December 19, 2007

Henan: China's pilot area for humane livestock slaughter

China's Henan province is set to become the first province in the country to introduce humane methods for animal slaughter.

These techniques, once proven effective in Henan, would be incorporated in the national guidelines later.

Under a new code of practice for the humane slaughter of animals, which for the trial period

would be focused mainly on pigs, the animals should be treated as painlessly as possible before they are dispatched.

Officials would organise a panel to review the techniques before releasing them. As of year,

training on humane killing methods will be carried out in more than 20,000 commercial slaughterhouses across the country.

The slaughtering of pigs is currently carried out under old guidelines that include showering and rendering the pigs unconscious before slaughter.

The new standard requires shortening the interval between stunning the pigs and killing them to 15 seconds instead of the 30 seconds practiced before.

China currently processes 70 million tonnes of pork, beef and lamb annually.  Its pork production, about 50 million tonnes each year accounts for almost half of the world's total produce.