An old partner told me
> that when the slaughter cows, the have a contraption that drive a
> rod through the brain rapidly so the cow dies fast and can't pump
> adrenaline into the blood, thereby making the meat tough and gamey.
1) Watch your cross-posting
2) IIRC, not exactly. In the US, cows are slaughtered with a "captive bolt gun", which is typically placed in a particular spot (where the skull is weak) between the eyes of the cow and hits the skull with tremedous impact. This sends a shock wave through the brain, causing massive brain trauma and unconsciousness; the animal stops breathing, but the heart continues to pump. Some guns penetrate the skull, but some less-messy designs do not: it is the shock that does the killing, not the penetration. After trauma-induced brain-death the cow is then hoisted by its back feet and its throat is cut. Since the heart is still pumping at this point, the blood flows quickly out of the cow; it is important to drain as much blood as possible from the carcass.
The quality of beef is not affected by adreniline; however, this is a problem with pigs. If a pig gets frightened before slaughter, the meat will be of lower quality.
( My wife took a meat slughtering course in college: live animal to commercial boxed cuts. )
-- Dennis M. O'Connor snipped-for-privacy@primenet.com