The use of electrical stunning followed by electro-immobilization for the humane slaughter of cattle

Authors: Day A, Devine CE, Gilbert KV, Tavener A
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 33, Issue 4, pp 47, Apr 1985
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Cattle, Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant
Subject Terms: Anaesthesia/analgesia/sedation, Animal remedies/veterinary medicines, Animal welfare, Animal handling, Slaughter
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: In New Zealand, calves are often electrically stunned before slaughter. However, electrical stunning is not usually used for adult cattle, primarily because the large size of the adult animal makes restraint more difficult, resulting in less reproducible stunning, with potential danger to personnel from animal movement. In addition, the slaughter of cattle may be inhumane if the stunning process does not ensure immediate and permanent insensibility (Newhook and Blackmore 1982b). The use and humaneness of electrical stunning of sheep and cattle have been the subject of our recent research, in which we have addressed and resolved many of these problems. We wish to relate our observations in the context of head-only electrical stunning of cattle followed by electro-immobilization to maintain insensibility and ensure carcass stillness. In sheep and calves a head-to-back electrical stun simultaneously produces an electropletic fit, abolishes movement, and causes cardiac dysfunction so that insensibility produced by the stun becomes permanent. If the animals were not slaughtered, it would eventually succumb to cerebral anoxia associated with cardiac dysfunction. A head-only electrical stun merely produces temporary insensibility…

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