Pig slaughter
The Humane Slaughter Association states that the transport of pigs to slaughter and all the other procedures and circumstances leading up to the actual act of stunning and killing the pig are, in modern times, often carefully arranged in order to avoid excessive suffering of animals, which both has a humane rationale as well as helping provide for a higher quality of meat.
[1][2] Animal rights groups have recorded images of pigs being transported to slaughter in cramped and unhygienic conditions.
[10][11][12] Pig slaughter is a tradition known in numerous European countries and regions: Armenia (Խոզ մորթելը, Khoz mort’ely), in Albania, it is only Traditional among Christians, Austria (Sautanz),[13] Bulgaria (колене на прасе, kolene na prase), North Macedonia (колење на прасе, kolenje na prase), Croatia (kolinje), the Czech Republic (zabijačka), France (tue-cochon), Georgia (ღორის დაკვლა, ghoris dak’vla), Greece, Hungary (disznóvágás or disznótor), Italy (maialatura), Moldova, Montenegro (svinjokolj), Poland (świniobicie), Portugal (matança), Romania (tăiatul porcului, Ignat), Russia (Убой свиней, Uboy sviney) Serbia (svinjokolj), Slovakia (zabíjačka), Slovenia (koline), Spain (matanza), Ukraine, Corsica and others.
[15] Yet, because people often do the work in the open, it is preferable that the temperatures aren't too much below freezing during this time, hence the slaughter rarely extends into winter.
[15] Traditionally, the pig is slaughtered with a knife and then put in a wooden or a metal trough and showered with hot water to remove the hair.
Today, the animal is rendered unconscious by electrical or carbon dioxide stunning and then immediately bled by cutting the throat.
Lard is made by rendering – heating fragments of fat in a large iron pot over a fire until it is reduced to simmering grease which congeals when cooled.
The smoke house is essential for the preservation and long-term storage of hams, shoulders, bacon sides, and pork bellies.
[15] After WWII, in Yugoslavia, a state holiday fell on 29 November, with that and next day being non-working, so most slaughters were held on that occasion.
Because people were traditionally stocking up on supplies before winter, it became customary to slaughter more than one pig, which increased the amount of time necessary for the meat to be processed.
Because the society is traditionally patriarchal, the women were in charge of a relatively menial tasks, such as waiting and cooking for the whole crew throughout the event, keeping the environment clean (washing and scrubbing), as well as the emptying the pigs' bowels in order to make them suitable for holding sausage meat.
[15] The standard of hygiene long recommended by veterinarians has included various requirements for the people, tools and space used in the process.
[18] In the process of Croatia's entry into the EU, there were widespread fears that new legislation would make svinjokolja as such illegal, forcing all pig slaughter to be conducted in controlled, inspected facilities.
Families check the meat for microbiological health and Trichinella[20] In some countries traditional pig slaughter is a special event.
After the slaughter, the young men of the village would visit neighbours and relatives bringing gifts of meat and fresh soup.
[21] Traditional pig slaughters (zabijačka) still (as of 2011) take place in public at Masopust (Mardi Gras) celebrations in many Czech towns and villages.
[citation needed] During the communist era it was cheaper and people preferred to raise and slaughter pigs at home.
Many Bohemian and Moravian villagers worked in the JZD (collective farms) and it was easier for them to obtain the foodstuffs needed to fatten a pig.
In 2009 Jan Březina, Czech politician and MEP, commented that: "The discovery that in Romania the animals are not paralyzed before slaughter provoked a hysterical reaction on the part of the European institutions.
"[24] The traditional domestic pig slaughter was a favourite theme of the renowned Czech painter Josef Lada.
[25][26] In 1968, Jiří Šebánek, a founder of the Jára Cimrman Theatre, wrote the play The Pig Slaughter at Home.
[27] In Slovakia, the pig slaughter (zabíjačka, zakáľačka, bravčovina, svinský kar, karmina) was an essential part of the winter traditions from early medieval times.
According to Katarína Nádaská of the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Comenius University in Bratislava, the traditional period for pig slaughters usually started on 21 December, the feast day of St. Thomas.
There was a special magical importance attached to the date and farmers believed that the meat of a pig slaughtered on St. Thomas Day would last longer.
