their eyes popping out of their heads.

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