Animal slaughter

[Dry Rot]

You are right about horses, high on the forehead, but cattle should be shot in the middle of the forehead. In fact, I think it used to be an offence for them to be shot in the back of the head. Depends what you shoot them with, I suppose. I have seen a water buffalo shot in the back of the head and it seemed to be effective. Shooting him in the forehead would have been daft as the base of his horns were over the sweet spot.

Quite correct and I am mistaken about cattle.

All the correct information can be found at this link:

https://www.hsa.org.uk/downloads/publications/hsa-humane-killing-of-livestock-using-firearms.pdf

Used properly, firearms provide one of the quickest and most effective methods of humane killing of livestock. This publication has been written for all those, particularly veterinary surgeons, knackermen, slaughtermen, farm staff and police firearms officers, who may be directly or indirectly involved with the killing of large farm animals. It covers the humane destruction of cattle, sheep, pigs, deer, goats and horses, using humane killers, handguns, rifles and shotguns, discharged at close quarters, i.e. within 25 centimetres of the target – the animal’s head. All of these weapons fire free projectiles (single bullets or shot-charges) and their use is intended to kill the animals outright, with no need for further action on the part of the operator. This has definite advantages in certain situations where

exsanguination or pithing would be undesirable or inappropriate.

.....which in my opinion should be compulsory reading and examination for all farmers, along with all the other licensing farmers have to do for transport etc. these days. I read it some time ago but was surprised how much I had forgotten over the years. I am also a bit shocked how many here have got their facts wrong, but that's not unique. There was the famous case of the RSPCA inspector who attempted the humane destruction of a road casualty dog, refused experienced help at the scene, and promptly put a shot through the dog's head -- and into his own foot!

 

[steveR]

Quite correct and I am mistaken about cattle.

All the correct information can be found at this link:

https://www.hsa.org.uk/downloads/publications/hsa-humane-killing-of-livestock-using-firearms.pdf

Thank you.

A hugely informative and useful document that I will dump to hard copy for future reference.

 

[jerseycowsman]

Ours will. And thank God they do as there is nothing worse than waiting for the knacker man if the animal is in pain

Get yerself a bolt gun and stop being a jessy!

 

[Bald Rick]

Get yerself a bolt gun and stop being a jessy!

Use a 12b

 

[Av Gorritt]

Thank you.

A hugely informative and useful document that I will dump to hard copy for future reference.

24 pages to download (and read )

 

[egbert]

I was taught to shoot horses and cattle from the front to make a imaginary cross from right ear to left eye and left ear to right eye and where the cross meets you have the point of entry, i've never had a situation as described and i've never seen anyone shoot a large animal from behind how do you know for sure your in the right place you'll end up in the mess that chap was .

I've heard that, but it'd be plenty low enough in my experience-esp in equines.
From the top is surest.
If in doubt, look at an emptied skull....the brain box is right at the top.

I've seen a little mickey mouse .22 revolver used to drop a cow.
It looked like a kids cap gun, but in experienced hands, cow dropped right where she was - no different to the hand cannons some seem to require now.

 

[fermerboy]

Our vets carry euthanasia drugs and will put an animal down if asked, I had a bull done last year and it was done there and then no fuss.

After a couple of bad experiences with knackery men putting down cows poorly, and one trying to get up in the lorry under the cover when he was reversing out of the yard, and a particularly bad experience with an old bull I do it myself now. The captive bolt just isn't enough on an old thick bull skull.
I have a .22 rf and a 12bore shotgun and would use the shotgun every time. Used at close range it is a tidy effective job.
I was extremely nervous about using the 12g the first time on a cow after reading on here it was better than a rifle, but whoever said it they were 100% right.

Never a good job but I'm content that the way I do it is the best option when it's required.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Our vets carry euthanasia drugs and will put an animal down if asked, I had a bull done last year and it was done there and then no fuss.

After a couple of bad experiences with knackery men putting down cows poorly, and one trying to get up in the lorry under the cover when he was reversing out of the yard, and a particularly bad experience with an old bull I do it myself now. The captive bolt just isn't enough on an old thick bull skull.
I have a .22 rf and a 12bore shotgun and would use the shotgun every time. Used at close range it is a tidy effective job.
I was extremely nervous about using the 12g the first time on a cow after reading on here it was better than a rifle, but whoever said it they were 100% right.

Never a good job but I'm content that the way I do it is the best option when it's required.

Correctly used captive bolt with the right cartridge will stun a bull just fine. How do you think they are slaughtered at the factory?

 

[fermerboy]

Correctly used captive bolt with the right cartridge will stun a bull just fine. How do you think they are slaughtered at the factory?

Well I would have hoped so, my knackery was obviously doing something wrong, training or equipment, I don't know.
But as a customer to have a charolais bull stand there, shake his head a bit while the lad reloaded for another try just isn't on in my book. No fun stopping a moving lorry with a moving cow on it either.
Hopefully things have improved but it left a real bad taste with me I can tell you,, I have the guns, and license and as long as I'm allowed I'll prefer to make sure it's properly done myself.

 

[egbert]

Correctly used captive bolt with the right cartridge will stun a bull just fine. How do you think they are slaughtered at the factory?

I presume, as someone said, it's the use of pithing rods thereafter that makes the difference

 

[unlacedgecko]

I presume, as someone said, it's the use of pithing rods thereafter that makes the difference

I don't think pithing is used in the abattoir. As I understand it a post stun throat cut is used.

 

[egbert]

A local family were called out by the law onto a remote moorland road one night, to a mare with 2 broken legs- having been struck by a car.

Plod wouldn't allow the son to use a deer rifle to dispatch the poor mare - you can guess the distress the poor thing was in.
The reason given was to do with it being illegal to use a firearm within so many feet of a public highway.....so a vet -or possibly knackerman, I forget- had been summoned from some distance.
It was a feckin disgrace.
The copper who took the decision should've been prosecuted for cruelty, and flung off the force. It was a vile thing to do.
And before anyone defends him, this was a lonely road across 5 miles of unfenced moor.
Plod could very simply have closed the road for a few hundred meters either way, if that was his worry.

 

[egbert]

I don't think pithing is used in the abattoir. As I understand it a post stun throat cut is used.

I don't know.
In FMD, the team here used bolt guns and pithing rods.

 

[unlacedgecko]

I don't know.
In FMD, the team here used bolt guns and pithing rods.

Yes. Following an effective stun by a captive bolt stunner the animal must be killed by either bleeding or pithing.

 

[egbert]

I'm minded of ...'a friend', who, after a storm had driven his hill sucklers down into a valley, and over a rocky river for shelter, discovered one of the cows had broken a front leg.
He had no option but to drive her 100-150 meters toward where she could be extracted, before dropping her.
Not, he admits, the nicest thing to have to do.

Reminds me of a Scot who lived with-and wrote about- the Inuit in the 1940s-50s
He went hunting caribou with them once.
Having walked half a mile or so inland, they set about shooting with the rifles they used.
He was appalled. Rather than clean shots, all they seemed to be able to do was blow a leg off each time.
He cleanly dropped a couple in what he thought the proper manner....to the shaking heads of admonition.
They had to explain....'how was he going to get his caribou back to the shore?' (from where they could be recovered)
They simply drove their injured beasts down to the shore, then despatched them.

 

[Av Gorritt]

When i was a lot younger , I worked , job experience , for a local vet . We had a Winchester bottle of Prussic Acid (hydrocyanic acid ) labelled up as "E and D Sol . " (Euthanasia and Destruction ) in an unlocked cupboard in the surgery . If people brought a cat or dog in for destruction , we gave them the option of just leaving it , or staying and watching . Most left them with us . If they stayed , the animal got a heavy dose of anaesthetic ,and then the prussic . Otherwise it was just the Prussic, and not a very pretty sight at that . If we got a "non- handleable " dog in , it was put in a wire cage in a loose box , and the Prussic was squirted at it's mouth from a big hypodermic . All very effective , but absolutely brutal , and totally unacceptable , even then probably . That vet didn't last long in private practice , and he will be long ago dead now .

 

[steveR]

I'm minded of ...'a friend', who, after a storm had driven his hill sucklers down into a valley, and over a rocky river for shelter, discovered one of the cows had broken a front leg.
He had no option but to drive her 100-150 meters toward where she could be extracted, before dropping her.
Not, he admits, the nicest thing to have to do.

Reminds me of a Scot who lived with-and wrote about- the Inuit in the 1940s-50s
He went hunting caribou with them once.
Having walked half a mile or so inland, they set about shooting with the rifles they used.
He was appalled. Rather than clean shots, all they seemed to be able to do was blow a leg off each time.
He cleanly dropped a couple in what he thought the proper manner....to the shaking heads of admonition.
They had to explain....'how was he going to get his caribou back to the shore?' (from where they could be recovered)
They simply drove their injured beasts down to the shore, then despatched them.

Another world and a very different rationale.

 

[Christoph1945]

Our present knackerman is good at this I believe as he gets called specifically for the job. Very professional guy all round.

What does he use; a captive bolt and rod?

 

[steveR]

What does he use; a captive bolt and rod?

38 pistol I think it is. But has access to other kit I believe.

 

[Christoph1945]

38 pistol I think it is. But has access to other kit I believe.

I once worked alongside an ex-serviceman who, as a young man, worked in a knackers yard and he said that the captive bolt gun and rodding worked a treat; bang went the gun and before the animal even had time to flinch in went the rod and rattled around the brain cavity, then down went the beast, like a sack of coal.