Food & Agr. Code, § 19501 · Chapter 6. Slaughter
Food & Agr. Code, § 19501
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, goats, or fallow deer, or poultry shall be slaughtered by the methods prescribed in this section. No state agency shall contract for, purchase, procure, or sell all or any portion of any animal, unless that animal is slaughtered in conformity with this chapter. This chapter applies to any person engaged in the business of slaughtering animals enumerated in this section, or any person slaughtering any of those animals when all, or any part of, that animal is subsequently sold or used for commercial purposes.
(b) All cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, goats, or fallow deer subject to this part, or poultry subject to Part 1 (commencing with Section 24501) of, Part 2 (commencing with Section 25401) of, and Part 3 (commencing with Section 26401) of, Division 12 shall be slaughtered by either of the following prescribed methods:
(1) The animal shall be rendered insensible to pain by a captive bolt, gunshot, electrical or chemical means, or any other means that is rapid and effective before being cut, shackled, hoisted, thrown, or cast, with the exception of poultry which may be shackled.
(2) The animal shall be handled, prepared for slaughter, and slaughtered in accordance with ritual requirements of the Jewish or any other religious faith that prescribes a method of slaughter whereby the animal suffers loss of consciousness by anemia of the brain caused by the simultaneous and instantaneous severance of the carotid arteries with a sharp instrument.
This section does not apply to the slaughter of spent hens and small game birds, as defined by the department by regulation.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2000, Ch. 373, Sec. 11. Effective January 1, 2001.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAC§ionNum=19501.
- Text hash
- sha256 b86def04229c4a1f0119c13036e67f62bdb2497fcf125d49c8087a082620c93c
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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Food and Agricultural Code
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