In its final hours before being butchered, a chicken deserves to be reasonably comfortable and relatively¹ stress-free. This is the message from China's first official recommendations to the poultry² industry, recently issued by Shandong Province, on how to slaughter³ the animals.

 

被宰杀前的最后几个小时里，一只鸡应当过得足够舒适且相对轻松。这是中国第一份针对肉鸡屠宰问题的官方指导规范所传递出的信息，该规范近期由山东省出台。

 

The guidelines, which are not mandatory⁴, are motivated at least as much by commercial considerations as by concerns for animal welfare. Shandong is China's leading producer of chickens, but traces of damage to the birds, like broken limbs or blood clots⁵ in the meat, have hurt exports.

 

Still, animal welfare advocates are praising the standards.

 

"Such specific guidelines," said Jeff Zhou, China representative of Compassion⁶ in World Farming, a British organization that campaigns to end factory farming. "I'm very grateful that they did this in Shandong."

 

The guidelines, according to People's Daily, list the steps leading to slaughter and detail for each the recommended procedures to ensure that the chicken's death is as painless as possible.

 

For example, the guidelines advise against transporting a live chicken longer than three hours. A chicken should be held with both hands, not seized by a single leg or wing. Before being killed, the bird should be anesthetized by being gassed or having its head dipped into electrified⁷ water. The guidelines also recommend using a massaging⁸ pad to support the chicken's breast as the birds are moved on an assembly line to be stunned⁹.

 

Humane¹⁰ slaughter alone does not remove all the cruelty that animals in intensive factory farming experience, Mr. Zhou said, but the guidelines address an important part of it. "It's a step in the right direction," he said.

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