Both researchers and animal advocacy groups in Europe have become increasingly concerned about the stressfulness of CO_2 stunning of pigs. Within the last year, three scientific articles have been published on either finding alternative gasses for CO_2 or studying the behavior of pigs stunned in CO_2. The consensus is that the induction phase before the pigs lose consciousness is highly stressful. Attempts to use alternative gasses for pigs have not been successful. It needs to be made very clear that this discussion is limited to pigs. Different species of animals react differently. All new poultry CAS (controlled atmosphere stunning) systems have windows so induction can be monitored and observed.
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