Use of electric prodders

What is industry best practice and what do the animal welfare standards say?

The use of electric prodders on livestock is often controversial and associated with a degree of misunderstanding.

National Standards

There are Australian standards related to the use of electric prodders and these are detailed below with additional links to each of the standards for sheep, cattle and goats and also saleyards. You can read more on the Australian Government’s Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines webpage. You’ll find references to all livestock species.

Workplace policies on electric prodder usage

Individual producers, transporters, feedlots and meat processors may have their own policies on the use (or otherwise) of electric prodders and these policies should be followed. Producers and feedlots are aware of the negative effects of increased stress on meat quality, particularly meat colour.

Best practice guidelines on electric prodders

Minimise electric prodder usage wherever possible:

• The overwhelming preference is to minimise the use of electric prodders during the livestock transport process, from loading, through the journey and then at the destination.
• Electric prodders are more commonly used for loading livestock than unloading, where they are rarely used.
• They may also be used to stand animals back up if they’ve gone down during transport and can assist in negating an animal welfare risk quite quickly.
• Drivers will often be seen loading cattle with a prodder in their hand, but it shouldn’t be assumed they’re necessarily using it as commonly, they’re not.

Routine prodding is unnecessary:

• Habitual or routine prodding of multiple animals that are moving freely up a race and ramp is completely unnecessary and causes undue stress to the animal – it stirs them up and can make quiet cattle aggressive.
• The same principle applies to prodding animals that have nowhere to go – it’s unnecessary and pointless. Sensible use should be applied and there are other low stress livestock handling techniques that can be used to achieve the same animal movement outcome.

A quick tap can often do the job:

• If cattle are walking easily through the yards and race, up the ramp and through the truck into their pen, there should be no need to use an electric prodder.
• A quick tap on the rear of animals in specific circumstances during loading and penning up on the truck can often avoid risks to human safety and avoid the situation where animals turn around and run back out of the truck, risking their safety and the safety of the driver.

Closing the pen gate:

• The most common situation where prodders can avoid risk to human and animal welfare is when drivers are unable to close a pen gate inside a truck when penning up. An animal partially penned can prevent gate closure.
• Very brief and timely use of a prodder may avoid cattle turning around in a pen gateway, followed by the entire pen exiting the vehicle. This is one of the main risks in penning up cattle inside a stock crate.
• The strong preference is to avoid this situation which can present a significant safety risk to the driver.