Pig slaughter

Pig slaughter is the work of slaughtering domestic pigs which is both a common economic activity as well as a traditional feast in some European countries.

Pig slaughter is an activity performed to obtain pig meat (pork). It regularly happens as part of traditional and intensive pig farming.

Pigs are slaughtered at different ages. Generally they can be divided into piglets, which are 1.5 to 3 months old; the fattening pigs, intended for pork and bacon, which are 4 months to one year old; and finally the older pigs, such as sows (female pigs) and boars (uncastrated male pigs). The meat obtained from piglets is subdivided into more meaty or more fatty, determined by the thickness of bacon. Male hogs are usually castrated a month before slaughter. Their meat quality is determined on the mass of halves and the thickness of bacon on the back.

Transport of pigs to slaughter and all the other procedures and circumstances leading up to the actual act of stunning and killing the pig are in modern times carefully arranged in order to avoid excessive suffering of animals, which both has a humane rationale as well as helping provide for a higher quality of meat.

Typically, pigs are first rendered unconscious using one of the following means: stunning using electric current applied with electrodes, or stunning using captive bolt pistol, and inhalation of CO₂, then in some cases a .22 pistol/rifle which is shot directly into the brain. They are then hoisted on a rail, after which they are exsanguinated, usually via the carotid artery and the jugular vein. After the blood is gone, the carcass is drenched in hot water in a device called a pig scalder which helps in the removal of hair, which is subsequently completed by using scissor-like devices and then if necessary with a torch. However, in many countries across the world, rendering the pig unconscious is not standard practice and exsanguination occurs whilst the pigs are fully conscious.

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