The Slaughter of Animals (Scotland) Bill
THIS Bill, which will reach its Third Reading on June 22nd, provides for the licensing of slaughter- men and for the use of the humane killer or pistol (which produces instant unconsciousness) on all animals except pigs and those killed by the Jewish method or on farms. The Meat Traders' Federation, which is bitterly opposed to any change in existing conditions as regards slaughter- ing, is trying to obtain the exclusion of sheep from the operation of the Bill, and the concession has been made that these animals shall not be affected until October, 1929-: thus, plenty of time will be allowed in which the routine of high-speed slaughtering can be adapted to the use of the new method.
Humane slaughtering has been opposed, in the House of Commons and elsewhere, with a reckless rhetoric which is calculated to conceal the ascertained facts of the matter. It is earnestly to be hoped, therefore, that before voting for further mutilation of the present measure legislators will examine the data which can be obtained from unbiassed sources. The principal arguments for the exclusion of sheep from the Bill may be hriefly noted here. It is alleged that the humane killer is dangerous to human life, but accidents never occur with the captive- bolt type of pistol, while accidents with the free-bullet type are so rare and so easily to be avoided that even as regards the latter weapon this argument may be dismissed as -rhetorical.
It is also alleged that humane killing renders the meat unfit for human consumption. On this subject we may set off the opinions of the expert witnesses engaged by the meat traders against those of the expert witnesses engaged by the humanitarian societies : there remains the unanimous verdict of independent investigators, including the Ministry of Health, which continues to recommend the humane killer in the terms of Model By-law 913, guided by the experience of the 262 local authorities which have adopted by-laws of this kind : the meat-inspection officers of the City of London, who after carefully investigating 1,445-carcases of shot animals in 1925 found that humane killing made no difference whatever to the quality of the meat ; the Public Health Committee of the London County Council, which reached a similar conclusion after an inquiry held in 1923; and certain foreign Governments, including the Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Swiss, and German, which continue after experience to compel the use of the humane killer.
It is also alleged that humane killing causes such a loss of time, when sheep are being slaughtered at high speed, as would seriously affect the price of mutton. There are several ways of organizing the work of a gang using the pistol, and in each of these the time lost in handling this weapon is the time of one man, not of the gang. It is worth three-farthings per minute in Edinburgh.
• The value of the time lost, together with a halfpenny for the cartridge, is therefore certainly less than ld. per sheep, or 0.016d. per pound of mutton, or (at the current rate of consumption of home-killed mutton) one farthing per annum per head of the population.
The amount of pain inflicted by the old-fashioned methods of killing varies greatly, and details need not be given here. We may regard it as roughly equivalent to that inflicted in the extraction of a tooth without an anaesthetic, assuming that some teeth are drawn by experts and others by novices or clumsy performers, and remembering that teeth, like sheep, differ among them- selves in the ease with which it is possible to dispose of them.
Strong political pressure is being brought to bear by opponents of the Bill, and readers of the Spectator who sympathize with its objects are therefore asked to com- municate their views to their Parliamentary representa- tives before next Friday. Only those constituents who are willing to take this trouble will be entitled to eat Scotch mutton with a quiet mind.
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