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
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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.

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    when pigs were killed, if the stunning is not done properly, it is rather a shameful business to look at. Therefore, from my experience, I would always prefer appliances which work automatically. 1882. What would you call an automatic appliance ?— I mean those appliances to kill big cattle; you put on a ‘sort of mask ; which contains a shooting apparatus. 1883. The Bruneau mask, for instance, do you know it 7—Yes, I know it, but so far as I have seen I prefer “the mask with the shooting apparatus. I have seen the biggest cattle immediately slain; they tumble down at once; I did not see any motion besides the reflex motions. 1884. I think that is probably quite true when you can adjust the mask properly, but we have here in England, particularly at Deptford, a very large number of animals ‘killed which come from North and South America which are very wild indeed, and they will not allow anybody to touch their heads, and it would be very difficult to put a mask on those animals. I presume you do not have that kind of animal to deal with in Germany ?—No ; ‘there may be exceptional cases; we get sometimes from Austria and Hungary cattle of rather a wild nature. There may be cases of that kind also in some of the seaports outside Prussia. 1885. The members of the Committee who went over to Germany and Switzerland the other day told us that the cattle were very much tamer and more quiet than the cattle here ?—Yes, it may beso; itis rather the excep- tion to find them wild. I have very often assisted in the ‘slaughtering, and I daresay it was the exception to find ‘them wild in the slaughter-house, but I should say it would be possible, even if the cattle are of a very wild nature, to amake provision for those cases. . 1886. To put on the mask ?—Yes; I am a little puzzled how to explain it, but it seems to me that you could fasten the mask after you have secured the cattle by an overhead running chain or rope. 1887. We found, as the result of experiment, that it was very difficult to use anything like the Greener killer ; ‘do you know that one ?—Yes. 1888. Or this Behr, which is a German patent; we found it very difficult to use these, because if you put ‘it near the animal’s head he would throw his head about ‘and you could not get it into position ?—Yes. 1889. Of course, if the animal was very quiet it was easy to do it, but if it was a wild animal, the instant you put it near his head he moved ?—Yes, the mask is always the best, as far as my judgment goes. 1890. What pattern of mask do you use in Germany ?— My memory fails me as to the name of the mask I have ‘seen and which I found very satisfactory. (The Witness is shown the Bruneau mask). It is probably something ‘like that. I found a leaflet about it edited by a private association at Leipsic for the protection of the life of animals; that leaflet contains all the information re- -garding the painless slaughtering of cattle. It is a very cheap leaflet and it might be useful to you. 1891. Could you let us have a copy ?—Yes, I can send it on from my place later. 1892. Do you have assistants who visit these slaughter- houses and make inspections ?—Yes, there is on our Board a veterinary surgeon who regularly inspects those slaughter- houses. Our veterinary surgeon has to make a report which deals with all questions concerning the management of the slaughter-houses and the slaughtering of the cattle, and so on. 1893. Does your veterinary surgeon have any discre- tion as to altermg the method of slaughter? Can he relax any of the rules when he makes his visits ?—No, he could not do so; in matters of small detail he certainly could do so, but he has to apply the rules which are laid down for the administration of the slaughter-houses. 1894. Whatever the rules are, he sees that they are carried out ?—Yes, but he could make suggestions ; for instance, if he sees that the slaughtering is not done pro- perly in a particular place, he makes a report to our board, and we look after it and write to the municipal authority about it. 1895. But his duty is to see that there is no unnecessary -cruelty as well as to supervise the sanitary regulations ?— Ves, his superintendence er control comprises both points. 1896. Is it the general rule in Germany for the manager or director of a slaughter-house to be a veterinary surgeon ? —Yes ; it is provided by law in Prussia. 1897. It is compulsory ?—Yes, it is compulsory. In Prussia the inspection of the cattle in public slaughter- houses must be carried out by a veterinary surgeon; that is again a provision of the law in Prussia. 1898. The chief of the slaughter-house must be a veterinary surgeon ?—Yes ; he has, if necessary, veterinary surgeon assistants. 1899. You are familiar, of course, with the Jewish method of killing cattle ?—Yes. 1900. What is your opinion of it generally ?—Generally speaking our Board would like to abolish it, but we met with such opposition on religious grounds from the Jews that we did not do so. 1901. Would you tell us why you wish to abolish it ? —Because, in the first place, it does not secure that painless slaughtering which is guaranteed by those other appliances I have just mentioned. 1902. Do you think it is a cruel method ?—I would not go so far, but I think it is unnecessary to put the cattle to such a trial ; if it is done in a careful and skilful way, as I have seen it done sometimes, it may not be so objectionable, but before the animal is got into such a position that the knife can be used to cut the throat it requires so many preparations that the animal gets frightened. 1903. And then the throwing of the animal down must be painful ?—No, I would not go so far ; it may sometimes be painful. I do not know if you are familiar with that method ; they put the animal down on the ground on its back and try to throw it in such a fashion that its throat can be cut sharply. I do not believe that alone would cause much pain to the animal. ; 1904. Not to throw the animal down on the hard floor ? —It is done rather skilfully as I have seen it, and I think it is much more in the long preparations before doing the work, and the fact that the effect of the cut does not cause immediate death that the objection lies ; these two things I consider objectionable. As to the throwing down of the animal, I should not think it was so painful. E1905. It would depend a great deal on how skilfully it was done ?—Yes, and for that reason, starting from my general principle, I think it is a bad system. 1906. Are the animals thrown by a mechanical arrange- ment in Germany ?—In the Jewish fashion ? 1907. Yes.—Just so; they chain them with an over- head running rope and pull them down; I suggest such a system for your wild cattle. 1908. Do they have indiarubber pavements or floors made of indiarubber for the cattle to fall upon ?—No, I have not seen them; such may be used, but I have not seen them; besides you get such excellent pavements now without any joints, that anything else is hardly necessary. 1909. You do not consider that the cutting of the throat with a knife in the Jewish fashion causes immediate death ?—No, but that is more a question for a medical man. I venture to say it would not cause immediate death. 1910. Is it the custom in the German slaughter-houses to have a large number of officials whose duty it is to be present at the slaughtering of animals, and to see that no unnecessary cruelty is used, and that the regulations generally are carried out ?—Yes, the veterinary surgeon, who is the head of the slaughter-house, and his assistants, and the foremen, if I may call them so, have to,see that all those regulations are carried out. 1911. In a large slaughter-house like that at Coblenz how many inspectors are there ?7—There is one veterinary surgeon, and he has, I think, two veterinary surgeon assistants, and then again you have a number of what we call lay inspectors to do the work of inspecting the pigs’ flesh for trichinosis. The law allows that work to be done by lay inspectors who have passed a certain ex- amination. 1912. What class do they come from ? They would be men who had been in the Army, of course, as everyone serves ia Germany, but they would not have any medical Dr. Carl Budding (cont.).