Chicken-Killing Tool From 1930s Looks Downright Scary (PHOTOS)

Something tells us this "humane poultry killer" isn't all that humane.

The above image, posted Thursday by Reddit user trevdak2, has been making the rounds on the internet. The slogan on the box reads "Safe, Sure, Easy," and depicts the product's proper usage: One arm of the shears inside the chicken's mouth and the other at the back of its head. We can only imagine what the next step is.

After a little digging, we found that the tool was submitted for a U.S. patent in 1932 by William John Fisher, William Alred Fisher, Alvin Clarence Fisher, Evans Fisher and Victor Hubert Fisher (that's a lot of Fishers) who all hailed from Saskatchewan, Canada.

According to official documents, some of the tool's aims were to "eliminate the risk of missing the fowl's brain in this process of killing" and "enable the user to keep his hands clean and free from blood."

And look, we've got the official patent rendering:

Comments

[Philip Mitchell Graham]

07:56 AM on 12/17/2012

I collect plier action tools and have one of these in my collection. I also breed, kill and eat my own chickens. A lot of these tools were designed to make money for the manufacturer by turning a simple act into a complicated one.

Its a funny sort of tool because the blade was placed in a slit of the foundry mould and the brass poured in around it. The tool is very rough and covered with grinding marks. It actually looks home made.

Cutting the head off a chicken is not the best way because it makes a mess. In theory this tool would destroy the brain, instantly killing the bird, but it would still make a mess. An animal goes into convulsions the moment it is killed, and if you have broken the skin at all the blood will splash about.

Detaching the skull from the neck kills the bird instantly with no mess involved.

[Fullbrigades]

07:39 PM on 05/12/2012

What if.. the chicken refused to open it's mouth??

[Dahveed1]

07:15 PM on 05/12/2012

This device comes from a time when many people killed their own chickens and ate them. This device was designed to make it easy to kill the chicken quickly and therefore humanely.

Its almost a joke that so many city people find the implements of preparing their food gruesome looking. They love to eat the food, but can't stand the thought of people having to kill it.

[bullsfan120]

02:11 AM on 05/13/2012

You are right. that is why I don.t eat animals, so i don.t feel like a hypocrite. Seems like we have evolved beyond that.

[oilpatchlibrul]

12:29 PM on 05/12/2012

Folks back then ate the necks too or used them for stock. My grandmother used to kill them by smashing their heads with the hammer (flat) end of the hatchet.

[dragonet2]

11:29 PM on 05/11/2012

A person who keeps chickens and offers classes on keeping them and all the issues of keeping them suggests using branch loppers. She hypnotizes them (turn them on their back, rub their breast/belly and they'll kind of fade off into nevernever land.) Then the cruelest cut of all, but way better than Tyson.

[Dahveed1]

07:17 PM on 05/12/2012

Fresh anything is way better than commercially produced food these days. Commercial chickens live a poor life before being killed. At least her chickens have a quality of live before meeting their end.

[bigg3469]

09:45 PM on 05/11/2012

I wonder if this device was ever approved by PeTA?

[bigg3469]

09:42 PM on 05/11/2012

I Wonder if this "Humane" poultry killer would be approved by PeTA

[Carbon Forteetoo]

06:57 PM on 05/11/2012

These days they force chickens to listen to Nickleback until they commit suicide.

[somnus00]

09:23 PM on 05/11/2012

That'll do it...every time.

[mikeg0477]

11:41 PM on 05/11/2012

You made me actually laugh out loud. Fanned and faved.

[monument]

01:26 PM on 05/11/2012

Instantly crushes the brain without risk of a missed cut, also removes the risk of injury for the person slaughtering the chicken. Yes, this is totally humane.

[plantbasedpunk]

03:50 PM on 05/11/2012

Ok, then lets try it on you!

[srpw0903]

03:59 PM on 05/11/2012

What an excellent idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rodger leMonde]

04:29 PM on 05/11/2012

He only makes a point you addressed earlier. What is your problem?

[Dahveed1]

07:18 PM on 05/12/2012

Yup. More humane than many other methods.

[N0NDescript0]

01:12 PM on 05/11/2012

"There doesn't seem to be any mention of how the chicken benefited from the product, which we can only hope is no longer in use."

By ensuring (theoretically) an immediate and painless death? If you're going to pass judgment on something you don't understand, then don't expect people to take you seriously...

[Philip Mitchell Graham]

07:44 AM on 12/17/2012

The chicken benefited by being born in the first place.

The domestic chicken is the most successful bird on the planet because it is useful to humans, including many of your ancestors who are in tern responsible for your existence.

[Hellboy805]

01:05 PM on 05/11/2012

OUCH !!!!

[mlaiuppa]

11:39 AM on 05/11/2012

I've seen a chicken humanely killed. It was nothing like this.

[plantbasedpunk]

11:32 AM on 05/11/2012

Probably more humane than how chickens are currently slaughtered. Chickens are hung up by their feet on a conveyer belt and their neck is supposed to pass by a blade cutting their necks. But often, they miss the blade or it doesn't kill them and the chickens go into "scalding tanks" (tanks full of boiling water to remove feathers) fully conscious. They are literally boiled alive. And the process leading up to their slaughter is just as bad.

[MyResponsibility]

09:41 AM on 05/12/2012

Such does not happen often. It happens seldom.

[louiseknows]

10:29 AM on 05/11/2012

Wow ! horrible.

[Francois G]

10:28 AM on 05/11/2012

OMG !!!

And this is supposed to be more humane than chopping its head off ???

[BradKnowsAll]

05:11 PM on 05/11/2012

First, this was obviously intended for, and marketed to, the home-user, who would never "chop" a chicken's head off because you might miss and even if you did, it would waste neck meat. They pulled the head off by grabbing the head and swinging the body around in small circles by flicking their wrists (wringing). Large processors today chop, but they didn't really exist in the 1930s - the local chicken farmers would slaughter and process some each day and sell to the butchers/grocery stores in the area. But a good number of people right up until the 1950's (longer in non-urban areas) kept chickens for eggs and eventual slaughter at home.

[Oginikwe]

11:09 PM on 05/11/2012

I have news for you, "home-users" chop off the heads. The "wringing" thing you are writing about doesn't work and it's extremely cruel. We don't miss and an inch of neck doesn't matter.

[SimonBao]

12:05 AM on 05/12/2012

With all due respect, none of what you write is true.

Folks have always known how to kill a chicken swiftly and humanely, and no noe is wasting any neck meat. And there's no wringing of necks either.

I think the Olde Person who related all that information to you was talking through his/her hat.

[MyResponsibility]

09:43 AM on 05/12/2012

FYI, not even in commercial slaughter houses are heads chopped off. Their jugular is cut. The head is not removed in the slaughter process.