Humane Cow Slaughter « Offal Good

Humane Cow Slaughter

November 27, 2007 on 1:58 am | In Photos | Comments

What can I say this was a huge experience. This is just a fraction of what it was like at the slaughter house I couldn’t snap pictures and participate fast enough to get the whole process step by step. Watching the folks there was like a ballet it was so smooth and clean and professional. I would like to thank them all for allowing me to be a part of there day and that amazing experience. Its no easy task to do that, and I can say that from experience now. This gave me a whole new understanding to the size and amount of work that goes into a cow from start to finish. To start there is not a photo of knocking the cow since it would startle the cow and not be a humane slaughter. There are very strict rules to adhere to and there is an outside monitoring group that comes in to be sure that the Certified Humane standards are being met.

57 Responses to “Humane Cow Slaughter”

Diana says:

May 5, 2009 at 1:34 am

What distresses me in today’s social atmosphere is that images such as this are often viewed with such pragmatism — instead of inspiring, as I believe they should, an abject disdain for what we humans do to animals. I agree very much with Bill Watson’s commentary here. As a child, I grew up overseas and was witness to slaughter which traumatized me for life. I am a vegetarian as a result. And almost anyone I know who has witnessed the same, also eschews meat. I don’t fully grasp how the discussion in this blog and so many addressing “where our food comes from” — most often with attention to the haute cuisine — have a literal void of emotion when in comes to the suffering we are inflicting on others. And often for something superfluous, like a particular appetite or a delicacy. I suppose I’m glad I’m more than half way through my life (provided I live a normal life span). I used to believe that our utilitarian ideas — our “use” of living creatures — would undergo a major shift in perspective in my lifetime. Instead, it seems to be the opposite and I mourn for that dearth of genuine empathy and compassion. It’s not the change I desperately wanted to see.
roho says:

June 10, 2009 at 7:35 pm

thats a great page and i am a butcher i understand everything about eat meat and slaugther animals we have to eat thanks roho
Thomas says:

September 18, 2009 at 7:42 pm

I’d like to thank mr. James Rickert for clearing up why the word “humane” was used in the title! If I could get meat processed in this way I would never become a vegetarian! I have nothing against killing animals, as we all have to dye one time or another, but all this industrial scale raising living beings in tiny, overcrowded pens and inhumane butchering makes me sick and I don’t want to have any part in it! My father grew on a farm as a kid, they raised all their animals and butchered them, and when I was 10 or 11 he took me to a modern farm to show me where our food comes from. When he saw how these poor beasts were treated he was appalled…it was nothing like on the farm he grew. So we both become vegetarians. If we visited a farm like mr. Rickert’s one, I would still eat meat!
alan says:

November 19, 2009 at 3:08 pm

i dont like the idea of a bolt firing into the head of a cow—it is a precise action should not be done by workers just stood around in a routine almost in a daze i,m sure for a start the animal should be very still for the placement of the bolt gun this is never the case i have watched this process and i can see the animal is in great pain if this was happening to a human i,m sure we would faint at the thought of a bolt entering our heads—ok now lets get down to physics there is only one way to be sure the slaughter is 100% painless and that is my invention —-the explosive guillotine shearing the head from the body in milliseconds this could be operated by compressed air or gas of even explosives—-i dont care if they are worried about how the blood gets drained this is 2009 maybe we could purge it with a mechanical pump connected to the heart there is a way just use imagination—-or we will never reach the stars—-a denham –inventor of other great things to come
Dave Seavy says:

December 10, 2009 at 7:19 pm

I agree with the above comment. A faster – surer death could be achieved by rapid decapitation. Too many poory stunned animals get butched before they’re dead/
James Rickert says:

February 2, 2010 at 5:49 pm

Wow… instant decapitation by a guillotine that is powered by compressed air or even explosives???? Seriously? Workman’s comp would have a fit. As a person who works in a slaughterhouse… I think that I’d rather use the stun gun instead of having a guillotine. There would be a lot of one-armed workers…
Misty says:

March 8, 2010 at 8:18 pm

I believe that eating is one of the things talked about in the bible. Mainly that everything on earth, animals and plants are put here for us to eat. Animals eat other animals, some plants eat insects so on and so forth and the circle of life goes on. If you choose not to eat meat, that is your choice. Take a good nutrition class at a college to see what not eating meat can and will do to your body. There are some essential nutrients found only in meat. I don’t approve of any inhumane methods of killing animals. There has come to my mind the idea that everyone has become too politically correct about everything. My family and I eat meat at almost every meal and will continue to do so. I have begun to wonder what we would do without a local grocery store or butcher shop to buy our meat from. Answer: We would raise and butcher our own meat and the first attempts would probably be a disaster an very inhumane. But we would learn and change our methods just as a lot of farmers are doing today, learning from the history we have. Thanks for posting these pictures and to every farmer, rancher and butcher that contributes to the learning process and food on the table.