TROUBLED WATERS - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

An effective process which induces immediate unconsciousness and
insensibility or an induction to a period of unconsciousness without distress
In livestock slaughter, there is clearly the potential for the stunning procedure to cause pain if
performed improperly. It is essential that unconsciousness is induced quickly, so that the animal is
unaware of the process. It takes more than 100 milliseconds for the brain to register the perception
and experience of pain. To be effective, and thereby painless, unconsciousness must be induced
within this period for the stunning method to be classified as humane. The only exception would be
if the induction period of unconsciousness could be shown to be non-aversive (Wotton, 2001).
Modern stunning practices in slaughterhouses using properly designed mechanical and electrical
equipment and executed by trained professionals can achieve this level of effectiveness.
For the killing of a whale to be classified as humane, immediate unconsciousness or immediate death
must be induced and no pain and suffering should be caused during the pursuit and securing of the
animal. However, Norway reported for the 2002 hunt, an instantaneous death rate of 80.7 per cent
(i.e. 19.3 per cent of the whales taken were not killed instantaneously) and an average time to death
of two minutes 21 seconds. For the Japanese Antarctic hunt, recent data compares unfavourably with
these Norwegian reports. During the 2002/2003 season, Japan reported that some 59.8 per cent of
the whales killed did not die instantaneously, and average time to death during this season was two
minutes 37 seconds. Maximum times to death during whaling operations can be excessive, as
demonstrated by the report of a minke whale that took 300 minutes to die (five hours) during the
aboriginal subsistence hunt in West Greenland 3 (chapter 6).
In comparison, legislation in the UK, for example, states that it is an offence to subject animals to
avoidable excitement, pain or suffering before and during slaughter. Furthermore, with the exception
of specific circumstances such as religious slaughter, animals are required to be stunned before
slaughter (Druce and Lymbery 2002). Stunning is defined in this legislation as “any process which
causes immediate loss of consciousness which lasts until death”. The IWC has no comparative
requirements, either for ensuring ‘avoidable excitement, pain or suffering’ or for pre-slaughter
stunning. The only protection which cetaceans have been afforded during slaughter under the
International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was the ban on the use of the cold
harpoon for commercial whaling implemented in the early 1980s. Japan (and the Russian
Federation) still hold a formal objection to the ban 4 and are thus exempt from its effect. Japan still
permits use of the cold harpoon in its scientific whaling operation under certain circumstances (see
chapter 6). Russia’s objection is redundant since it only undertakes aboriginal subsistence whaling to
which the ban does not apply.
The ban on the use of the electric lance during whaling operations is only voluntary 5 . Furthermore,
the electric lance was never intended as a pre-slaughter stunning device. It was administered after the
whale had already been injured and secured using a grenade harpoon and was administered as a
secondary killing method. Concerns regarding the inefficiency of this method in supplying sufficient
current to the brain to induce death (due to many factors, including the dissipation of the current
through the surrounding sea water, the inappropriate placement of the electrodes and the insulating
nature of blubber) lead to the voluntary ban on the use of this device 6 . However, Japan continues to
use electricity during the hunting of small cetaceans such as the Dall’s porpoise (chapter 7).
For livestock, EU and other state legislation demands accuracy in the slaughter process in order to
A COMPARISON BETWEEN SLAUGHTERHOUSES AND METHODS USED DURING WHALING
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