Animal Slaughter in Germany

Slaughter is the killing of an animal for human consumption¹ . In Germany, slaughtering may only be carried out by persons who have a certificate of competence.²

According to the law, killing in the following ways is not classified as slaughter:

• During scientific experiments
• When hunting
• At hobby fishing
• At sporting or cultural events
• The killing of poultry, rabbits and hares by their keepers for personal consumption³

A total of 762 million slaughters were carried out in Germany in 2020⁴

That’s an average of about 14.6 million animals killed commercially per week, nearly 2 million per day. That equates to about 1338 animals per minute, and 22 animals per second.

In 2021, in Germany alone, around

• 623 million broiler chickens
• 53.2 million pigs
• 34.9 million turkeys
• 33 million laying hens
• 12.7 million ducks and geese
• 3.2 million cattle
• and 1.8 million sheep and goats were slaughtered⁵

The numbers of commercially slaughtered cattle, pigs and turkeys in Germany all fell in 2021, continuing the trend of the previous year. Nevertheless, the figures are at a very high level by international standards. The number of broiler chickens killed, on the other hand, increased in the from 2023 ⁶.

In Europe, around 12.5 billion animals are slaughtered every year⁷. Marine animals are not included in this figure, so the true number is likely much higher.

Globally, the number of animals slaughtered for their meat in 2020 was about 78.84 billion land animals⁸.

The process of slaughter, i.e. the killing itself, is carried out by bleeding the animals. This is carried out by a bleeding incision or stab made by the slaughterer. Beforehand, the animals are stunned using various methods.

After stunning, cattle and pigs are hung upside down by their feet with sling chains. Subsequently, a neck or chest cut is made to bleed out the animals.^9,10

The bleeding incision is used to open large vessels. This is intended to cause maximum blood loss in the shortest possible time and cut off the oxygen supply to the brain¹¹.

The cut or stab must be made very quickly after stunning. Otherwise, the risk of the animal regaining consciousness increases.

Therefore, after stunning with the bolt shot, cattle must be legally cut within 60 seconds, and pigs and chickens must be cut within 20-30 seconds after the usual stunning with CO2 ¹².

If the bleeding cut is made incorrectly and the blood vessels are missed, it also takes longer for the animals to die. In this case, there is also a risk that they will wake up from the stunning process¹³. It is not uncommon for animals to regain consciousness and fully experience the horror of their own slaughter.¹⁴

Delays in the timelines are not planned for, but also happen frequently, as

• Living, feeling individuals are being dealt with here and not machines
• There is enormous time pressure for reasons of economy
• The working conditions in slaughterhouses are miserable for employees ^15,16

In the case of pigs, for example, employees in slaughterhouses have an average of only 5 seconds to perform the bleeding cut¹⁷. It is obvious that errors occur under this time pressure.

In cattle, sheep, goats and horses, following bleeding, the head and front feet are cut off. Their skin is detached and then peeled off ^18,19

Pigs and chickens are first scalded in approx. 60 – 62° C hot water or steam after bleeding.²⁰  The purpose of this is to make it easier to remove bristles and feathers as well as the top layer of skin.

Pigs are ‘flamed’ with a 1200° C flame following the scalding bath to remove the last bristles and make their bodies as sterile as possible²¹.

The organs are then removed from the slaughtered animals. This is referred to as ‘evisceration’. In the case of chickens, this is done fully automatically by a so-called eviscerator²² or on the evisceration belt²³.

After the dead animals have then been cooled down to 7° C, or 4° C in the case of poultry, the dividing of the body into the individual parts intended for resale takes place²⁴.

The Animal Welfare Slaughter Ordinance (TierSchlV) stipulates that you must stun an animal before slaughter.

Thus, the animal may only be killed after pain has been effectively eliminated and a state of perceptual and sensory deprivation has been induced²⁵.

Different stunning methods are established for different animal species. However, this does not mean that these methods work reliably and are always performed correctly.

The stunning methods themselves cause pain and suffering and, in addition, enormous stress, as the animals often have to be restrained first for this purpose.

Mechanical stunning by bolt gun is mainly used for cattle, sheep and goats. It is also used for pigs if they are slaughtered on the farm²⁶.

A bolt gun is a firearm. It is designed in such a way that the bolt, i.e. the bullet, does not leave the gun, but is retracted into the gun immediately after the shot.

Cattle, sheep and goats are first herded individually into restraining stations. In these stations, the animals can hardly move. This is intended to reduce the risk of slipping during the bolting process and injuries to slaughterhouse employees from struggling animals.

For the herd and confined animals, this situation of isolation and inability to move is incredibly stressful.

In order for stunning to occur as intended, the shot must be very well aimed and accurately placed. In cattle, the shot should be placed frontally on the line connecting the centre of the horn attachment to the centre of the opposite eye. In sheep and goats, the shot should be taken from above²⁷.

The shot causes

• A severe concussion due to the impact of the bolt on the skullcap
• A mechanical destruction of brain areas
• Additional destruction and impairment of the brain structure due to massive pressure changes²⁸

If the shot is not very accurately placed, false stunning occurs, which is accompanied by great pain and fear. The animals must be re-stunned by means of another shot. However, there is often not enough time for this²⁹.

Electrical stunning by means of electricity is primarily used for chickens and turkeys.

To do this, the animals are suspended by their feet from a conveyer belt while fully conscious. This transports them first to a stunning station and then to a killing station³⁰.

Hanging upside down puts these animals under enormous stress, fear and panic. They try to free themselves, flap their wings and cause dislocations and broken bones³¹.

Stunning is then carried out in an electric water bath through which the animals’ heads are pulled. When a sufficient amount of current is passed through the brain, an epileptic-like seizure occurs, which induces stunning.

Animals that try to free themselves from the foot restraints often bend upwards. This can result in them not getting their heads into the electric water bath and not being stunned³².

Stunning several animals at the same time results in varying degrees of current flow because of the different electrical resistances. Some animals are not sufficiently stunned because not enough current reaches them³³.

In addition, animals often receive electric shocks from the flapping of each other’s wings even before the actual immersion. These are extremely painful³⁴.

Pigs are also occassionally electrically stunned. In smaller farms, they are herded together in pens for this purpose. In larger farms, they are restrained individually in restrainers.

In both cases, they are grasped individually by an electric forceps on the head behind the ears. Again, stunning occurs by inducing an epileptic-like seizure.

Misapplication easily occurs because the forceps must be applied very precisely and for a long enough time. If this is not done, the animals suffer an enormously painful electric shock³⁵ without being stunned afterwards.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) stunning is standard practice for pigs on larger farms where many animals are killed in succession.³⁶

In this method, the pigs are herded in small groups into so-called gondolas. These transport the animals underground into a shaft. There, a CO2 concentration of around 90% prevails, which stuns the pigs within 15 – 30 seconds³⁷.

However, until the unconsciousness occurs, the animals go through agony.
The CO2 causes stabbing pain on the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract and eyes. Respiratory distress, hyperventilation and a feeling of suffocation as well as feelings of fear and flight occur.³⁸

The animals gasp for air, try to escape from the chamber and panic.³⁹

Because of these significant effects, stunning with inert gases such as argon, xenon, or helium, which do not cause mucosal irritation and respiratory distress, has been explored, especially for pigs.⁴⁰ However, due to higher costs and low availability of these gases, these methods have not yet become established.⁴¹

Chickens and turkeys are also sometimes stunned with CO2. However, waterfowl such as ducks and geese can hold their breath for several minutes. Unconsciousness cannot be induced fast enough in them which is why this method is not used in their case.⁴²

For chickens and turkeys, stunning is performed in two phases: first in a tunnel with a low CO2 concentration (< 40%), then in a higher concentration (> 70%).⁴³

They also react to the gas with defensive movements and expressions of discomfort such as flapping their wings, gasping for air and shaking their heads. It also causes irritation of the mucous membranes and acute stress due to feelings of suffocation⁴⁴.

Many people want more animal welfare and therefore demand supposedly ‘better’ slaughter methods. But even if there are slaughter methods that are less stressful for the animals: it is always about the unnecessary killing of a living being.

So far, there is no uniform definition of mobile slaughter. It simply means that slaughter takes place in the usual environment directly on the farm, without the stress of live transport to the slaughterhouse⁴⁵.

This is to avoid factors of conventional slaughter that cause pain, suffering and stress in the animals. Even if some factors are eliminated, there is still pain and suffering due to isolation, and often the same stunning methods.

A well-known form of mobile slaughter is pasture slaughter. It is allowed with permission for cattle that are kept on pasture all year round⁴⁶. The animals are stunned and killed in the pasture by means of a bullet or bolt shot without the need for restraint⁴⁷.

Here, too, a maximum of 60 seconds may elapse between stunning and the application of the bleeding cut⁴⁸. The killed animal must then be transported to a slaughterhouse within 60 minutes. In fact, gutting, skinning and cutting may, by law, only be carried out in a slaughterhouse⁴⁹.

In the case of semi-mobile slaughter, the slaughter company comes to the farm with a mobile slaughter box. Stunning and slaughtering are carried out on site and the slaughtered animal is then transported to the slaughterhouse.

In the case of pigs, mobile slaughtering has so far mostly been carried out on free-range pigs, of which there are very few in Germany. Overall, this slaughter method for pigs is hardly practiced⁵⁰.

Poultry can also be slaughtered at the farm of origin in so-called poultry slaughter mobiles under strict conditions⁵¹. This, too, has been done only very rarely up to now.

The number of slaughterhouses has been declining sharply in recent years⁵². Many small businesses are closing down, and there are virtually no butchers left who slaughter their own meat. The reason for this is that a few large companies dominate the market. The market share of the four largest slaughter companies is 58%⁵³.

It is no longer profitable for butchers to slaughter the animals themselves, as price pressure from the large slaughter companies is too great. In addition, they often do not meet the EU requirements and, unlike the slaughter industry, cannot afford the necessary changes to meet such requirements⁵⁴.

The fact that many people think that slaughtering at small butchers with their own slaughtering would be better is a fallacy. Here, too, an animal is killed unnecessarily, despite its wish to live.

Furthermore, the stunning methods and bleeding are the same as in the large facilities. The only difference is that fewer animals are slaughtered at once and therefore there is less time pressure.

Animals from organic farming are usually slaughtered in the same slaughterhouses as animals from conventional farming. There are no differences in the slaughtering procedures. The slaughterhouse merely needs organic certification.⁵⁵

However, organic certification only states that organic animals are strictly separated from other animals at the slaughterhouse before, during and after killing⁵⁶.

Small organic slaughterhouses hardly exist because of bureaucratic hurdles and profitability. However, killing and stunning there are carried out in the same way as in conventional slaughtering. There are only voluntary requirements imposed by the organic associations with regard to the transport route and accommodation at the slaughterhouse, not the slaughter process itself.

Ritual slaughter is the religiously motivated slaughter of animals. In many streams of Islam and Judaism, only meat which is halal or kosher may be consumed.

In some cases, the consumption of blood is not considered compatible with religion. The main aim of slaughtering is therefore to ensure that the animals are bled without leaving any residue.

For this purpose, as in conventional slaughtering, a large bleeding incision is made across the underside of the neck with a special knife. This cuts the large blood vessels as well as the trachea and oesophagus.

It is disputed within both religions whether the animals may be stunned before this cut or not. Some streams forbid stunning, as this injures the animal, although only healthy animals may be slaughtered⁵⁷. Others assume that stunning contaminates the meat or prevents complete bleeding.

In Germany, § 4 TierSchG requires stunning before slaughter. However, an exemption for slaughter without stunning can be granted for religious reasons according to § 4a No. 2 TierSchG.

Often, slaughter without stunning is presented as particularly “inhumane” in the discussion. The arguments are often only used to spread anti-Semitic and Islamophobic prejudices.⁵⁸

Anyone who finds slaughter cruel on the basis of religious views must ultimately be against slaughter in general. There is no gentle, ‘humane’ killing of sentient creatures.⁵⁹

Every killing of animals is associated with pain, suffering and fear. Even the legally required stunning in conventional slaughter is not able to eliminate this fact⁶⁰.

Stunning methods cause pain and fear, and because there are high rates of incorrect stunning, it is not uncommon for conventional slaughterhouses to kill without stunning.

Slaughter always means the ending of a life, i.e. death for an animal that – like all others – wants to live. The slaughtering of an animal therefore in itself already contradicts any animal welfare.

Again and again there are reports of animals escaping during the transport or from the slaughterhouse. This clearly shows that the animals resist this treatment and behave as actors who communicate their interests.

In connection with slaughter, in addition to death, there are many other animal welfare problems that can be described as animal cruelty:

• Pain
• Suffering
• Stress
• Fear
• Hunger and thirst
• Exhaustion

According to the TierSchlV, pain, fear and suffering must actually be avoided during slaughter. However, as already described, the various methods of stunning do not allow this at all.According to the TierSchlV, pain, fear and suffering must actually be avoided during slaughter. However, as already described, the various methods of stunning do not allow this at all.

The approved stunning methods produce pain and suffering in the animals. In addition, false stunning often occurs, so that the animals witness the bleeding incision being made and bleed to death while fully conscious.

For cattle, the false stunning rate is up to 9%, for pigs up to 12.5% ⁶³. That’s about 6.47 million incorrectly stunned pigs and 288,000 cattle per year. The numbers have been known and public for years, but are tolerated.

Frequent errors also occur during the bleeding process itself. As a result, some animals are bled too slowly and are not even dead before further processing steps.

About 1% of the pigs (i.e. almost 600,000 animals per year) enter the scalding bath while still awake or wake up there and are scalded alive⁶⁴.

In chickens, the automatic bleeding incision is only made on one side of the neck. For fast bleeding, however, a neck cut on both sides would be necessary for many chickens. However, manual re-cutting is virtually impossible because of the fast conveyor belts⁶⁵.

In addition, there are many other problems associated with slaughter⁶⁶:

• Stressful, long transports to the slaughterhouses, which are often far away from the farm, resulting in the animals arriving at the slaughterhouse severely exhausted or in some cases already dead
• Stress due to the unfamiliar environment and other animals
• Hunger and thirst, as the animals are usually not fed for between 12 and 15 hours before transport and slaughter to avoid contamination of the meat with intestinal contents
• Fear and grief from witnessing the slaughter of conspecifics, possibly even animals from their own social structure
• Stress due to loud and unfamiliar noises
• The often rough handling and mistreatment by slaughterhouse employees who, due to time pressure, frustration from poor working conditions, and emotional blunting to post-traumatic stress from experiencing violence and death on a daily basis, have little compassion for the suffering animals

All in all, slaughter can be seen as the culmination of the cruelty to which ‘farm animals’ are subjected throughout their lives. Here, the already sad, short life of these animals comes to a violent and cruel end, culminating in all kinds of pain and suffering in addition to death.

The law also provides for exceptions for slaughtering pregnant animals. Excluded from the regulation are sheep, goats and sick animals. These exceptions are not comprehensible.

The argument for exempting sheep and goats from this regulation is that they are not usually artificially inseminated and therefore pregnancies could not be controlled and verified, as is the case with cattle and pigs⁷².

Veterinary opponents say that through proper management and by means of ultrasound, pregnancies could very well be controlled and detected in case of doubt⁷³.

Sick pregnant animals could also be euthanised painlessly and stress-free for both mother and child with a high-dose anaesthetic – without subjecting the mother to the stress of transport and slaughter and the foetus to the potential pain⁷⁴.

There is disagreement in the scientific community as to whether the foetus feels pain in the last trimester of pregnancy. However, there is evidence that it does⁷⁵. The Veterinary Association for Animal Welfare (TVT) even speaks of a “slow death by suffocation” of the foetus after the mother has been slaughtered⁷⁶.

The ban is therefore based primarily on ethical considerations because of this disagreement⁷⁷.

The numbers of heavily pregnant animals slaughtered are not entirely clear. At least before the ban, it was assumed that 3% of dairy cows, 1.5% of beef cattle, 0.5% of pigs, 0.8% of sheep, and 0.2% of goats were slaughtered⁷⁸. For sheep and goats, due to their exemption from the ban, these numbers probably did not change.

In short, no, the Animal Welfare Slaughter Ordinance (TierSchlV) is not sufficient to give adequate consideration to the protection of animals.
The fact of the matter is, sentient beings that want to live are being killed for human consumption. It is already contradictory in itself to want to protect animals while killing them. Not breeding, keeping and slaughtering the animals in the first place is the only method that would really justify talking about animal welfare.

People try by all means to make killing more ‘humane’ and to justify it ethically. Thus, types of stunning and stress avoidance are anchored in laws in order for humans to have a clearer conscience.

We want to establish a society in which the interests of all animals are represented. This means in the end that no more slaughtering takes place, because all animals have an interest in living.

Until that happens, animal welfare standards should be raised:

• Less painful and stressful methods must be used from transport to slaughtering
• Slaughter speed must be reduced to avoid errors in stunning and killing due to time pressure
• There should be legally required video surveillance with video content analysis⁷⁹ in slaughterhouses to better punish violations and
• Increased controls to ensure compliance with existing laws, as animal welfare officers appointed by slaughterhouses are not impartial, as well as
• Higher penalties for animal welfare violations