Pithing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of killing an animal by severing its spinal cord to ensure instantaneous death
2. A method used primarily in animal husbandry to eliminate suffering during slaughter
3. The practice of rendering an animal insensible through spinal injury for humane euthanasia

Etymology: Pithing is the practice of severing the spinal cord of an animal, usually with a rod or probe pushed into the skull, to destroy its brain and nervous system before slaughter. The name comes from a noun with no connection to the procedure's modern anatomy. "Pith" in Old English meant the soft interior of a plant stem or the pulp of a fruit, and it is linked to the word for a seed or stone inside fruit. Its cognates in Dutch, Low German and West Frisian point to a sense of soft core or kernel. The verb itself is older than its slaughterhouse use. Middle English had a verb "pethen" meaning to give courage or strength, derived from the noun, but that sense did not survive. The modern verb, formed by adding the "-ing" ending to "pith," is a much later development, and it is the sense of destroying the central nervous system, the spinal "core," that gives the term its current meaning.

Synonyms: stunning, immobilizing