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Slaughter

At the slaughter plant, the chickens are moved out of the trucks, dumped onto conveyors, and hung upside down in shackles by their legs. Shackling is painful for chickens, especially since so many suffer from bone and joint problems. One group of researchers concluded that “90 percent of broilers had a detectable gait abnormality indicating leg weakness, and 26 percent suffered an abnormality so severe that their welfare was considered compromised. This level of leg abnormality, if representative of commercial flocks, provides evidence that, potentially, a large number of birds should not be shackled.”(52) One study found that, after shackling, 3 percent of broilers had broken bones and 4.5 percent had dislocations.(53) Another study found a 44-percent increase in newly broken bones following shackling.(54)

In the United States, poultry are not included under the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, thus there are no legal requirements that chickens be made unconscious before they are slaughtered.(55) Electric stunning is often used to immobilize chickens before slaughter, making them easier to handle. However, the voltage used may be insufficient to induce unconsciousness.(56)

Birds then have their throats cut by hand or machine. Failure by workers or machines to cut both carotid arteries can add two minutes to the time taken for birds to bleed to death.(57) As slaughter lines run at speeds of up to 8,400 chickens per hour, many workers miss these arteries and most machines are not even designed to cut them properly.(58) One researcher concluded, the “problems associated with inefficient neck cutting [are] only too common in poultry processing plants.”(59) As a result, birds may be conscious as they enter tanks of scalding water intended to loosen the birds’ feathers. One study found that up to 23 percent of broilers were still alive when they entered scalding tanks.(60)

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