■703 



The Humane Si.ArGiiTER of Animai.s. 



[Not., 



and has done so much to make slaughtering humane. There 

 are many private slaughter-houses over which the supervision 

 is unsatisfactory and incomplete, and the Ministry is urging upon 

 butchers throughout the country the advisability of killing b 

 humane methods. 



While the pole-axe in the hands of a skilled man is admittedly 

 most effective, the requisite skill can only be acquired by 

 practice. Young animals should always be stunned. The 

 ordinary methods of killing, especially in the case of calves 

 and pigs, leave much to be desired, and instructions have 

 recently been issued to the Ministry's Inspectors to take 

 steps to ensure that slaughtering on account of outbreaks 

 of disease is carried out humanely, and by the aid of either 

 humane killers or, in suitable cases, shot-guns. Officers who 

 are compelled to slaughter animals (as in cases of foot-and -month 

 disease) are also instructed to employ the most humane m.ethods, 

 and are further charged to see that any butchers employed by 

 them are to observe the same principles. The Minister has in 

 addition given instructions that all officers of the Ministry are to 

 regard themselves as propagandists of humane methods of 

 -slaughter throughout the country, and laid it down that the 

 main principle to be kept in view by all concerned is that every 

 animal should be properly stunned before it is bled. 



There are several humane killers on the market, and the 

 Ministry has adopted one by Messrs. Greener, of Birmingham, 

 which takes the form of a pistol firing a 0.2'2 hollow-nosed bullet, 

 in cartridges both long and short, and is, generally speaking, 

 capable of stunning sheep and pigs up to 24 stone in weight. 

 In the case of small pigs or lambs, where the charge may 

 emerge from the skull, or where the animal is being killed for 

 food, it should be stunned with a suitable hammer or mallet. 

 Where affected cattle are to be destroyed in the preliminary 

 stage of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, veterinary 

 surgeons are advised to employ a shot-gun, because the effect of 

 a (iharge of shot is immediate, the charge entering the brain as 

 a soKd mass and immediately spreading, therebv destroying all 

 sensation. 



The widest pubKcity is sought for these principles of humane 

 treatment of animals, so long neglected in this country, and 

 it is hoped that people who find themselves in agreement 

 with the view taken by the Ministry will do all in their power 

 to urge the cause of humane treatment in the slaughter of 

 .animals. It is only by the united action of all who are concerned 



