Humane stunning and slaughter of food animals and post-cut management

Rationale

Stunning of food animals is a slaughter activity that in general carries a high animal welfare risk associated with it, even under the most ideal conditions.

Stunning failures can result in extreme suffering for the food animal because of the risk for pain and distress associated with certain methods of stunning when they fail to render the animal unconscious when they should, either instantly or rapidly, depending on the method used. There is also the associated risk with a failure to stun correctly that dressing procedures are carried out on a still conscious animal.

Therefore, highly effective preventive measures must always be implemented for stunning, including any conditions that affect the stunning, such as the establishment restraint and stunning equipment, establishment construction, layout and conditions and specific management practices, any of which could adversely affect stunning when not done correctly.

After stunning, the food animal must be unconscious or dead before suspending it. Poultry may be shackled, in the conscious state for stunning, although this allowance does not apply to ostriches, emus and rheas which, because of their large size, are slaughtered differently.

If the licence holder chooses to stun the food animal prior to ritual slaughter, then the regulatory requirements for humane stunning apply fully in this case, in accordance with the act and regulations governing humane slaughter.

What this means for your food business

To help you understand these requirements, specific criteria and examples are outlined below. The examples are not exhaustive but help illustrate the intent of the requirement and offer ideas on what you could do to comply. Key terms throughout the text have been hyperlinked to the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) glossary.

Section 141: Requirement before bleeding

Allowed stunning methods under these regulations include mechanical stunning, electrical stunning and controlled atmospheric stunning (CAS) systems or equipment, that result in either a reversible stun or irreversible stun
The outcome of either a reversible or an irreversible state of unconsciousness delivered by the stunning method must be achieved consistently
The outcome of mechanical and electrical stunning must be an immediate loss of conscious
The outcome of CAS stunning systems must be a loss of consciousness in as rapidly a manner as possible, determined by the system and parameters used

Examples

Your employee understands the target areas on the food animal's head and the right angle to use the penetrating captive bolt stunning correctly to result in an irreversible stun but monitoring for consciousness post-stunning is still always done
When using reversible head-only electrical stunning, you ensure that the food animal is rapidly cut and bled to ensure its death after the stunning process to avoid the food animal regaining consciousness
For additional information, refer to the guidance material on:

Section: 142, 143 (1) Requirements after bleeding starts and before suspension

You use reliable and practical indicators to monitor for any signs of consciousness or return to consciousness from stunning to the end of bleeding to ensure death has occurred prior to dressing procedures to avoid the risk of conducting these on an animal that is still alive
Mammalian food animals (red meat food animal species), ostriches, emus and rheas are stunned prior to being hung on shackles for cutting and bleeding slaughter activities; unless the mammalian food animal is ritually slaughtered without stunning
Mammalian food animals, ostriches, emus and rheas that must be killed for disease control purposes but the meat product derived from them will not be edible must be humanely killed prior to being hung up on shackles
In the case of a ritually slaughtered food animal (without prior stunning), it must be unconscious prior to being hung on shackles

Examples

Your employee who monitors the stunning, cutting and bleeding tasks assesses the food animal for signs of consciousness or return to consciousness using practical and feasible indicators such as presence of rhythmic breathing, eye blinking and other eye reflexes, righting reflexes, vocalization and increased muscle tone
For additional information, refer to the guidance material on:

Subsection: 143 (2) Exception – certain birds

Avian food animals, except for ostriches, emus and rheas, may be inverted and shackled while still conscious before stunning for slaughter as long as they are fit to be shackled
The shackling time must be minimal to reduce the distress or pain to the birds associated with being shackled in the conscious and inverted state.
Birds may be shackled for humane killing as long as they are fit to be shackled and they are humanely killed immediately after shackling

Examples

The operational conditions and structural design of your facility ensures turkeys, geese and ducks are shackled while still conscious prior to stunning, no longer than 2 minutes and all other bird species or classes, no longer than 1 minute, in accordance with international best practices
Birds that must be destroyed for disease control purposes may be shackled while conscious for humane killing provided they are not compromised such that shackling would cause them avoidable suffering and pain
For additional information, refer to the guidance material on: