Description
Humanely slaughter livestock or poultry and prepare carcasses for further processing in slaughtering or wholesale establishments. Duties include stunning, shackling and bleeding, skinning or scalding, eviscerating, splitting, handling edible offal, and maintaining sanitation and safety.
- • Stun animals prior to slaughter using approved humane methods.
- • Shackle hind legs and hoist animals for bleeding and processing.
- • Sever veins and arteries to bleed animals and facilitate slaughter.
- • Slit open, eviscerate, and trim carcasses.
- • Cut, trim, sort, and wash viscera to separate edible offal from waste.
- • Skin whole animals or sections; trim and clean hides for salvage.
- • Shave, singe, or scald and defeather or dehair carcasses; wash for further processing.
- • Saw, split, or scribe carcasses into halves, quarters, or other portions for handling.
- • Trim head meat and remove heads or skull parts as required.
- • Tend kill floor or evisceration lines, performing assigned cuts and tasks.
- • Remove contamination and rework carcass surfaces to meet quality standards.
- • Clean, sharpen, and maintain knives, saws, and other equipment; sanitize work areas.
- • Follow food safety, animal welfare, and worker safety procedures and records.
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Related Pathways
Agriculture
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
