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For context: I believe large slaughterhouses use CO chambers to slaughter, but those chambers are relatively expensive. I've worked in a family member's small

For context: I believe large slaughterhouses use CO chambers to slaughter, but those chambers are relatively expensive. I've worked in a family member's small meat processing facility, and they offered slaughtering for hogs and cattle. The method there was to use a captive bolt gun - basically a gun, but instead of propelling a bullet from a cartridge, it used .25 caliber blanks to push a metal piston ~6" out the end. It was quiet enough that no hearing protection was required. The process was basically: * animals in queue were kept outside, in a covered holding area, separated from the kill floor by a concrete block wall * a chute door was manually opened to allow a single animal into the building * the animal was killed by placing the bolt gun on the head, driving the piston and parts of the skull into its brain * the carcass was raise with a winch and hooked to an overhead rail system. The rail system was used throughout the operation, from slaughter to when the carcass was broken down into parts. They didn't have enough employees to always have every workstation in operation, so there were freezers throughout the area that would be used to store the carcasses while slaughtering was taking place. Basically each one would be skinned, dressed, and stored in a freezer. Once slaughter was complete, there'd be a similar setup to break the animals down into quarters or large cuts (depending on the customer's order), and yet another to butcher from quarters into packaged cuts like you'd find in a store. Making finished products like sausages would be another workflow still. My understanding is that this operation is pretty typical of small meat processors, and every one that I've visited seems to follow a similar pattern. From an empathetic perspective, it honestly seems fairly optimal to me. Yes, the animals are uncomfortable because they're in unfamiliar surroundings, but they're insulated from the sights and sounds of the kill floor until literally moments before they're killed. I don't think oxygen deprivation is necessarily any better in that respect. I suspect it's more easily scaled, requires less labor per animal, and cheaper overall once a certain volume is reached. ETA: To be clear, I am not making a political or moral statement here. My background is very different from most people that I've encountered in tech, and I'm only sharing my experiences here to contribute to the conversation in a way that I expect isn't possible for most of us. I assume that most people reading HN haven't spent time in places like this, much less spent participated in the process.

yazaddaruvala 4y ago
You really shouldn't be getting downvoted. The super majority of us eat meat! We are all complicit to (even encouraging of) the mass execution of these animals. It has to happen somehow - none of which would be pleasant to read about. Thank you for describing your experience. Yes its a shitty thing to have had to normalize, but you're right it does sound like a decent enough method of mass execution. Anyone that wants to instinctively downvote the parent comment, please reconsider. Its hard enough to need to be a part of this normalization, let alone get negative reinforcement for something the super majority of us positively reinforce at the grocery store.
- Ancapistani 4y ago
  > You really shouldn't be getting downvoted. Eh, it's not the first time. I've found that as long as my approach is informative rather than accusational, it ends up a net positive. > Anyone that wants to instinctively downvote the parent comment, please reconsider Nah - just comment why you felt that way. Maybe we'll all learn something in the process.
amalgamated_inc 4y ago
I don't get the outrage. Yea, when you eat meat somebody had to kill that animal. It used to be your grandpa, so it was more personal. Now it's very abstract and industrialized. But people act like this is some sort of war crime. We all knew animals had to die for our food, and most of us (including me) are ok with it. Of course I'm against unnecessary cruelty, but often these "outrage" videos from animal rights activists show nothing particularly disturbing.
- Ancapistani 4y ago
  Personally, I hate killing animals but see it as necessary. With that starting assumption the only humane thing to do is to minimize the negative experience for the animal to the extent that that's possible. Thankfully, in this case that largely coincides with the financial motivations of the businesses that do it every day. Not exactly, but largely. FWIW, I also think that anyone who eats meat should be personally familiar with the reality of what it entails. I have no problem with people who eat meat (I do) or with people who don't for moral reasons. I do think it's self-deceptive to eat meat and avoid the reality of what that means, though.

yazaddaruvala 4y ago

You really shouldn't be getting downvoted. The super majority of us eat meat! We are all complicit to (even encouraging of) the mass execution of these animals. It has to happen somehow - none of which would be pleasant to read about. Thank you for describing your experience. Yes its a shitty thing to have had to normalize, but you're right it does sound like a decent enough method of mass execution. Anyone that wants to instinctively downvote the parent comment, please reconsider. Its hard enough to need to be a part of this normalization, let alone get negative reinforcement for something the super majority of us positively reinforce at the grocery store.

Ancapistani 4y ago
> You really shouldn't be getting downvoted. Eh, it's not the first time. I've found that as long as my approach is informative rather than accusational, it ends up a net positive. > Anyone that wants to instinctively downvote the parent comment, please reconsider Nah - just comment why you felt that way. Maybe we'll all learn something in the process.

amalgamated_inc 4y ago

I don't get the outrage. Yea, when you eat meat somebody had to kill that animal. It used to be your grandpa, so it was more personal. Now it's very abstract and industrialized. But people act like this is some sort of war crime. We all knew animals had to die for our food, and most of us (including me) are ok with it. Of course I'm against unnecessary cruelty, but often these "outrage" videos from animal rights activists show nothing particularly disturbing.

Ancapistani 4y ago
Personally, I hate killing animals but see it as necessary. With that starting assumption the only humane thing to do is to minimize the negative experience for the animal to the extent that that's possible. Thankfully, in this case that largely coincides with the financial motivations of the businesses that do it every day. Not exactly, but largely. FWIW, I also think that anyone who eats meat should be personally familiar with the reality of what it entails. I have no problem with people who eat meat (I do) or with people who don't for moral reasons. I do think it's self-deceptive to eat meat and avoid the reality of what that means, though.