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Comment by cup-of-tea | Hacker News Reader

> It’s used to stun animals before slaughter

What? How? Carbon dioxide is well known to cause a painful death. Why the fuck are they not using nitrogen?

Because it's significantly easier to engineer a system using carbon dioxide than one using nitrogen. This is because carbon dioxide is heavier than air such that the system doesn't need to be enclosed. With nitrogen you need sealed chambers which are more expensive and the process will take longer.

I think this is poorly written in the article... Likely the Co2 gas is used to power bolt-guns which are in turn used to stun larger animals like cows before slaughter.

No, the slaughter industry does in fact use CO2 to asphyxiate animals. It even has a fun euphemism, "Controlled Atmosphere Stunning".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation#Animal_...

Interesting, I didn't realize that was done at scale... As the comment above me said, seems harsh to use CO2 for that...

I didn't know about this. This is outrageous. I don't care that animals are being raised for slaughter – our ancestors would chase and spear animals and that was likely to be very stressful and painful. We can do better today. To actually make animals feel that they are suffocating is beyond inhumane. Even carbon monoxide would be better.

We (humans and other animals) are specifically engineered to detect CO2 and trigger the suffocation response, and no other gas. Then the idiots will use exactly the only gas that causes suffering.

Is it possible to figure out which companies are doing this?

CO or N would be completely painless. CO is often called the "silent killer" as many humans die from it every year. Doesn't need to be pure CO or anything. Nitrogen would need to be pure but is similarly silent and painless. There is a video online of a pig lured into a nitrogen filled chamber by food. He loses consciousness, recovers, and goes straight back to the food like nothing has happened.

As for CO_2, I recommend trying to breathe the gas at the top of bottle of pop without wanting to violently withdraw from the pain.

Because it's cheaper. The slaughter industry really doesn't prioritize animal comfort.

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