this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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The Act requires all meat companies selling to the US government to provide stunning by mechanical, electrical, or chemical means prior to the killing of cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, and other livestock, except in the case of slaughter for religious or ritual purposes. Stunning must be accomplished in a manner that is rapid and effective before the animal is shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut. (While the law refers to βother livestock,β poultry is not specifically included.)
So I went a little further by reading parts of the actual regulations, i.e., the implementation and enforcement of the act, because I'm genuinely curious to learn about this. It seems that they're defining stunning as basically destroying the brain of the animal before killing the body. For instance: "Unconsciousness is produced immediately by physical brain destruction and a combination of changes in intracranial pressure and acceleration concussion." It seems like a distinction without a difference, since they're essentially killing the animal by "stunning" it or making it "unconscious".
Stunning it doesn't kill it, it renders it unable to feel pain. They sell the cow brain so no, it doesn't destroy it. Midwesterners love some cow brain to eat, it's sold in grocery stores.
I found another source explaining it from experience: https://www.grandin.com/humane/cap.bolt.tips.html
It seems that we may both be partially correct: If a penetrating bolt is used the animal is killed instantly. If a non-penetrating bolt is used, the animal sometimes revives. What we don't know is how prevalent each approach is. Either way, re-reading your initial post that I responded to I realized that this debate doesn't matter. Your point seems to have been that they don't feel pain as they're killed, and I concede that you're correct. I missed that this was the point you were making, and that you were not mainly arguing whether the animals were killed instantly or not.
Edit: Just to add that I concede the point that they don't feel pain only in a general sense. Looking at that last link, it seems that this procedure would have a lot of room for error and I'm sure that as a consequence a lot of cows suffer unintentionally.