Killing Them Softly: The Debates over "Humane Slaughter" in Sweden 1887-1937

This paper traces the political debates over slaughter methods in Sweden since the issue was first raised in parliament in 1887 until the adoption of the country''s first slaughter law in 1937. The focus lies on the discursive representation of contemporary slaughter practices as a problem in need of political regulation. What kind of problem was slaughter represented to be? In what ways were animals considered to be harmed during slaughter? And who--if anyone--was doing the harming? I conclude that the slaughter issue was systematically framed to avoid or diminish the moral dilemma of killing, except when it came to the slaughter practices of certain "Other" groups (the Jews and the Sami in particular) who were regularly stigmatized as being inherently cruel to animals. I also offer an account of the birth of Swedish "meat nationalism"--i.e. the use of national symbols and myths to promote the sale of domestic animal-derived products.