Poultry Slaughter: The Need for Legislation

Poultry represent the largest number of animals slaughtered for food in the United States. Nine of the ten billion animals slaughtered in US facilities each year are birds- chickens, turkeys, ducks, and others. Yet poultry are excluded from humane slaughter protection. The 1958 federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act does not cover birds. At the time, those working to enact some form of humane slaughter legislation omitted poultry, with the understanding that birds would subsequently be brought under the coverage accorded to mammals. The time has come to fulfill this goal. L. P ar as ca nd ol a "Slaughter is different from processing in that the raw material is alive, has a central nervous system, can express emotional states, and has biological components like humans. "- Dr. Janice Swanson, American Meat Institute Foundation's Annual Animal Handling and Stunning Conference, February 21-22, 2002 “Do you think from your perception that the birds have a sense of what is going to happen to them?” “Yes. They try everything in their power to get away from the [killing] machine and to get away from you. Even the ones that are stunned into immobility. If these people are trying to say, because this chicken is stunned, it doesn't know what's going to happen or doesn't know what's going on, they are lying. I stood on the kill floor and watched. They will look at you, they'll open up their mouths; they try to squawk. They'll do all that, they'll get as mobile as they can, trying to get away. They have been stunned, so their muscles don't work, but their eyes do and you can tell by them looking at you, they're scared to death. ”- Virgil Butler, former Tyson slaughter