- Faunalytics (2022) Global Animal Slaughter Statistics & Charts: 2022 Update.
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- Library of the European Parliament (2012) Religious slaughter of animals in the EU.
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- The European Food Safety Authority (2004) Scientific Report of the Scientific Panel for Animal Health and Welfare on a request from the Commission related to welfare aspects of animal stunning and killing methods.
- Atkinson et al. (2012) Assessing pig welfare at stunning in Swedish commercial abattoirs using CO2 group stun methods. Animal Welfare 21: 487-495.
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Animals in factory farms
Slaughter
Project 1882 works to ensure that no animals are bred in factory farms and slaughtered. As long as the factory farms and slaughterhouses exist, the systems and handling of the animals in connection with slaughter need to be improved, so that the animals' suffering is reduced.
This is how Project 1882 works to strengthen animal welfare and animal protection in connection with slaughter:
- Conducts political advocacy for stricter slaughter legislation in Sweden and at EU level.
- Influences the European Commission's revision of the current slaughter rules and the Swedish Board of Agriculture's work on updating the Swedish slaughter rules.
- Contributes to a strong opinion against the suffering of animals in connection with slaughter, including by informing the public about what animals are exposed to when they are slaughtered.
- Runs the inspirational site “Välj Vego” (Choose Vego) which aims to make it easier for consumers to opt out of meat from their plates.
Content
On this page
Slaughter
The problems with slaughter
Billions of animals are killed every year in European slaughterhouses. (1) There animals are faced with a foreign and often frightening environment.
Waiting and long periods without food
The pigs have often been mixed together from different places, leading to social unrest, fights and injuries. The cattle are often left overnight in cramped confinement boxes, where they cannot turn around or scratch themselves. (2) For an animal who is used to being able to move around more or less freely, this is a big adjustment. They may also have to go a long time without food. According to EU legislation, animals must be fed no later than 24 hours after the start of transport, (3) but it is common for animals to go without food for many hours even before transport. This is done to avoid motion sickness and to reduce the amount of feed in the gastrointestinal tract that can contaminate the carcasses.
First unconsciousness, then bleeding out
Slaughter means that an animal has their throat cut and bleeds to death. Before that, animals must be stunned, i.e. rendered unconscious in most countries in the EU.(4) This can be done, for example, by strong force to the head, electricity through the brain or gas inhalation.(3) The stunning methods used vary between species and the size of the individual, and also varies in suffering involved.
Heavy-handed handling and restraint
When larger animals are brought from the stall to the actual stunning procedure, they are often subjected to rough handling to move forward. Before stunning, many animals are restrained, i.e. held in place. Larger animals are usually enclosed in a stunning box, and their heads may be restrained by a halter or similar device. Hens, chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese (unless they weigh more than 20 kg) are often suspended by their feet upside down when fully conscious, to keep them still during electrical stunning (2, 5).
A Swedish research report from 2014 shows that around one third of all cattle in Swedish slaughterhouses were subjected to blows, kicks or electric prodding during the study. (6) More than 20 % of the animals cried, which is a sign of stress. Electric prods were used on 15 % of the animals, and a couple of animals received 10-15 electric shocks each. The use of electric shocks is only legal in exceptional and isolated cases.(3) Hitting and kicking the animals is prohibited.
Painful stunning methods
Read about how different types of animals are stunned at slaughter:
Organic slaughter
Organic production has some other regulatory frameworks for slaughter than conventional. However, in practice, the differences are not great compared to how other slaughter is carried out. The most painful stunning methods - electric bath stunning of birds and carbon dioxide stunning of pigs - are also permitted in organic slaughter. (7)
Slaughter without stunning
Slaughter without stunning is not legal in Sweden but in several other countries, both within and outside the EU. There may be religious reasons for slaughtering animals without stunning, but often the reasons are economic.
In hunting and fishing, it is common for animals for human consumption to be killed without stunning, regardless of country.
Marked and unmarked
The EU Slaughter Regulation allows Member States to allow slaughter without stunning for religious reasons. There are no statistics on how many animals are slaughtered without stunning, as the European Commission does not require Member States to report the numbers. The European countries that require stunning before all slaughter, including so-called religious slaughter, are Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and Slovenia.(8)
Meat from animals killed without stunning can be labeled as halal or kosher in shops, but it can also be unmarked. Meat from those animals slaughtered without stunning does not need to be specifically labeled. In practice, this means that all meat, including that imported into and sold in Sweden, that comes from countries where slaughter without stunning takes place, can be meat from unstunned animals. Anyone who eats meat without being sure that it comes from a country where animals must be slaughtered with stunning is very likely to be eating meat from animals slaughtered without stunning. (9)
Jewish and Muslim rules can be interpreted to mean that stunning at slaughter is inappropriate. However, the religious reason is only one of several reasons for unstunned slaughter. The economic factor also plays a role.
Prolonged suffering
Slaughter without stunning requires stronger restraint of the animals and is painful. Having the throat cut while fully conscious causes pain, and death by blood loss is prolonged.(10) Studies have shown that it can take four minutes for a cow to become unconscious after the cut.(11) During that time, the animal suffers both from the pain of the cut, suffocation due to blood entering the lungs, and the blood loss itself.
Stunning does not guarantee no suffering
Even slaughter with stunning often involves a lot of suffering. It is important which stunning method is used and how the animals are handled during stunning. Pigs and fishes are often stunned with carbon dioxide, a lengthy and painful process. (12-14) For fishes, the method is also ineffective, so slaughter without stunning is not uncommon. Researchers have found that the proportion of fishes who show signs of life after carbon dioxide stunning, in the later stages of bleeding, can be as high as one out of five. (15) Chickens are also subjected to a very painful stun when they are suspended by their legs while fully conscious, in conjunction with electric bath stunning.(12)
That animals are stunned before bleeding at slaughter, and that the stunning method used is effective so that the animal loses consciousness quickly, without experiencing distress or pain, is a very important animal welfare issue.