The Humane Slaughter Act, or the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act is a United States federal law designed to decrease suffering of livestock during slaughter. It was approved on August 27, 1958. The most notable of these requirements is the need to have an animal completely sedated and insensible to pain.

What do you mean by humane slaughtering?

Where a complete state of unconsciousness is rendered prior to bleeding the process is known as humane slaughtering. Under such practice, the state of unconsciousness and accompanying painlessness is effected either by mechanical, electrical or chemical means in a process called stunning.

What does the Humane Slaughter Act do?

The Act requires all meat companies selling to the US government to provide stunning by mechanical, electrical, or chemical means prior to the killing of cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, and other livestock, except in the case of slaughter for religious or ritual purposes.