Slaughter-House or Abattoir

The important feature of the Chicago and certain other western American cities slaughter-houses is their adaptation for rapidly dealing with the animals which they receive. At the Chicago slaughter-houses the cattle to be slaughtered are driven up a wind ing viaduct, by which, in certain of the houses, they eventually reach the roof. Each animal now passes into a narrow pen, where it is at once stunned by a blow on the head. It then falls through a trap-door in the pen into an immense slaughtering-room, where the hind legs are secured, and the animal hoisted to a trolley running on an overhead rail, which leads past numerous workmen, each deputed to carry out a special duty in preparing the carcase on its way to the cooling room which is reached in less than one hour after it has been killed. Any particular carcase or part thereof can be switched out of the line for special inspection with out interfering with the onward movement of the others and can be switched back into line if passed by the inspectors. The method of dealing with sheep and swine is essentially the same. One firm alone deals daily with some i o,000 sheep, 12,000 hogs and 3,00o cattle.

Method of Killing.

In 1904 a British departmental (Ad miralty) committee on the humane slaughtering of animals recom mended that all animals should be stunned before being bled, and, with a view to sparing animals awaiting slaughter the sights and smells of the slaughter-house, that "cattle should, when possible, be slaughtered screened off from their fellows." The aforesaid committee state that they practically tested a large number of appliances designed for felling and stunning animals previous to "pithing," among which they mention- the Bruneau and Baxter masks, the Greener patent killer, the Blitz instrument and the Wackett punch, all of which are suitable for quiet cattle or horses. In view of the difficulty of adjusting these instruments in the case of wild or restive animals, the committee express the opinion that the poll-axe when used by an expert is on the whole the most satis factory implement, but they recommend that no man should be permitted to use the poll-axe on a living animal until he has gone through a thorough course of training, firstly upon a dummy animal and secondly upon dead bodies. Calves, the committee

state should be stunned by a blow on the head with a club. With respect to the method of slaughter of sheep the committee discuss the method usually adopted in England, which is "to lay the sheep on a wooden crutch, and then to thrust a knife through the neck below the ears, and with a second motion to insert the point, from within, between the joints of the vertebrae, thus severing the spinal cord." Observations made for the committee by Professor Starling showed that the interval between the first thrust of the knife and complete loss of sensibility varied from five to thirty seconds, and they therefore recommended that sheep should be stunned before being stuck, a practice required in Denmark, many parts of Germany, and Switzerland. It is necessary that the sheep should be struck on the top of the head between the ears and not on the forehead. The insensibility produced by the blow was found to last fully twenty seconds, a period sufficiently long for the killing to be completed if the animal is laid on the crutch before being stunned. The stunning of pigs, the committee recommended, should be insisted upon in all cases, and not, as sometimes at pres ent, only practised in the case of large pigs which give trouble or with a view to the avoidance of noise. Recently in England use of the "humane killer" has been advocated.

The Jewish method of slaughter by cutting the throat was con demned by the committee after careful observation, the chief objection being that it fails in the primary requirements of rapid ity, freedom from pain and instantaneous loss of sensibility.