Slaughter

Every hour, some 1,000,000 chickens, 13,000 pigs and 4,000 cows are slaughtered for human consumption in the U.S. It is a process that takes place far from public view, and one that few know about or care to consider.

Over the past decade, public scrutiny of the treatment of animals at slaughter has increased due to the disclosure of multiple incidents of grossly inhumane treatment, including the dragging and beating of non-ambulatory cattle, the bleeding and skinning of still-conscious calves and the gross and willful mutilation of chickens and turkeys.

These revelations have resulted in actions by Congress to improve enforcement of the federal law created to protect animals at slaughter – the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA). Despite congressional action, enforcement of the HMSA by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) remains seriously lacking, due in no small part to the agency’s conflicting roles of both regulating and promoting meat products. 

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) worked diligently for passage of the original law in1958 and for an amendment that provided enforcement in 1979. The Act requires humane handling before slaughter, as well as the rendering of animals insensible to pain prior to being shackled, hoisted or cut (a process referred to as “stunning”). The HMSA applies to the more than 147 million “livestock” killed each year at approximately 800 federally inspected slaughter plants. 

Shamefully, the HMSA does not protect the more than 9 billion chickens, 260 million turkeys, 27 million ducks, and 6 million rabbits slaughtered each year in the U.S., nor does it apply to animals killed in accordance with ritual slaughter, such as kosher and halal, or animals killed on the farm. Historically, state animal cruelty laws have provided little if any protection for animals at the time of slaughter.

AWI works to reform cruel slaughter methods by advocating:

• extending the law to cover all animals (including poultry and rabbits) and slaughter for all purposes (including ritual and religious slaughter) and at all locations (including on the farm)
• increased penalties for violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act
• inclusion of slaughter in state anti-cruelty statutes
• routine humane handling and slaughter training for all plant workers who handle animals