Question:
Temple Grandin: apparently animals do not stress in slaughter?
?
2010-12-31 02:13:24 UTC
Alright i've just been researching this the past 10 minutes or so. Temple Grandin is basically some very highly respected animal scientist, She is an advocate of autism (she has it herself) & animal welfare. Here are just some odd quotes though from her article ''animals are not things'' that i'm curious about? & Apparently oysters cannot feel pain?

http://www.grandin.com/welfare/animals.are.not.things.html

f cattle knew they were going to die it would be reasonable to assume that cortisol levels would be much higher in the slaughter plant

Insects, viruses and microbes are not able to feel pain or suffer. More research is needed to determine the extent that fishes and amphibians feel pain. Present research shows that they do experience fear.
Five answers:
Daisy
2010-12-31 07:05:06 UTC
What's your question? You can read.



Some "animals" don't have nerve sensors to feel pain. Do you find that so unreasonable? Would you expect a 3-toed sloth to react to stimuli like a cat?



The whole point to Temple Grandin's work has been to be sure cattle DON'T know they are going to die. Cattle are herd animals. You can have them in a huge pen, but they'll probably be all bunched up in a corner. That's when they feel most secure. So Temple Grandin designed a chute that allows the cattle to walk, single file, up to the kill point. They can't see in front of them. They can't see behind them. They only see and feel the cow in front and behind them. There's no blood smell because they're just stunned, not killed at that point. When the cow in front of them is stunned and drops is the first time a cow sees anything. By the time she reacts, she's out like a light, strung up along a conveyor, her throat cut and bled out. She simply never wakes up. The USDA has decreed that's the most humane way to kill cattle for humane slaughter. Stressed cattle that fight in the chute may go down, break a leg and the whole slaughter line has to stop and take care of her. That's not economically a good thing. Meat from stressed animals is often less valuable because of the adrenhlin that flushes through the muscles when they're stressed.



Ellie Krieger, Dietician and host of Food Network’s “Healthy Appetite”, visited a commercial meat packing plant and this is what she said about the slaughter process:



"The last thing I saw was the actual harvest or killing. To be sure, it is not a pleasurable thing to witness in general, but if you eat meat, the simple fact is an animal is sacrificed for your nourishment, a reality we are all too removed from in modern society. The trick is to do it humanely, and this is where I was most impressed. The system Cargill uses was developed in part by Dr. Temple Grandin, the autistic animal scientist who, with her heightened sensitivity, was able to pinpoint specific ways to keep cows stress-free throughout the process (there is an award winning HBO film about her starring Claire Danes.) The whole environment is kept purposefully calm, with no loud noises or bright lights. Before they realize what is going on the cows are hit precisely on the head, given a concussion so they are rendered senseless, then their throats are cut and their blood is drained. The whole thing takes roughly a minute. I watched intently as the cows moved through and noticed no shred of panic or unease."



It's a well written, intersting article. You might want to take time to read it at the link below.
Erin
2016-03-01 04:44:41 UTC
Not being from the US, I did not know much about her until I asked a question about whether there really was such a thing as "humane slaughter" here last year. Whilst I do not condone raising, killing and eating of animals, I think I'm being realistic in saying that those practices are never going to cease. If animals must be killed, then to do it in as stress- and pain-free ways as possible has to be better than how most animals are killed in slaughterhouses. I cannot fathom any meat eaters' attitude towards animals, it sickens me that Temple Grandin can so blythely talk about minimising stress and pain, but that's the reality of life and food. But why haven't ALL animal farmers and killers adopted her techniques and machinery? Because the life of a sentient animal means only $.
2010-12-31 04:11:21 UTC
I'll go along with the oyster part but the rest is rubbish.

When cattle are slaughtered they are forced into a corridor where there is a right angle at the end so that the animal can't actually see the one in front being slaughtered until the last minute, because when they can see too far ahead they panic.
Lauren N
2010-12-31 02:26:46 UTC
Did you know that some plants hire "knockers" that hit the cows on the side of the head with heavy objects (poles ect.) so that the cows don't struggle when their necks are slit open. Would you be stressed if you were hanging upside down with your head half-off your body? Gross isn't it? But the sad part is its true
Meow
2010-12-31 02:21:01 UTC
I didn't look at your link, but interesting points.


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