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A recent study on electric water bath stunning by the Animal Sciences Group at Wageningen University<br />
in the Netherlands recommended:<br />
“Use of the conventional water bath in its present form is to be strongly discouraged because of<br />
the inability to guarantee that each bird receives sufficient current for an effective stun.” 88<br />
An Australian survey of twelve slaughter plants confirmed a range of variables in the plants’ water bath<br />
systems, including line speed, voltage in the stunning bath, duration of stunning and time allowed for<br />
exsanguination – all of which affect the efficacy and humaneness of the process. 89<br />
Controlled Atmosphere Stunning and Controlled Atmosphere Killing<br />
As footnote 8 states, <strong>Maple</strong> <strong>Lodge</strong> <strong>Farm</strong>s replaced its electrified water bath stun system for spent hens<br />
with Controlled Atmosphere Stunning (CAS) in February 2012, following several years of planning and<br />
retrofitting. With this system, oxygen is replaced by CO 2<br />
in an enclosed chamber. A similar system,<br />
Controlled Atmosphere Killing (CAK) ensures the birds are killed, not just stunned, making consciousnessrecovery<br />
impossible.<br />
There are distinct advantages for both birds and plant staff with a CAS or CAK system. It is better for birds<br />
because it involves less physical handing: birds are not quickly grabbed from transport crates at the rate<br />
of 3.5 seconds per crate, to be quickly live-hung upside down on shackles – a painful procedure for birds.<br />
Plant staff are not required to quickly live-hang scared birds in dark, dirty quarters.<br />
With CAS-CAK systems, birds are stunned either in their transport crate or are tipped from the crates<br />
onto a conveyor which leads to the gas chamber, delaying shackling (for neck cutting) until the birds<br />
have been stunned, or died, from the gas.<br />
88<br />
Electrical water bath stunning of poultry: An evaluation of the present situation in Dutch slaughterhouses and alternative stunning methods, Animal<br />
Sciences Group, Wageningen University, March 2009.<br />
89<br />
Ian J.H. Duncan, “A Good Life and a Painless Death: Report on Killing Methods for Poultry,” Col. K.L. Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare,<br />
University of Guelph, undated, p. 2.<br />
Economics over animal welfare [ 34 ]
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