FUR FARM SLAUGHTER METHODS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—During the past eighteen years many thousands of dogs and cats have been lethalized by chloroform on my premises and I have always had the method under my supervision.
As a result of my experience I can say quite definitely that the method is perfectly humane when properly administered and that it is quite easy to avoid pain or distress. Care has to be taken to administer the chloroform very gradually, with plenty of air, until the animal is unconscious, which usually takes thirty to fifty seconds. In very exceptional cases (as with exceptional human beings) more chloroform has to be given and it takes longer to be effective.
The short period of waiting in the chamber is not so uncomfortable as being shut up in a box for a railway journey.
The chambers have a strong glass window on. top which admits plenty of light and allows the animals to be spoke" to and kept under observation.
Where there is cruelty it is (1) from insufficient admission of air, which may even asphyxiate the animal, (2) from too sudden application of chloroform, which causes pain and distress, (3) from exposing the animal to the air too soon after unconsciousness. All these causes of cruelty are very easily avoided by care. For . several months past most of the animals here have been lethalized_by coal gas, which is also humane in results, and has the advantage that its administration does not require so much care as chloroform.
Shooting through the brain is, of course, ideal, provided the operator is expert and always careful and thoroughly understands how to handle the animals he has to deal with. —I am, Sir, &c.,
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