Good evening, everyone. Tonight The title of tonight's Webinar is the captive bolt stunner. Its use of maintenance.
The captive bolt Stunning equipment was developed in the early 20th century, late 19th early 20th century, primarily for use in the slaughter industry as a reliable, effective and humane alternative to the Pola. However, it also has a wide application in the field of emergency killing by veterinary practitioners, Naaman livestock producers and others, including at least one police force now which I've trained recently. Principles covered in this lecture will apply to all situations, regardless of whether that is within the slaughterhouse or on farm or elsewhere.
The webinar will comprise of a slide presentation which will include two lots of DVD footage. The first lot of DVD footage that dealing with the captive bulk use was actually filmed in 2001 during the foot and mouth outbreak and should be viewed within that context. And I do need to say at this stage that that first bit of DV footage pulls no punches and that there are some fairly graphic images of animals being slaughtered animals that are already dead, et cetera.
But it is the principle that is apply. Most of what I'm talking about tonight can be found in if you look at the title slide The highlighted in red at the bottom of publication Cap Bunning of Life, Fourth Edition And it's available from the Humane Slaughter Association as a hard copy or indeed is accessible as an online guide. So before I start proper, I'm gonna ask some questions one at a time.
And I believe Lydia is gonna give me the answer when you've all pressed the various buttons. So the first question is just to give me an idea. Normally I'm sitting.
I'm standing in front of a room full of people and they put their hands up. It is rather odd sitting here talking to myself, but, just to get a feel of the of the audience. First question is, how many of you are veterinary surgeons, livestock farmers, slaughter licence holders or other?
Right. So I'm going to launch the polling now, and, you'll see that question, on your screen. And if you could click on whether you're a veterinary surgeon, a livestock farmer or other, that would be really good.
I'm just going to give everybody a chance to vote. It's, let me just show you that share results. It's now 43% Yes, and 62%.
No. OK, that makes 100 and 5%. Yes, indeed.
Right. OK. And the final question is, I'm just waiting for the my computer to catch up.
Do you oversee the use of captive built equipment by others? OK, I'll end the polling there. Share the results and 71%?
Yes. And 33%. No.
OK, thank you very much indeed. Can I carry on then? Lydia?
yes, please. OK, so, my computer seems to be very slow. Let me turn the next.
There we go. So the company B equipment is primarily a piece of slaughtering equipment, but it can be used for emergency killing. So looking at the to slaughter or killing, slaughtering is defined in council regulation.
ECT 2010 99 2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing, came into force on the first of January 2013. Slaughtering is defined as the killing of animals intended for human consumption, and that roughly falls into line with the Oxford Concise Oxford Dictionary. Definition killing in the regulation 1099 2009 is defined as any intentionally induced process, which causes the death of an animal, and there is obviously overlap between the two.
Both, however, must be undertaken without causing unnecessary or avoidable suffering. And these are requirements both of the slaughter legislation and of the Animal Welfare Act. 2006 Slaughter is generally thought of as a two stage process, so the animal is stunned and followed by and killed by a secondary operation.
In terms of slaughter animals for human consumption that is generally by bleeding, avoiding the carcasses of the blood. There are three permitted methods of stunning within the slaughter regulation mechanical, electrical and by exposure to gas mixtures. Captive bolt.
Stunning, which we're covering tonight, is an example of mechanical or percussive stunning. There are stun kill alternatives of all three permitted stunning methods. However, if the carcass is intended for consumption, then bleeding is still necessary regardless of whether the animal is already dead.
So going back to council regulation EC 1099 29 The definition of stunning is any intentionally induced process which causes loss of consciousness and in and sensibility without pain, including any process resulting in instantaneous death where the stunning is of a reversible type, for example, by had only electrical, equipment. This is known as simple, stunning, and does not result in instantaneous death. Captive bulk stunning.
Strictly speaking is simple. Stunning because the brain stem is left intact in the animal, there is a remote chance that the animal could recover its breathing reflex. So capture about studying a few general points, some of which I will reiterate during the course of the next 45 minutes or so.
But this lecture I originally wrote, for slaughter personnel with a view to preparing them for, slaughter licence to do exams for, oral examinations for slaughter licences. So hopefully by the end of this lecture, if I've done my job correctly, you should be able to answer the following questions. What is captive bolt done?
How does it work? And probably, most importantly, how you can ensure that it is consistently effective. Sorry, because it's stunning.
The definition of percussion percussive in the concise Oxford Dictionary is the forcible striking of one especially solid body against another. So that can be two moving bodies or one stationary and one moving the result of percussion within the context of what we're talking about tonight is concussion again defined in the concise Oxford Dictionary as the temporary unconsciousness or incapacity due to injury to the head. But again, in the context of what we're talking about tonight, we're looking for that unconsciousness to be a permanent state.
When an animal is unconscious due to concussion, then it is insensible. Insensible is one of the words used in the old slaughter legislation, where animals are required to be rendered insensible to pain until death of supervenes. So this is a definition of captive bolt equipment.
The important might be in the second sentence, where the bolt does not leave the barrel completely, as with a free bullet, firearms, such as a shotgun or a rifle or a pistol, but is retained and maybe returned to its pre fring position. And it says, maybe returned because there are some models of cap to bolt, some older models of cap to bulk, and some, modern, highly high powered models where the bolt does not return automatically to its pre fring position and has to be manually pushed back prior to the next the next discharge. So these points got ahead of myself a while ago.
The points that to summarise on cap to old equipment, which I may reiterate the first one is humane stunners. Captive bolt. Instruments are humane stunners, not humane killers.
And by law, their use must be backed up by destruction of the brain stem, an operation known as pitting or by bleeding the carcass and generally speaking again. If the captive bolt is being used in the slaughterhouse situation, the animals will be bled following and stunning but on a, emergency killing. Whether it's on disease control, especially then the chosen method would probably be to destroy the brain stem rather than to bleed bleed the carcass restraint is necessary in most situations unless the animal is virtually moribund and virtually dead.
But because the nature of the captive bolt means that it is held discharged in full contact with the animal's head, then some form of restraint is usually necessary. Potential problems can be encountered when attempting to stun aged animals, especially breeding pigs and heavily horned sheep breeds of sheep. And this must be borne in mind.
When faced with with such an animal and maybe an alternative considered routine maintenance is essential. It's an absolute paramount importance, and it is probably more important with captive bolt equipment than it is with AAA firearm that discharges a free projectile because of the nature of the bolt being returned. One advantage of captive bolt equipment over firearms with, as the veterinary profession is concerned is that they're no longer classed as firearms.
When I started back in 1988 in this job, I required a firearm certificate to own and carry captive gold equipment. But that has not been the case since February 1998. However, there are some circumstances in which the user will require a slaughter licence.
This isn't the case with veterinary surgeons, because one of the exemptions is for veterinary surgeons in the course of their business. Of course, one of the advantages of not being classed as firearms is that from an employer's point of view, as a partner in veterinary practise, it's you haven't got to go through all the bur bureaucracy and expense of issuing firearms certificates to your, employees. And this is also applies to livestock farmers, especially pig farmers.
Now most people who are producing livestock, especially pigs under, quality assurance schemes are required to have captive bulk instruments to deal with, injured disease and worried about animals on the farm. So here is a picture of probably the most common general purpose captive bolt instrument found in the UK. It's known as a cash special, and it was first came on the market in 1981.
In terms of its technology, there is very little difference between this and the original cash B captive bolt instrument that was produced. I believe in 1922. It's got a a few finer lines, and it's more powerful, but it it fundamentally, it's exactly the same piece of equipment.
So how does it work? Well, when a captive bolt instrument is discharged, the bolt impacts on the animal's head on the skull, and there's a transfer of energy. That transfer of energy causes the head to accelerate downwards, and the brain inside the crania, skull impacts on the inside of the skull.
Because it's a penetrative de device. There is this massive, sudden increase of intracranial pressure, which is immediately followed by a decrease of equal magnitude. So the brain suffers physical trauma and the trauma of compression and decompression.
And the net result is total brain dysfunction, a condition known as flat lining, when all electrical activity in the brain ceases. And if the brainer is connected to an EEG trace, there will be no activity, just a flat line showing on the screen. This is what we're trying to achieve when we're using captive bolt stunner animal.
So the, energy, the transfer of energy from the Baltar School, the type of energy is kinetic energy, the energy of movement. There are various types of energy light electric, electrical energy, wind energy. But the energy kinetic energy is the energy produced by a moving body, and it's the product of the mass of the body and its velocity, and it's expressed by the formula.
KE equals half MV squared, where K is kinetic energy. M is mass and V the velocity of the bolt. In this case now, the following example shows the relationship between the mass velocity and impact energy of the captive bolt.
If we look at this, if you can see my arrow energy required for an effective stun, we have an animal that requires a minimum impact energy of 100 and 30 joules in order to produce an effective stun. In both cases, the mass of the bolt is 100 and 50 grammes. And in the first example of a velocity of 50 metres per second, we produce an impact energy of 100 and 87.5 joules, with the net result of an effectively stunned animal.
However, should we reduce the velocity of the bolt, my 40% to 30 metres per second, the impact energy, the reduction in impact energy is not is not proportional and it is actually reduced by, two thirds to 67.5 joules, but just over half the minimum required of 100 and 30. And the result here is this animal will not be effectively stunned now, depending on the type of animal, the species, the age size, et cetera, the animal may be in the case of a water buffalo standing, looking at you showing no signs of that.
It even realises it's been shot to an animal that may be down but still showing movement and eye movement and breathing. Therefore, it's what we're trying to show in that example is it's the speed of the bolt rather than its mass. That is the greatest influence and the greatest importance in terms of the amount of energy transferred.
Anything that impairs the velocity of the bolt will have serious implications for animal welfare and that it would reduce the, chances of the animal being stunned effectively. So in simple terms, effective, percussive, percussive, stunning. Using captive gold equipment is achieved by delivering the maximum amount of energy to the correct part of the animal's head in the shortest possible time.
So here we have a cross section of a mammalian brain, and if we look at the four red arrows showing the different parts of the brain, number one is the upper brain, the cerebral cortex, which controls higher brain functions such as sight, hearing touch, Ra rationale, et cetera. The midbrain area here, number two controls consciousness and cognition, and then the brain stem Here, number three controls breathing, breathing and cardiac activity, and then that connected to the upper spinal cord and spinal cord carries messages from the brain to and from the brain to the body. So what we're trying to do when we're using a captive box stone is impart the maximum amount of energy as possible to the midbrain area here, number two and to the, brain step to knock out the the animal's, brainstem function.
And indeed the first. When an animal is effectively stunned, it collapses and stops breathing. So the position where we in order to achieve this in order to achieve the maximum amount of energy to the midbrain area here, we need to place the captive bolt in a position where the skull is at its thinnest, where the tissue such as skin and fat there is the least amount and where, the brain is as close as possible to the underside of the skull.
Now this differs between species and within species according to the presence or not of certain physical features. But generally speaking, it is in a frontal position which corresponds to arrow number one here. When the bolt impacts on the skull smashes its way through the skull and will penetrate according to the size of the animal, but in an adult beast or bovine, probably to two or three centimetres into the skull, it will cause some physical damage to the upper part of the brain.
Here, however, it will not cause any physical damage to the mid brain and the brain step. So this concussive effect this impact of the bolt on the school is is is of great importance in order to conduct and transfer the energy to the mid brain. Some work carried out at Bristol University by Halo Kil Haluk took sheep and cattle, I believe sedated them implanted EEG, electrodes to, track the brain activity.
He refined the hole in the skull and then the hole was slightly wider than the diameter of the bolt. The bolt was slide through the hole and there was very little, if any, change to the EEG trace. So that impact of the bolt on the skull is very, very important.
The physical damage done to the upper part of the brain here is really incidental and doesn't have a great deal of, is not responsible for the for the insensibility. The insensibility is caused by the transfer of the energy to the midbrain area here. However, because the there is a hole then left by the bolt, it allows us to access to the brain stem.
So I said, the brain stem controls breathing and if the animal, if no further action is taken, there is this remote possibility that the animal may start breathing again and that will be controlled by the brain stem. The brain stem may suffer some physical trauma akin to bruising or grazing if the internal pressure caused by the bulb is sufficient to push it partially or wholly through the frame and Magnum and back again. But it will not be destroyed so that there is the potential that the animal can recover its breathing at least its breathing reflex, which is the first sign of recovery.
But that hole left by the bolt gives us access by inserting a rod or a flexible cane through the hole to a level beyond the brain stem, lacerate the brain stem once that is done, Although the heart may continue to beat for some minutes, the animal cannot regain, regain its breathing reflex and is in it effectively. It's killed by the operation. The brain has evolved from the brainstem that way forward.
So, when the animal loses consciousness due to a blow on the head, the senses go out from the upper part of the brain. First, midbrain lower, lower brain and return the same way. So if we destroy the brainstem, avoid the carcass of blood, then the animal will die.
So that operation to lacerate the brain stem used during emergency slaughter on farm or disease control When we're not, containing animals for human consumption, this operation is known as pin, as I say it's a laceration or destruction of the hind brain and brain stem and part of the upper spinal cord. It used to be used routinely in cattle abattoirs prior to July 2001, as a safety measure to exhaust the spinal reflex activity and make things safer for the slaughterman who were handling the this with cattle. But in July, 2001 it became it was made illegal for a for bovine ovine and Capra animals destined for human or animal consumption.
Strictly speaking, it could still be used in pigs or deer going for human consumption. But generally speaking, it isn't. It's a method used for, killing animals outside the slaughterhouse situation.
It's achieved by inserting, as I said before, a flexible rod, cane or other and other can be something like a screwdriver, a seven inch screwdriver. Push it down through the frame and Magnum and wiggle it backwards and forwards a number of times. It has to be said this.
It is very effective, but it is aesthetically very, very unpleasant to witness. And it's not a particularly nice thing to have to do either. But I say it's very, very effective.
And we have. You will see this being carried out in the DVD footage, in a few minutes time, just to say that pitting. Although it was carried out in slaughterhouses routinely as a, health and safety measure to protect human welfare by doing it, of course, they guarantee that animals would not recover if there was a delay in the bleeding leading of them, and therefore it was also a positive animal welfare, operation.
So the implications for animal welfare are that the pitting destroys the brain stem, effectively killing the animal and a dead animal, ladies and gentlemen, is not a welfare problem. The welfare problems arise between the animal becoming a healthy animal and a dead animal. The transition from a healthy animal to a dead animal or where the welfare problems are, or potential welfare problems.
So if you look at the positions, look, take the species one by one. The main farm livestock species, the position where we use the captive bolt the target area on horn cattle. It's at the crossing point of two imaginary lines drawn between the medial cancers of the eye and the base of the opposite horn, hornless cattle.
It is a corresponding position from the eye to the point where the horn would grow from if the horn was present. There's a structure known in the part of the world where I come from as the pole PO double L. This takes into account the squarer, broad headed beef breeds and longer faced, dairy bred animals.
But in fact, the position doesn't vary a great deal in the survey that we did in 1992 on head restraint, where we checked the bolt holes in about 3.5 1000 animals ranging in live weight between around about 454 100 kg and over a tonne. This position was seven centimetres plus or minus one centimetre behind a line drawn across the back of the orbits.
So although the actual physical size of the animals varied greatly, this target area was quite small. So this is a cross section through the head of a 30 month old steer. If we look at the this is the the horn bed.
Here, the remains of the orbit halfway between the two is the bolt hole. The captive bolt is placed at right angles to the skull and the energy I transmitted towards the midbrain and base of the brain. Here.
If you look closely at this slide, you can actually see the actual depth of penetration of the bolt. There's this lesion here that shows that the bolt penetrated to again three or four centimetres into the animal's skull. So that's a commercial bovine.
The next slide shows a photograph of a week old cough and again, if we look very carefully at this, you can just about see this the horn bed here and they will be will be here again halfway between the two right angles to the skull. But in fact, if you look, you can see that the brain in the, calf, actually relatively speaking, occupies a much bigger, part of the of the of the, cranium than the adult animal. And this tissue here is very, very soft.
So there is a question mark over whether there is a concussive element when using captive bolt equipment on infant cars or whether the actual insensibility is caused by the physical damage caused to the mid brain and lower brain area because of the relatively deeper penetration of the bolt, which is, which is is probably the cause. However, if we go the other way and we look at a bull, this is a 11 or 12 year old limbs in breeding bull. I picked this up long before the, over 30 month scheme came in.
I witnessed this animal being slaughtered, and if you look it, it was There was one captive bolt shot. The animal was effectively stunned. But if you look at the, here, you can see there's a lot of matted hair quite dense, thick, fat layer of fat before the skull.
The bulb penetrated through the hair. It went through the fat it impacted on the skull. You can see if what in effect is bruising or bleeding radiating out from the bulb hole, but the bulb did not penetrate through to the brain cavity.
However, that energy was conducted to the, to the animal's midbrain, and it was effectively stunned. Of course, this animal would not. You would not be able to kill this animal by carrying out the P, so it would have to be.
And indeed it was bled. So we go to sheep. Sheep are the species where the, position varies in hornless sheep.
The correct position is on the midline of the head at the highest point, aiming straight down to the floor. If we looked again through the cross section, If we took a frontal shot as with cattle, then some of the impact energy would be absorbed by this Sinus and bone to the fore of the brain here. So we take this point here where there's the least amount of tissue to absorb the impact energy, but still aiming towards the midbrain area here.
Horn sheep, however, have a bony ridge on the top of their head. And so the position is it's could be interpreted as being in the same position, but at a different angle. There's a subtle difference.
The muzzle of the captive bulk should be placed behind the bony ridge and angled in towards the base of the animal's tongue. So here we see again, if we took the frontal positioners with cattle or the highest pointers with hornless sheep, much of that impact energy would be absorbed by this Sinus and bone. Here.
So we take this wig point here, as you can see, very thin. But excuse me. Very thin part between the brain and the skull.
Here, angle it in again, imparting the energy towards the midbrain area. Excuse me. I want to take a drink of water to digress for Oh, sorry.
No. So move on to goats. All goats should be just treated as though they have horns and the captive bolt discharged in the same position as for horned sheep.
The reason for this is if we look at this section, this is a hornless goat, probably 18 months old. If we took the position for corresponding position for Hornless sheep, the highest point on the midline, much of that energy would be absorbed by the Sinus and bone structure here. But any that wasn't would only really affect this little frontal lobe here of the brain.
And we need it to get to the midbrain and lower brain area here. So all goats should be treated place that they have horns. And now, just to digress a little bit with the sheep and goats, when using a free bullet weapon, then we move to a frontal position so that the projectile ends up in the mass of the of the body here.
However, if we have very heavily horned animals, we can use a free bullet weapon in the hind brain position as well, taking care that the animal should be on soft ground, of course. So it's a little side. Pigs are probably the most difficult of the three main livestock species to stun using captive bolt equipment or indeed, with a firearm.
The brain is small compared to the other two species. It lies horizontally in the head. The correct position for a grower pig under anything, say 6, 70 60 70 to 100 kg.
Finish P on the midline again. Finger a finger's width or two fingers width above the eye on the midline. Place the captive bolt at right angles and then tip it downwards and aim towards the tail.
And here is the corresponding section through the head of a 90 kg, six month old bacon pig. You can just see the skull outline of the skull here and to the fore of the brain. Here is a couple of centimetres of relatively soft Sinus, and the, captive bolt here will penetrate through to the brain cavity and allow pitting cane to be used if required.
However, when we moved to adult stock breeding, stock sales and boars, we can encounter the same situation is with the mature bull that we saw earlier. This is a 3.5 4 year old breeding sow.
Probably that's the as old as they get commercial sows The skull here, you can see, has become much harder and calcified. There's the three, maybe three or four centimetre now of very, very hard Sinus and bone to the fore of the brain. Very thin skin, no fat.
And again, if captive bolt was used on an animal such as this, there is the chance that it would penetrate, not penetrate, all the way through to the brain cavity. But because of the nature of this tissue here, the energy would be conducted readily to the midbrain, and the animal would be stunned. And if a pitting cane was attempted to be used, you may find it a bit difficult to to to to insert.
Then we move on. And this isn't really this is just to make you aware of extreme animals such as the Vietnamese pot bellied pig. Coy, coy things like that.
Some years ago, the veterinary profession was actually faced with. I think it was in the mid 19 eighties. It became fashionable for some people to use to keep these animals, and they lived to a great age, and when they went off their legs and some vet resurgence had the misfortune to be called in to dispatch them, and even three bullet weapons didn't work on them.
And you can see there's this massive fat here and school. This was only a sort of less than a 10 month, 11 month old animal, so you can imagine what this would be like in an animal approaching 10 or 11 years. So this is just to make you aware of the problems that can be encountered with extreme animals.
So to the physical signs of an effective stun, the animal collapses immediately, hits the deck like a tonne of bricks and stops breathing. Other symptoms are tonic activity, with the front legs and necks extended hind legs flexed into the lower abdomen. Pupils fully dilated, no corneal reflex or palpable reflex.
And in some animals, especially cattle, the lower jaw relaxes in the tongue hangs out. However, the warning here is the first sign of a return to consciousness. Again, It's the third or fourth time I've mentioned.
This first sign of a return to consciousness is a resumption of normal rhythmic breathing. The animal can't get up and stand around, stand up, walk around or be aware of its surroundings until it's started to breathe again. If an animal continues to breed immediately post stun, then the stun has been ineffective and the animal should be stunned again immediately.
This normally will only happen with cattle or larger animals. And the most common reason if the shot is in the correct position is that the cartridge is not fully loaded properly. And, so simply a case of keeping your cool head and studying the animal again and that will be covered in the DVD in a minute.
So now, moving to this piece of DVD footage, as I say, it was, filmed during foot and mouth. And it shows, footage of animals being slaughtered during that time. Please look at the animals in shot, and see note their reactions to the, captive bolt discharge.
OK, here we go. I'll go. Captive built instruments can be used on all types of livestock, but always remember that they are humane stunners and not humane killers.
By law, the use must always be immediately followed up by ping or bleeding. For the unarmed killing of livestock. The heaviest charge available for the captive boat should be used.
Then the animal must be pied to destroy the brain stem or bled to ensure rapid death. As you load the stunner, point it away from your body. Keep out of the animal's line of sight hands or the gun will cause the animal to flinch and make your job more difficult.
Wait until the animal has settled. When stunning cattle aimed the stunner at the crossing point of two imaginary lines drawn between the eye and the base of the opposite horn, plated firmly against the animal's head and fire. The same basic principles apply for sheep and goats.
As for cattle, take care to use the right cartridge for the stunner and size of animal as you load it. Don't forget it's a fire, so take care. Don't ever point it at yourself or anyone else and make sure someone is ready to pit or bleat the animal within 15 seconds.
After stunning with hornless sheep, place the stunner on the midline at the highest point of the head and aim towards the angle of the jaw with horn, sheep and all goats place the muzzle just behind the ridge that runs between the horns and aim towards the base of the tongue. Younger pigs to be stunned with a captive boat, can be dispatched in small groups, but from a safety point of view, larger animals should be preferably individually restrained. When handling pigs.
Use pit boards to guide the animal and block off escape routes. If a pig is difficult to restrain with a pig board, then it may be necessary to use a snare. This may be either purpose made or one made from a roof.
Cast the noose over the top jaw and locate it behind the canine teeth. Take particular care with sows and boars as they may become aggressive positioned. A captive boat stunner, approximately 20 millimetres above eye level on the midline of the forehead, aiming towards the tail.
Older sows and boars and certain breeds can have a ridge of bone running down the centre of the forehead. This may prevent the build penetrating the brain cavity, and the pig may not be able to be ped effectively. Other methods of emergency killing should be considered for these animals.
Pigs kick out violently when stunned with a captive boat, and so must be picked immediately. If an animal has been stunned effectively using a captive boat, it will collapse immediately. Rhythmic breathing will cease and the animal will become rigid.
The neck will be extended with the hind legs flexing into the body with some animals. The forelegs may flex initially and then begin to straighten out. The eye will show a fixed glazed expression with no corneal reflex in cattle.
The jaw will relax and the tongue may bo out of the side of the mouth. This tonic phase, as it's called, may be followed by some involuntary kicking movements, which gradually subside. Ideally, you should lift the during the tonic phase before King begins.
This is absolutely essential with pigs. Absence of a corneal reflex does not mean that the animal is dead. It must still be piped within 15 seconds after stunning ping is carried out by inserting a flexible rod or cane through the hole in the skull left by the captive boat.
It's then thrust towards the tail through the brain to the level of the brain stem. And if it's long enough into the upper spinal cord, it's then slid back and forth to cause maximum damage to the brain stem and upper spinal cord. When an animal is piped at first, there will be a lot of reflex activity, after which it will gradually relax and become still.
But in infant animals, especially lamps, this reflex activity may continue for up to 10 minutes after death. K out post pithing is not to be taken as a sign that the animal is alive. Disposable plastic puffing canes, which remain in the carcass, are now available, however, when ping sheep and goats a rigid ping instrument such as a screwdriver may prove easier to use.
The main sign of ineffective stabbing or failure to kill by Ping is a return to normal rhythmic breathing watch for regular movement in the flanks and in cold conditions vapour from the animal's breath. Lack of a corneal reflex is a sign of effective stun but not of death. The breathing is all important if you're in any doubt as to whether the stun has been effective.
Always shoot the animal again, not only for the welfare of the animal but for your and your colleagues. Safety. A repeat shot must always be place so as to avoid the immediate area of the first shot.
If the first shot is off target, the second shot should be placed as close to the correct standing position as possible. If the first shot is on target but fails to produce an effective stunt, the second shot should be above and to one side. OK, so now to the captive bolt maintenance.
And this is possibly the most important part of tonight's lecture. Every time a captive bolster is used, regardless of the number of shots that are discharged, it should be cleaned in order to prevent corrosion and hardening of carbon deposits. And it's essential to ensure the maximum bolt velocity and therefore effective.
Stunning the reasons talked about earlier. It should be taken apart and clean following manufacturer's guidelines. After every day's use, Manufacturer's guidelines can be found in the HS, a publication cap bolt study of livestock and worn parts replaced when necessary.
So here's cross section through the cash special Captive bolt that we've seen they things that may impair the velocity of the bolt. First of all, we've got the cartridge. These, captive bolt instruments are designed to be used, with different size cartridges according to the size class and sizes of the animal, using an underpowered cartridge using AAA overpowered cartridge on a small animal.
Well, obviously, the stun stunning will be effective, but it can cause compression forces in the bolt and strain on the trigger mechanism using undersized, underpowered cartridges. Obviously, you get the same. You get, the same for stresses on the actual mechanism, but also, the animals won't be stunned properly.
So first of all, make sure we're using the correct size cartridge. This is important in the slaughterhouse situation, where animals are in stores and hundreds of animals per day. Are being stunned high through put sort of places in occasional use situations, such as on the farm or in veterinary practise, It's best to use the the highest powered cartridge available for the captive volt instrument.
So when the captive bolt is discharged, solid turns to gas, the gas expands in. The expansion chamber pushes the bolt down the barrel of the captive bolt. They propulsive gases are then ex exhaust to a vent in the top of the barrel here, and then the bolt is returned to its pre fring position by the expansion of the eight recuperated sleeves here, which have been compressed by the initial travel of the vault.
Maintenance is very simple. It takes about 10 minutes, but it's very, very important in order to make sure this thing works, and it's more important in occasional use situations than where they're being used every day. Because although the majority of this car, explosive material turns to gas, a small amount of carbon is left here in the breach.
If that isn't cleaned off within sort of 24 hours or so, it will form a hard layer, and then the next time it is discharged, it will not be blown away. So if you shoot, if one. If there's one discharge or or or 100 discharge in in a session, there will always be this given amount of carbon deposit here.
If it isn't cleaned, it will harden off and form a layer. And over time, if that continues, those layers will build up and the bolt cannot then return to its pre fring position. The expansion chamber will be enlarged, the pressure of the explosive gases on the piston will be reduced, and the manufacturers tell us that a build up of one millimetre of carbon in this area here will reduce the bulk velocity by up to 40%.
And if you remember back to our example of the relationship between velocity, excuse me mass and energy a reduction of 40% velocity results in a reduction of 70% impact energy. So it's really important that the bridge area is cleaned using the tools supplied, and the second area is the bolt assembly here to access the breach area here, you have to remove the muzzle of the captive bolt. Remove the bolt assembly, access the breach area, and this will be come clear in a couple of minutes when I show you the, cleaning routine the DVD footage of the cleaning routine.
Although what you're gonna see applies to the cash special. The principles apply to all captive bolt equipment, whoever whatever manufacturer, whatever model they may be. Not all captive bolt equipment is supplied with breach cleaning tools.
So our advice is, if you don't have a breach cleaning tools supplied, use a wire bottle brush ple you have to keep this breach area clean. Lubrication general lubrication of the moving parts. But do not over lubricate.
And these recuperated sleeves here were disproportionately the end ones were quicker than the middle ones, so they need to be rotated around the bolt. OK, so there is a picture of the internal components of a captive blood instrument. For those of you who are not familiar in some models, this is just one single long rubber buffer.
Some include a spring, others don't. As I say, the principles apply, whatever the model of cap to bow. So without further ado, I'm conscious of time passing.
There's now five minutes of DVD on the maintenance of your cap. Bold instrument capture built stunners and killers must be cleaned at the end of each day's use to prevent corrosion and hardening of carbon deposits. It's essential that the following simple operations are carried out in order to ensure maximum built velocity and effective stunning before carrying out any maintenance.
Check that the stunner is not loaded. Then unscrew the muzzle from the barrel and remove the built assembly gold washes and recuperate sleeves. Older models may have rubber collars or plasticine instead of recuperated sleeves.
Then wipe out the inside of the barrel with a soft, dry cloth and scrub with a wire brush to remove the day's soft powder and sludge. This is best done whilst the barrel is still warm and before the powder solidifies. Now insert the breach cleaner into the barrel and locate it firmly into the breach.
Using your reciprocal twisting movement, remove any carbon deposits from the breach area. Remove the breech cleaner, point the barrel downwards and tap gently on a hard surface to expel the solid material. Next, remove the washes and recuperate sleeves or their equivalent from the boat and remove any carbon using a wire wheel or brush.
Once cleat, smear the belt with a thin film of oil, or wipe it over with a lightly oil drag. Taking care not to get any oil on the face of the piston, Clean any powder and or sludge from the recuperated sleeves and stock washers and examine them for wear. Replace any excessively worn sleeves or stock washers and reassemble the recuperated sleeves on the boat.
In a different order to that which they were removed, the end sleeves wear the fastest, so rearranging the order minimises wear a full set of speeds should last for approximately 4000 shots. Now reassemble the stun up. Apply a small amount of thick lubricants, such as grease or copper slip to the thread of the barrel to facilitate easy removal of the muzzle.
The muzzle should only be finger tight on the barrel. Apply a general purpose lubricating oil to the oil way located at the back of the hammer to the hinge of the hammer and ejector care must be taken to ensure that no oil enters the breach of the standard and to each side of the trigger. OK, what happened?
Smear the outside of the stunner with oil, or wipe over with an oily rack to prevent corrosion. Finally, wrap the stunner in an oiled cloth before locking it away in a secure cabinet, the enlarged diameter inside the barrel. At the breech block end, the undercut must be kept from filling with powder, otherwise that the built return and stunning power will be adversely affected.
Therefore, in addition to daily cleaning, the following procedure should be carried out weekly with the undercut cleaning tool, which is provided with the stunner. Grip the undercut cleaner vertically in a vice, slide the barrel down the cleaner until the breech face makes contact. Now apply sideways pressure to the barrel so that the cleaner enters the undercut in the barrel.
Maintain this pressure, rotate the barrel backwards and forwards two or three times, turn the barrel through 90 degrees and then repeat the backwards and forwards movement. Repeat this process until the undercut has been thoroughly cleaned. The cleaning of poultry killers follows the same principles as the captive built stunners.
Remember that careful cleaning and maintenance of captive boat stunners and poultry killers every time they're used is of paramount importance to ensure they continue to work to their optimum efficiency. This will also mean that the animals and birds are stunned effectively and their welfare not compromised at this critical time. OK, so we're nearly there, summarise the last hour or so.
Consistent, effective, stunning. Using captive bolt equipment is dependent on the following the use of appropriate, well maintained equipment and by appropriate equipment. I mean appropriate for the job in hand.
In that you will have seen in the DVD the first DVD you will have seen contact fired captive bolt equipment being used on cattle. Such contact fire Captive boat equipment is designed specifically for cattle held in restraining crates. It is not appropriate for general purpose use for general purpose use on different species.
You require a single action trigger fired instrument, correct power load. That's the cartridge, the cartridge power for the age and species the size of the animal. Apply the stun in the correct position, according to the species, and it's also incumbent on the person carrying out the study and others anyone else, present or in a position of sort of case officer continually monitor the animals to make sure that they're exhibiting the physical symptoms of effective study, taking appropriate action to correct if things are not so and finally bleeding, also known as exsanguination.
In the slaughter situation, I would say the animals are bled to avoid the carcass of blood. For animals that are going for consumption. Bleeding kills the animal by causing hypoxia, lack of oxygen to the brain, leading ultimately to complete absence of oxygen in the brain by ox oxygen being carried to the brain in the bloodstream.
Yes, it's achieved by severing the major blood vessels in the neck, either both carotid arteries or, in the case of cattle and sheep. The vessels from which they arise, brachiocephalic trunk severing the aorta and the vessels around that area, timeless of timeliness, of bleeding. Sticking and also known as sticking, is of paramount importance when the animals have undergone simple, stunning IE a reversible stun.
Best practise is that bleeding should be carried out without delay after simple studying, meaning within 15 seconds in practise in cattle abattoirs. The captive boat study we're looking for a bleeding to be carried out within 60 seconds. Animals that are killed by stun kill methods but still intended for human consumption still need to be bled.
But the timeliness is not as important from the animal welfare point of view. However, if sticking is delayed, it will result in a poorer bleed out and compromise meat quality. The implications for animal welfare, as with pitting bleeding, deprives the brain of oxygen.
The animal dies from anoxia. Timely bleeding leads to death before stunned animals enter recovery. In the case of simple, stunning and as before, a dead animal is not a welfare problem.
So there we are, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for listening. And are there any questions? Thank you very much for that, Charlie.
It's a really difficult subject. You've You've taken us through it with great care and very sensitively, and it it's something we really need to know about. So thank you for that.
I just encourage people I know we're a little bit over on time, but if you have a question, perhaps you'd like to pop it in the Q and a box. And, then we can, an answer. The questions for you?
Hopefully, we have one from Jenny here. Horses is captive. Bolt A No.
No. No, not at all. Captive bolts are used on horses.
RS PC a all RS PC. A inspectors carry a captive bolt. Some carry free bullet weapons as well, but captive bolts are widely used on horses.
I have got a slide for for horses, which I didn't include tonight. But it's there. If you want me to flick back to it, I'm quite happy to show it.
OK, thank you. I think we've another one or two coming up now. Ian is asking how important is the sharpness of the bolt?
Not really. The votes were replicated the poll, the poll a and the the sharpness that cuts the disc out of the skull. But in fact, because of what we're trying to do is just get this big concussive blow.
I believe that if the bolt was flat ended, it would be equally as effective. But it would probably produce a more ragged entry wound, right? And another couple of questions.
Lara is asking, How long would it take for cattle to recover rhythmic breathing if not bled or ped? Oh, that's a good question. It's a difficult one, because with a properly maintained captive bolt using the correct size cartridge for adult cattle, it is highly unlikely that they will recover.
And how how long would it be before the brain stem kicked in and started breathing again? Difficult to say. Very difficult to say.
OK, you're not expected to have all the answers, Charlie. But thank you. Thank you for that.
I've just got two more questions here, and I think we'd better leave it at that. But just before I go through them, Charlie, are you happy if there are any other outstanding questions to be emailed to the office at the webinar? If you look at the email address there, if you substitute HS A for Charlie, it will come directly to me.
But If you use that one, it will come to me via Wendy. I'm quite happy for you to call me on the office number and speak to me directly. That's good.
Well, let's go to these last two questions. Then, Debbie is asking. I note that captive bolts do require a firearms licence in Northern Ireland.
What are the alternatives for on farm culling? For for for for a veterinary surgeon or for or for the farm or anybody in general. I mean, yeah, captive bolts are still under firearms in Northern Ireland.
For historical political reasons, the alternative is to use a shotgun. But then again, a lot of farms do have access to shotgun. Shotguns are very, very effective and relatively safe compared to other types of single projectile free bullet weapons.
The veterinary surgeon obviously has the option of, overdose of of barbiturate or or chemical euthanasia. And then, the last specific one. Ailes saying Sorry, I may have missed this, but is pithing performed in any other species apart from pigs now, Ping is can be used in any species.
It's a very effective method of killing the animal post captive bolt stunning, Especially if you don't want blood. If you don't want to bleed them, which obviously sort of on farm and in certain situations it isn't isn't desirable. It can be used on any species.
But if it's used on cattle, sheep or goats, the carcass cannot be used for human or animal consumption. Right, OK, I think I just need to let everybody know that this, presentation is usually available on our website within 48 hours after the live broadcast, so you'll be able to access it. At that time, and of course, you can go on the website and download your CPD if that's the sort of thing you'd like to do.
In closing, I just want to thank Charlie again for everything. The talk that he's given and the information he's given us. I'd like to thank all of you attendees, for coming in this evening.
And I know some people will not have been able to make it tonight, Although they've registered for the webinar and no doubt they'll be listening in at a later date. And then I'd like to thank Dawn and, also Holly, for their help in sorting us and getting us through the technical aspects. And, finally, the sponsor again.
Humane Slaughter Association, as I'm sure you're aware, does a huge amount of good work. So I'm really grateful to them for sponsoring this webinar. And, we're getting some comments here as well.
About, thanking you, Charlie, and saying how informative it was. Thank you very much. So, with that, I'll say good evening to everybody and have a good rest of your evening.
Goodbye now. Thank you. Bye bye.
