Such birds experience great pain both when being shackled and then as they are left to hang upside down, sometimes for several minutes. Appallingly, the law allows turkeys to be left dangling upside down from the shackles for up to 6 minutes before they are stunned or killed. Turkeys, whether or not suffering from hip disorders, are caused a great deal of pain when the rigid steel shackles compress the soft tissue of the shank against the bird's bone. The whole purpose of stunning is to render birds immediately unconscious and thus insensible to pain. This purpose is totally negated if, as often happens, turkeys receive painful electric shocks before being made unconscious.
Many turkeys are in danger of regaining consciousness during bleeding out.
Failure to cut both carotids increases the time taken to reach brain failure and thereby increases the danger of turkeys recovering consciousness as they bleed to death. A number of slaughterhouses fail regularly to sever both carotid arteries despite the welfare advantages this practice has in reducing the likelihood of turkeys regaining consciousness. Bearing the above factors in mind, it is clear that many turkeys suffer at slaughter. Urgent changes are needed in slaughter practice and legislation to minimise this suffering. World Farming Ltd. Reg.