As consumers have become more concerned about meat-related health issues, they have sought information about where and how animals have been raised (preferably local, organic and free range), what they have eaten (grass) and what they have not eaten (antibiotics). But it’s not been as easy to determine how the animals have been killed.
Black Earth Meats was a pioneer locally in introducing more humane slaughtering of antibiotic- and hormone-free organic and grass-fed meats. Humane slaughtering, in general, attempts to minimize the emotional stress of the slaughterhouse and the physical pain of the slaughter. There are those who dismiss the idea that even these steps make it tolerable, but options for the humane slaughter of local meat and poultry are growing.
Black Earth Meats closed in 2014 after a dispute with the village of Black Earth, which argued the growth of the slaughterhouse’s operation was disrupting a residential neighborhood.
But in its absence, there are alternatives.
The demand for more humane slaughter has come not so much from consumers but from farmers, say owners of two area slaughterhouses.
“The farmers prefer that it be done humanely,” says Chris Johnson, who owns Johnson’s Sausage in Rio, Wis. “They trust you to treat their animals well.”
John Straka of Straka Meats in Plain, Wis., says producers are “more tied to their animals than they used to be.” “They raise them, talk to them, and want the slaughter to be humane.”
Straka Meats has been in business for 69 years, with John managing it for the past 36. His 29-year-old son, Andy, is coming into the business as a third-generation partner. Straka Meats has been approved to slaughter animals from Wisconsin farms that are certified by the Animal Welfare Approved program. It is a national organization that identifies, audits and certifies meat and dairy products that come from farm animals raised to the highest animal welfare and environmental standards, according to program director Andrew Gunther.
Certain methods are used to make the process less traumatic for the animal.
What we think of as a “traditional” slaughterhouse is actually a relatively new concept that has only been around for 40 to 50 years, says Bartlett Durand, who owned Black Earth Meats and now runs the Conscious Carnivore butcher shop in Madison.
These operations kill thousands of animals each day, running them through industrial systems for a quick — and traumatic — slaughter.
Humane slaughter is about understanding the animals’ natural tendencies, in order to minimize their stress, says Durand. For example, the lighting in conventional slaughterhouses is designed to make the work easy for humans, but animals are frightened by the shadows such lighting creates.
Straka Meats had its floors resurfaced for better footing for the animals, so they feel more at ease. There is no prodding or shouting by his workers, and the animals are able to turn around and lie down if they want to.
Johnson’s Sausage has square pens so the animals “can move freely in an environment that is more like what they’re used to,” says Chris Johnson. She also installed gates that slide up like garage doors so animals can go through them without being pinched.
Straka and Johnson describe the process similarly: The truck carrying the animals arrives and an employee goes out and talks with the farmer. The trailer backs up, the gate opens, and the animals walk out and are guided into the plant at their own pace and without humans yelling at them. (“That would be an inhumane moment,” says Straka). The animals are put in a squeeze chute, where they feel more comfortable.
Beef and lamb are stunned through a captive bolt gun which, used appropriately and placed correctly (generally in the forehead region), will cause complete desensitization.
For hogs, the common method is an electric stunner, which causes something like an epileptic fit, followed by a heart attack. This is the preferred method for hogs, according to Durand, as there is minimal risk of a mis-stun, and it is painless.
He adds that the meat tastes better. When animals become stressed, the adrenal system kicks in and starts burning the fats to boost the available energy to the muscles for immediate fight/flight. By slowing their movement, keeping them calm, and ensuring an immediate desensitization, there is better-quality meat, according to Durand.
Conscious Carnivore meat market gets its lamb from Straka Meats and its beef and pork from Johnson’s Sausage. Before choosing these two plants, Durand toured both. “I’ve visited with the family that runs Straka Meats and believe they do a very nice job,” he says. He also toured Johnson’s, worked with Chris Johnson and her slaughter crew, and helped redesign the pens and procedures.
Jeremy Johnson, meat manager at Willy Street Co-op West, runs though the list of the co-op’s suppliers. Beef, all of which is procured from small local farms, comes from two plants that follow guidelines for handling, stunning and restraining animals developed by Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University.
They are TTJ Packing in Cottage Grove, managed by Tom Bates, a former manager for Black Earth Meats, and Lorentz Meats in Cannon Falls, Minn., which is owned by Organic Prairie and also provides bison meat.
The co-op’s chickens come from a plant in Fredericksburg, Va., that also uses the techniques approved by Grandin and is certified by Global Animal Partnership, an international, nonprofit, third-party rating program. The chickens fall asleep as oxygen is slowly reduced and die painlessly. Pork comes from Willow Creek Farm, which also processes its hogs in its own facility in Prairie du Sac. Lamb is from Pinn-Oak Ridge Farms in Delavan, which also processes its own meat.
Johnson, who has visited some of these plants and is in regular contact with the others, recognizes that “Obviously it’s a bad day for the animal. But the workers are doing their best to do it humanely.” And the farmers, he says, treat the animals well “from start to finish.”
