sometimes the slaughterers don’t know the cow is pregnant or they don’t have time to wait – the kill line is constantly moving – or they wait the five minutes but the baby inside hasn’t died. In these situations, the baby can fall out alive, conscious and gasping for air as their mother is being butchered. In the event of this happening, the RSPCA states the baby should be killed ‘with an appropriate captive bolt or by a blow to the head with a suitable blunt instrument’.42
