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Full Version: Ventilation shut down used to "depopulate" farm animals
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Farm animals are raised intensely on a tight time line. They are expected to go to slaughter very quickly and there is not provision for holding them beyond that time. Because of the pandemic many of the slaughter houses are shut down because workers have tested positive.
A lot of farmers have chosen to depopulate their farms. The method they use is brutal. They turn up the heat and turn off the ventilation system.
So the animals die slowly of a combination of suffocation and heat stress. However an animal actually dies, it will have suffered greatly before it dies.
Thousands of animals have been killed this way.

The AVMA proposed guidelines for animals to be killed this way. They were in refence to emergency situations where whole herds of animals were ill and needed to be disposed of quickly.  This method was not intended for healthy animals  under completely different circumstances. 


https://awionline.org/press-releases/ven...ses-severe

The Animal Welfare Institute has questioned using this method to kill healthy animals. It is most certainly an excessively cruel method.
These animals are being killed for reasons of profit and economic benefit to the farmer. At no point is the well being of the animals considered.



There is something totally wrong with our farming methods if this is the result. The system doesn't work. 
If a glitch like the closing of slaughterhouses temporarily results in farmers killing thousands of healthy animals then we need to change our system.
If the farmers are willing to kill the animals cruelly, then we need to change our farmers.

None of us was really prepared for the pandemic, but we have managed. We didn't make brutal choices that caused extreme suffering. I think this situation needs to be thoroughly examined to understand what went wrong and changes need to be made so this cannot happen again. Making deliberate ventilation shutdown illegal is a start. Changing the system so this situation can't happen again is better.
Better still is giving up such a heavy meat based diet. Do we really want to eat meat if this is what it can lead to.
Oh dear, this is horrific. I had no idea that method of killing farm animals was going on. It needs to be made illegal, certainly.
They are doing it in some parts of the USA. I hope it is not widespread. It is horribly cruel.
It is a direct consequence of the way we factory farm. Farmers are not prepared to keep animals more than a certain amount of time. And I do mean that they have not made any preparations that would allow them to look after the animals if for some reason there was a delay or a closure of the slaughterhouses.

It has finally happened. Because of the pandemic many slaughterhouses are shut down. So, the only thing the farmers can think to do is to kill the animals and they have made no plans to do that humanely so they choose a crude and cruel way to get rid of the animals in their care. They think of it as getting rid of excess product. They have forgotten that these are live animals that will suffer and know fear as they slowly die.

We have reached such a level of inhumanity that this isn't even illegal. Angry
In the UK and the rest of Europe this would certainly be illegal. It would come under animal cruelty laws. The farmers could be prosecuted.

The USA is very weak on farm animal welfare legislation. "Land of the free" seems to include farmers being free to kill excess farm animals by a prolonged and cruel death (slow suffocation and heat stress). Appalling.
It is not just the fact that it is not illegal, it is also allowed by the American Veterinary Association guidelines. They use the term depopulation to describe the rapid destruction of a whole population of animals. Ventilation shut down is an allowed method of depopulation.  The actual guideline was probably meant to deal with disease outbreaks in the animals and the need to kill them all quickly. They are allowing this method to be used on healthy animals. The method is so cruel that it should not matter why the animals are being killed. It is just too cruel to use under any circumstances.

I can't imagine what kind of person thought of this as an acceptable method to kill animals. It is a prolonged and horrible death. These are healthy animals. They should not be killed at all. If our system does not allow animals a chance to live then  the whole system is broken. I am glad this is illegal in Europe and the UK.

I don't think Canada would allow this. I am not sure though.