PETITION TARGETS: American Veterinary Medical Association’s Panel on Humane Slaughter, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry (DAFF)
Pigs screamed, thrashed, gasped for air, threw themselves against the walls, and climbed over each other in a desperate attempt to get away from carbon dioxide gas that slowly suffocated them to death, according to video footage captured in multiple countries and slaughterhouses.
Carbon dioxide stunning — an inhumane but legal and widespread practice — involves herding sensitive pigs into cages that are then lowered into pits filled with high concentrations of the inescapable and painful gas.
Pigs typically can remain conscious for up to 30 seconds to a minute as they breathe in the gas — which numerous studies have shown causes severe pain, respiratory distress, and panic — before they pass out and are dumped onto a conveyor belt to be slaughtered and drained of their blood.
Animal welfare experts have warned for years that the carbon dioxide stunning that’s happening in places including Australia and the United States is inherently inhumane. But if slaughterhouses take shortcuts to increase efficiency — such as loading too many pigs into the cages, as reportedly has been documented in news reports — the animals can suffer even more.
More than 90 veterinarians who reviewed footage of the gas chambers reportedly from inside a U.S. slaughterhouse have signed an open letter to authorities, alleging that this method violates the “Humane Slaughter” Act and California animal cruelty laws.
Meanwhile, up to 85 percent of pig slaughterhouses in Australia reportedly use carbon dioxide stunning — with news reporting up to 1,600 pigs per hour painfully dying these prolonged deaths.
The massive scope of this intense suffering for millions of the world’s most sentient and intelligent animals is sickening. It’s time to put an end to this gruesome suffering for pigs.
Sign our petition urging regulatory agencies in the United States and Australia and veterinary consultants to condemn and ban the cruel use of carbon dioxide gas chambers to stun and kill sentient pigs.
