Re: this makes me sick, I barely managed the first minute...
I'm sorry to disagree with most people but what I saw was a very humane way to end the lives of those horses. I have spent a lot of time in abattoirs and the way they are handling those horses is good. You do not know what the backgrounds of those animals are... They use chutes with mechanical barriers to move the animals a long as any that have not been handled are not stressed by the experience. You should know that most abattoir lines move at 20 animals a minute (I have been in abattoirs which fully process 200 cattle and 400 sheep in 4 hours).
Horses are very difficult because they are such sensitive creatures - they are hard to stun because they move their heads so quickly and sharply - hence the use of the stun on them twice to make sure they are definitely unconcious - they will be hung and bled out (which actually kills them) as soon as they roll out from the gate. The most stun gun work by knocking on the skull causing the brain to vibrate in the skull and inducing what is equivalent to an eplileptic fit (hence the kicking etc.) - if you've ever spoken to someone who suffers from epilepsy then they do not remember the fits. The others are kept well back from the stun area and kept from seeing it. If those horses were really distressed they would do anything to jump out of those chutes. Do you think you could inject a horse who has never been handled or has severe distrust of humans? It is much better that they are herded in and are handled the minimal amount. Yes, not all horses are like this but I'm afraid the life of the abattoir workers is worth more than the horses especially when it can be done just as well another way. When animals are waiting to enter the abattoir they are kept in corrals with others and are provided water, food and bedding if they are to be there longer than 4hours. They are only herded to the chutes immediately before and spend approx 5 mins in the handling system before they are killed. What do you think would happen to them if it wasn't allowed?? They'd be shipped abroad or abandoned. There are far worse evils in the world than this.
Have you considered how injectable agents work? They areold anaesthetic drugs given to an overdose - can you imagine how frightening it must be to a prey animal to have it's senses dulled in that way? They cause death by anaesthetising the horse then suppressing heart activity until a heart attack is induced - is that really better than a quick knock on the head? If you consider the worst case scenarios of each method: Stunning - the horse is not knocked unconcious properly - it is quickly restunned with a fully loaded spare stunner and if that fails they are shot (all within a few seconds); Injection: the liquid is injected to fast (all horses react differently to the volume) - the horse has a heart attack before it is unconcious... What sounds worse to you? You can probably guess that I would always have horses shot over injection. To be fair a lot of injected euthanasias go very well but I have seen some true horrors with them...
Anyway - there you go! Hope that's helped you understand why it is done in this way. Afterall the aim is to kill the horse as quickly and efficiently as possibly. I don't see the problem with the resulting carcasses going for meat. I can assure you all that these abattoirs would still be running even if they could not sell the meat - They just would have lower profit margins meaning they would struggle to afford to train their staff to such a high standard resulting in poor welfare for the animals. You may not think it but those men in the video are highly trained and skilled at their job.