Welfare Issues During Handling Transport and Slaughter

1. Welfare Issues DuringHandling Transport and Slaughter Temple GrandinDepartment of Animal SciencesColorado State University

2. Handling Issues • People Not Trained and Supervised • Facility Problems • Difficult to Handle Animals – Producer Problem

3. Training People in Low Stress Animal Handling • Calm animals are easier to handle • Teach behavioral principles, flight zone, and point of balance • An electric prod should never be used as a person’s primary driving tool • Most people can be trained to handle animals, but a few people are not suitable

4. Flight Zone Principle

5. Point of Balance

6. A flag can be used to turn an animal by blocking the animal’s vision on one side

7. Paddle stick and small flag for moving animals

8. Should Electric Prods Be Banned? • My answer is “No” • Electric prods should only be used on a stubborn animal that refuses to move and then put away • Handlers should never constantly carry an electric prod • If banned, handler may resort to abusive methods

9. Handling Tips to Reduce Electric Prod Use • For cattle and pigs, fill crowd pen half full • Move separate small groups of cattle and pigs • Sheep continuous flow large groups

10. Fixing Facility Problems That Make Animals Difficult to Move • Remove Distractions • Block Vision of Things that Cause Balking • Non-slip Flooring

11. Tie up loose chain ends that scare animals Bright green hose may cause animals to stop Distractions That Cause Balking High Contrast Rapid Movement

12. Blocking Vision of Distractions

13. Animals get agitated when they slip Squeeze chutes, stocks, scales, unloading ramps Steer coming out of squeeze chute Non-slip Flooring is Essential

14. Adding a light at the restrainer entrance or making other lighting changes that eliminate shiny reflections will improve animal movement Animals are Afraid of Dark Places

15. Electric Prod Use on Pigs Was Reduced By Adding Lighting at the Restrainer Entrance All handlers were well trained and only pigs that balked or backed up were prodded.

16. Causes of Hard to Handle Cattle • Lameness • Weak cull cows become non-ambulatory • Wild and excitable animals • Fed too much beta-agonist • Cattle handled exclusively on horseback are dangerous to move by a handler on foot • Constant kicking in some cattle worked by dogs

17. Producers should select for sound feet and legs This pig has horrible legs

18. Comparison of Electric Prod Use and Squealing Between Easy-to-Drive Pigs and Hard-to-Drive Pigs

19. Holding Producers Accountable for Handling Problems Will Reduce Them • Slaughter plants reduced downers by charging a handling fee • Producers need to take responsibility for welfare problems that they cause • Less bruises when producers pay for them

20. Causes of Hard to Handle Pigs • Producer never walked the pens • Lameness – Poor leg conformation • Weak from too much beta-agonist • Excitable genetics • PSS stress gene

21. Maintaining Good Handling Practices • Requires constant measurement • Requires regular training and retraining • Requires management commitment to good handling

22. Measurement System for Monitoring Handling Faults • Percentage of animals electric prodded • Percentage falling • Percentage moved faster than a walk or trot • Percentage vocalizing (bellow, squeal) • Percentage hitting fences or gates

23. Measurement Prevents Bad From Becoming Normal • Can monitor whether procedures are improving or becoming worse • Set limits to determine passing score AMI and OIE both 1% or less of the animals falling • High standards are possible Perfect is not possible

24. Most downer cattle can be prevented with good management on the farm Big Issue in Handling Downers

25. Percentage of Beef Plants That Stunned 95% or More Cattle with the First Shot USDA survey prior to industry wide auditing McDonald’s Audits started Continued auditing by major customers Continuous auditing maintains good performance.

26. Video Auditing Over the Internet Is Used Now

27. Welfare Issues at the Slaughter Plant • Plants with high chain speeds • Do animals know they are getting slaughtered?? • Religious slaughter without stunning • Fear of blood?? • Stunner maintenance • Is a kicking animal hanging on the rail conscious??

28. Part 313: Humane Slaughter of Livestock Regulations 313.2 (2)The dragging of disabled animals and other animals unable to move while conscious is prohibited. Stunned animals may, however, be dragged. OIE (2008) Welfare Code – Conscious animals should not be dragged, dropped or thrown

29. USDA/FSIS Has Increased Enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Acts • Problems with uneven enforcement due to vague regulations and directives • A directive on preventing EXCESSIVE electric prod has different interpretations

30. Typical Stunners in Beef Plants Pneumatic captive bolt Cartridge fixed capture bolt

31. Typical Electric Stunners for Sheep and Pigs

32. Are Plants with High Chain Speeds Bad? Percentage of cattle moved with an electric prod at different line speeds Line speed/hour Number of Plants % Electric Prodded Less than 50 16 20% 51-100 13 27% 101-200 10 12% 201-300 21 24% More than 300 6 25% Grandin, 2005

33. Effect of Chain Speed on Animal Handling and Stunning • Exceeding the speed capacity of the equipment causes abuse in both large and small plants. • Understaffing often causes abuse • High line speed plants can be very humane if designed properly

34. Does the Steer Know He Is Getting Slaughtered??

35. Feedlot Plant I Observed Cattle Behavior at the Plant and in Feed Yard Chutes and it was the Same in Both Plants

36. No other painful procedures were performed Cortisol levels during restraint in a head gate for blood testing

37. Cortisol levels at the slaughter plant were similar to on-farm handling Fear was the main stressor

38. Stress levels at a well-run slaughter plant are similar to handling on a feedlot or ranch

39. There Are Two Issues in Religious Slaughter • How the animal is held and handled • Slaughter without stunning The biggest welfare issue is the restraint method

40. Some plants still use cruel shackling and hoisting for restraining the animal. Legal under an exemption in the Humane Slaughter Act

41. OIE 2008 Animal Welfare Code Methods of restraint causing avoidable suffering should not be used in conscious animals because they cause severe pain and stress: • suspending or hoisting animals (other than poultry) by the feet or legs; • indiscriminate and inappropriate use of stunning equipment; • mechanical clamping of the legs or feet of the animals (other than shackles used in poultry and ostriches) as the sole method of restraint; • breaking legs, cutting leg tendons, or blinding an animal to immobilize them; • severing the spinal cord. For example using a puntilla or dagger to immobilize animals, using electric currents to immobilize animals except for paper stunning.

42. Head restraint device for kosher or halal slaughter The animal is held in a comfortable upright position

43. Long Special Knife for Kosher Slaughter

44. Time to Eye Rollback and Collapse at a Kosher Plant

45. Is Stunning Allowed for Religious Slaughter? • Glatt Kosher – No • Regular Kosher – Yes, after the cut • Halal – Will often allow stunning before cut

46. Are Animal Afraid of Blood? • Steers and heifers walk calmly into a box covered with blood • Blood, saliva, or urine from highly stressed animals is avoided in cattle, pigs, and rodents

47. Cause of Captive Bolt Stunner Problems in Order of Importance • Lack of Maintenance • Damp Cartridges • Lack of Operator Training

48. Kicking occurs in unconscious, insensible animals It will still kick even if the head is removed UnderstandingAssessingInsensibility

49. Transport Issues • Fitness for Travel – Big Number 1 • Cold Stress • Heat Stress • Hauled Long Distances • Overloaded Vehicles • Bruises, Death Losses

50. Unfit Animals for Transport • Weak cull animals • Can barely walk – lame • Weak from too much beta-agonist • Freshly weaned “bawling” weaned on truck in calves • Neonatal dairy calves unless transported to specialized calf raising facility