Immobilization

CAK: a less cruel method of slaughter Since 2002, PETA has been urging major food retailers to switch from the standard form of poultry slaughter, electric immobilization, to a less cruel method called "controlled-atmosphere killing" (CAK). Electric-immobilization systems require that birds be handled and processed while they are still alive and conscious, which causes them great suffering. In the slaughterhouses of McDonald's US and Canadian chicken suppliers, birds are dumped out of their transport crates and hung upside down in metal shackles, which can result in broken bones, extreme bruising, and hemorrhaging. Workers have the opportunity to abuse live birds, and birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious. Many birds are immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still alive and able to feel pain. Traditional poultry slaughterhouses are dimly lit, stressful, filthy places, which results in poor conditions for workers and an extraordinarily high turnover rate: an annual average between 75 and 100 percent. Controlled-atmosphere killing could eliminate many of the problems associated with electric immobilization slaughter. With CAK, oxygen is removed from the birds' atmosphere while they are still in their transport crates. The birds are not "gassed" (ie, asphyxiated); they die from lack of oxygen, or anoxia, which is a painless process. Approved by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), CAK is currently used to kill 75 percent of turkeys <b>...</b>