Minutes of evidence taken before the Committee appointed by the Admiralty to consider the humane slaughtering of animals.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Humane Slaughtering of Animals.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Minutes of evidence taken before the Committee appointed by the Admiralty to consider the humane slaughtering of animals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/62 (page 10)
    Wr. V'uck (Cont.). 386. You say they are generally killed with the poll- axe, is there any other method ?—There is Greener’s gun in vogue now, but I have never seen it used. _ 387. Have you seen a mask like this used ?—No. 388. Only the poll-axe ?—Yes. 389. Is the method as a rule to strike the animal first on the top of the head and then on the forehead ?—No, the method principally used is to strike the animal—that is to say, in the private slaughter-houses, in the forehead, and then at once a cane is passed through the hole made by the poll-axe down the spinal column ; afterwards the animal is bled. 390. Is the animal in most cases secured—is his head pulled down to a ring before that is done ?—Yes. 391. Did you ever see animals poll-axed when walking about loose ?—No, I never did in my life. 392. And you have not seen animals held by the horns and then struck on the top of the head first ?—No. There is a method I believe employed—I have seen it in the public slaughter-houses—for instance, Islington Cattle Market, where they do strike the animal on the poll, but before you can get an opening for the cane. 393. You do not see any advantage in the two blows ?— I do not ; I do not think it advisable. 394. What method of killing sheep have you seen ?— They are generally stuck with a knife right through the neck ; the knife is generally turned and the sheep is pithed, that is to say, the knife enters between the skull and the atlas and severs the spinal cord. Other methods are when they turn the head and break the neck. 395. Which do you consider the best of the two methods ? —With an experienced person I should say pithing is the best. 396. When I say “best”. I refer now to the most instantaneous in causing death ?—Yes, in some sheep for instance, if you get some old tups it is very hard to break the neck with an inexperienced person, and the same refers to the ewe, as well as to the tup ; if the animal is of considerable age you cannot break the neck of the animal so well as you can a young sheep. 397. And I presume it requires a very. experienced man to use the knife properly in order to pith the animal quickly ?—It does-require some considerable experience to do it quickly, but a person soon gets used to it. 398. Did you ever see sheep stunned with a mallet before being stuck ?—Never. 399. How have you seen calves killed ?—Very few calves are killed in the private slaughter-houses ; they have generally a rope passed round their hind legs just above their hough, which is hitched on to a tackle, and they are pulled up alive, and then the.calf is hit at the back of the head and stunned and its head cut off. 400. Stunned with a mallet ?—Yes, or the flat part of a poll-axe. 401. And then the head is cut right off ?—Yes. 402. Is there any reason why it should not be stunned before being hauled up ?—No reason so far as I can see. 403. It would be simpler, because the animal would not struggle ?—I should like to see it stunned before being pulled up; if there is any cruelty at all in killing a calf it is in pulling the animal up whilst it is alive. 404. From the purely practical point of view it would probably make matters easier to stun him before tying his legs and hauling him up ?—Well, there is one thing, you cannot get at it quite so well to stun the animal, be- cause when the animal is slung up and the person takes hold of the fore legs it will remain quite still, but while a. calf is on its legs and sees you attempt to strike it it is apt then to move. 405. Is a calf’s head of much commercial value after- wards.?—At times;. the commercial value varies very much ; at times a calf’s head is worth considerably more than it is at others. 406. Is it ever suggested that the act of stunning a oa injures the head so that it loses its value commercially? ——INO,. ff 407. It is not necessary to break the skull in order to stun it ?—No, it would be rather unusual to see the skull broken. . ;.. 4 408. And that probably would apply in the case of a sheep as well; if a sheep was stunned it would not be necessary to injure the head in a way to affect its market value ?—No. ce 409. I see in one of your bye-laws “ the occupier of a. slaughter house shall, in slaughtering any animal, use such instruments and appliances and adopt such method of slaughtering and otherwise in such premises as may be requisite to prevent unnecessary suffering to the animal.”’ That is, of course, expressed very generally, and it is left to your judgment whether that is carried out or not ?— Yes. 410. The next bye-law is: ‘shall not slaughter or per- mit to be slaughtered any animal within the public view, or within the view of any other animal ” ?—Yes. 41]. Is that carried out ?—Yes, I may say that is carried out. 412. What do you understand is the object of that bye-law ?—So that one animal should not see the other one slaughtered. 413. Do you approve of it as a good bye-law ?—I do not think there is much in it. 414. You probably find that sheep do not pay any attention ?—No. 415. What is your opinion about cattle ?—Do you find they show signs of fear from either the sight or smell of- blood ?—My opinion is that they are more afraid of the smell of the blood than they are of the sight. 416. I think the evidence we have had tends to oh Sonal that. You think the smell of blood does frighten them ?— _ Yes, to a certain extent. 417. How do they show fear ?—For instance, they refuse in some instances to go into the slaughter-house and there is great trouble to get them into the slaughter-house very often. j 418. Do you find them sniff and snort at the blood ?— Yes. 419. There is no doubt in your mind, then, that cattle,at. any rate, are made afraid by the smell of blood ?—That is so. There again I must say it takes more effect on some animals than on others; the more domesticated the animal, the less trouble you have in getting it into the slaughter-house through the smell of blood. For instance, you get more trouble in getting the Welsh breed or the Highland Scots into the slaughter-house because they are by nature more wild, and practically all the ranche beasts or grazed beasts are more trouble than the stall-fed beasts, because,as a rule, you find stall-fed beasts are pulled about and more domesticated. 420. Do you see many of the wild type of cattle killed— South American and so on ?—No, not the South American. 421. What is the wildest kind you see killed ?—The Highland Scots. 422. Do you ever see any serious trouble in the slaughter houses ?—I have seen considerable trouble in a slaughter house if you get a wild bullock, not during the course of my experience as an inspector, but as a butcher. 423. I suppose the only thing to do im such cases is to. pull their head down to a ring ?—Yes, the head is pulled down in all cases, and most of these cattle when taken into the butchers’ slaughter house, if they show the slightest. symptoms of being wild or troublesome, have a rope put on them because they are not only wild with anyone going to the pen where they are kept but they are also spiteful to the other animal or animals that may be there, and they take off considerable value in horning these beasts not only with the hides but they bruise the flesh with their horns. Then they are tied, but there is considerable trouble some times to get that bullock from where he is tied to the ring in the slaughter house, and you have to be very careful how you get him in. een, 424. To go back for a moment, do I understand from you this bye-law about animals not being slaughtered within the view of any other animal is a dead letter ?—No, I do not say that is a dead letter. 425, Taking the majority of slaughter-houses you visit, is the rule observed or not ?—Yes, it is observed. In the course of my experience in the council I have had one prose- cution on that ground ; that was for the slaughter of sheep in view of other sheep.