Our slaughter-house system : a plea for reform / [C. Cash].

  • Cash, C.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Our slaughter-house system : a plea for reform / [C. Cash]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    176/230 (page 160)
    of cruelty to animals—which are to he found in every town—make a point of urging the principle of humane slaughtering. With this object they supply the abattoirs with the latest stunning appliances, and contribute regularly to defray the cost of ammunition. Employment of Modern Appliances for Stunning Cattle. (The following description of various humane slaughter- ing appliances employed in Germany is here reprinted from Herr Heiss’s essay on humane slaughtering.) The slaughtering-mask, or bouterolle, the first real improvement in modern methods of slaughtering, is no longer a novelty. It has been adopted in most German abattoirs, and also in many private slaughter-houses. The construction of this apparatus is obvious from the diagram on opposite page. As to the way in which the bouterolle is to be fixed on the animal its very construc- tion will prevent any mistake being made. Care must only be taken to prevent its slipping to one side, since this would involve injury to only one side of the brain. The bolt penetrates into the skull at an angle almost, therefore, in the direction of the spinal cord. If the bolt be driven by a blow with the iron-bound mallet from four to five inches into the brain, it will penetrate between the two halves of the brain, carrying with it a disc of bone which it punches out (or its splintered frag- ments), shatter the surface of the brain, and rupture numerous bloodvessels. The stricken animal collapses instantly. In order to preserve the cutting power of the bolt it should never be dropped on the floor, which would blunt the cutting-edge. The bolt should be cleaned every time