How Cattle Are Slaughtered
How are cattle slaughtered?
Adult cattle must be restrained in a stunning pen which is usually a solid-sided metal box with a vertical sliding door at one end to allow the animal to enter. The pen must have a device that restricts the movement of the animal's head to permit accurate stunning. The majority of cattle in the UK are stunned with a captive-bolt pistol. Alternatively cattle are stunned using electricity or stunned and killed using electricity (by applying an electric current to the brain and heart simultaneously).
If using a captive-bolt, the slaughterman stands on a platform, in front or to one side of the pen and shoots the animal in the head between the eyes and the ears in order to accurately target the brain. The pen side then opens and the unconscious animal rolls out of the pen, is shackled by one hind leg, hoisted on to an overhead conveyor and moved to the bleed area. Here the animal is bled by the severance of all major blood vessels supplying the brain with oxygenated blood. This causes rapid death. The animal dies from loss of blood before it makes any recovery from the percussive stun.
Humane Slaughter Association: hsa.org.uk
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