I like eating meat. I do not like animals suffering. What I would like is for animals to be kept in pleasant conditions and killed painlessly without fear or distress.
I am totally opposed to animals being shipped long distances.
I am totally opposed to most ways of killing animals and slaughterhouse operations – slitting throats, bolt-guns, stun guns, electrocution.
I believe it can all be done more humanely. My younger son worked in a chicken factory. They killed chickens by electrocution. What he saw disturbed him so much he refuses to eat chicken.
This made me think. There has to be a better way!
I read a report about some dockers who died in the hold of a ship. That sent my mind ticking. We move fruits and vegetables long distances and use nitrogen to keep them fresh. Nitrogen in an inert gas. When there is no oxygen the plants suspend metabolism and the fruit does not ripen. The dockers went down into the nitrogen flooded hold. They walked a few paces and keeled over. Others went down to rescue them and suffered the same fate. They all died.
Our brain monitors the level of carbon dioxide in our blood. If the carbon dioxide levels increase we breathe faster. We do not monitor oxygen levels.
The men went down into the hold. They breathed out the carbon dioxide but were unaware of their rapidly declining oxygen levels. When the brain had insufficient oxygen it merely stopped functioning and they passed out. There was no warning or distress.
What if our slaughterhouses worked on the same principle? I am sure that it is not beyond our with to created chambers to contain the nitrogen. Animals could be herded into spaces flooded with nitrogen and simply, without distress, become unconscious. Workers could have facemasks with oxygen. Viola! You have a distress-free method of killing animals!