Since animals whose meat will be sold or treaded must be slaughtered under an inspector’s supervision, most slaughtering is performed off the farm at slaughterhouses. Three big companies (IBP, Cargill’s Excel Corp. and Con-Agra’s Monfort Inc.) control 80% of all beef production.
For animals other than poultry and ritually-slaughtered animals, it is a requirement of The Humane Slaughter Act that livestock must be stunned into unconsciousness before they are killed. The stunning of livestock is normally accomplished by an electrical device or a gun.
