I have seen more than any of you on a kill floor, since I've been there since was old enough to walk.
What you're describing is very similar to what happens in a regular slaughter house. However, with a common misunderstanding bloated by the fact you or your government teacher have not been on many kill floors. And probably fewer in Mexico, but they aren't dynamically different unless you're talking private, on farm-site slaughterings which can be gruesome down to criminal acts.
1. First, it's probably all ready been killed by a captive bolt gun or a .22 mag. - not anything special in either case.
It would just take too much manpower and is totally unreasonable to stab a live animal six to eight times trying to get at the spinal column. The action itself is faulty - a 'stabbing' motion would be offset if you hit bone, and unnecessarily cruel.
Besides, what business, poor country or not, likes to waste good hides?
Repeated stabbing is not a slaughterhouse practice, period. It's sloppy and HIGHLY frowned upon.
2. After the initial kill and the animal is officially 'down' the animal is hoisted from a chain hoist on the ceiling, upside down to cut the major blood vessels in the neck first and allow gravity to drain the animal.
Most places save the blood for a pick up - it is a valuable fertilizer that usually gut haulers take. They take blood, guts, hides, hooves, legs, head, and tail for various other products, fertilizer or waste disposal - depending on what country your in it could also end up in your sausage. Yum.
I presume, especially in Mexico, more is used and less is wasted.
3. Where the misconception that the animal is alive comes from:
What must be understood is that during this time, from the kill chute to the floor, the animal's system is still functioning through the trauma of death; it's now functioning at random, like a computer going haywire. Neurons go bonkers after the very lethal brain impact and send signals for the muscles to incoherently move. Those muscle spasms can cause the animal to look like it's thrashing.
Most people have a perspective of dead meaning a lack of movement - but the freshly dead (or really decomposed) tend to make such bizarre motion. It seems eerie - but the glassed over, open eyes are a give away (a quick test is to touch the eyeball while it's in the chute; if it blinks it's alive and 'saw' it coming - if not, it's dead).
Being a meat cutter is an art all its own. And Mexico might be poor, but that doesn't mean they are somehow primitive and must be reduced to barbaric acts akin to savage dismemberment. That's kind of crude to assume.
As I see it, we all can pontificate on the term humane, though, it's still killing.
The Jews and Muslims get away with slitting the arteries in animals and letting them stand their until they bleed to death, through prayer and blessing. Ritual sacrifice - fine if the Jews do it but god help the occultists...
By the way, Set - that's a form of kosher killing, the bleeding out while alive. Sometimes they stun them, or paralyze them but sometimes they don't - depends on the code they follow. Catholics, Muslims, Jews and such don't usually eat horse meat. It's up there with things not to eat. To each their own hobby, I suppose. I like horse meat.
I find that style of killing unnecessary but if said certain people think it is the path to heaven I am glad they feel comfortable doing it; I sure as hell don't think it does much, but I am an atheist who does not anthropomorphize or idolize critters as deities.
However, as my boss says,
there are no two classifications of 'dead' once you get there... it's just how comfortable you make the task of getting there that matters.
That's why the Halal and Kashrut codes stand firm for ritual slaughter, with people to follow their ritualistic methods who feel comfortably set in their ways. Even regular American's who don't eat kosher dote on the USDA's ritualistic patterns under the terminology of 'humane'... Culture dictates all and we stand by its rules - lest to be called pigheaded, racists like the White Knights or akin to the terrorists from the AFL on the matter of animal rights.
Alas, the US has still banned horse slaughter. It's killed an industry in turn - and so the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions - and put people out of business. They shut doors to comfort the enthusiast who loves horses but forgets the fact they are part of the horse slaughter industry by proxy. Now the market for personal horses is trash with it flooded full of 'junk' horses that used to manifest purpose on the slaughter line. Now animals need to make twice the trip to get to a slaughter house. Funny how that works - good intentions doubling up the trip.
A border ban would make foreign policy oh-so-fun; why not screw with our neighbors market price of meat more than we all ready have!? Oh boy, lets make more enemies because we feel some stem of guilt.
For what?
Feeding people.
Honest,
cumulusprotagonist, I hope your government teacher is a wonderful-wonderful person simply trying to get you to see the dynamic in the world is indeed not black and white, but varying shades of gray. That is what makes it so damn interesting. But I also hope that person helps to rationalize notes given about 'bans' and the social, governmental, and cultural rammifications of said 'bans'... least we end up fighting another phantasm, like 'THE WAR ON DRUGS'. Billions of dollars later we could have a similar, but equally expensive phantasm 'BAN FOOD' with some ridiculous slogan like:
"Ban food, it kills."
