Wilhelm Schulze (10 December 1920,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

– 30 December 2002) was a German professor of

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

and director of the

University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover The University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (german: italic=no, Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, TiHo) is a university in Hanover and one of the five facilities for veterinary medicine in Germany, and the only one that remains independent. I ...

(1966–68, 1978–80 and 1980-81Biography of Prof. Schulze
at TiHo Hanover, 2000) who specialized in

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

s. Schulze studied veterinary medicine at

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

and at Hanover University, and became a professor (1950–56) and dean (1952–55) in Leipzig. In 1957 he was appointed a professor in Hanover and established a highly regarded clinic specializing in pigs. In 1968 he was a founder of the International Pig Veterinary Society (IPVS). His dedication to his favoured species earned him the nickname "Pigs-Schulze" ("Schweine-Schulze") among students, colleagues and vets. Schulze was awarded honorary degrees of the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

, the

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna The University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (German: ''Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien'' - in short: VUW) was founded in 1767 as the world's third school for veterinary medicine (after Lyon and Alfort) by Milan's Ludovico Scotti, origina ...

, the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields o ...

and Leipzig University. On August 24, 2006, the university decided to posthumously name a prize after him.

Experiments

Between 1974 and 1978 Schulze and his colleagues carried out a study at the

. The study, published as ‘Attempts to Objectify Pain and Consciousness in Conventional (

captive bolt pistol A captive bolt (also variously known as a cattle gun, stunbolt gun, bolt gun, or stunner) is a device used for stunning animals prior to slaughter. The goal of captive bolt stunning is to inflict a forceful strike on the forehead with the bo ...

stunning) and Ritual (knife) Methods of Slaughtering Sheep and Calves' is reported on Islamic websites to have concluded that "''the Islamic way of slaughtering is the most humane method of slaughter and that captive bolt stunning, practiced in the West, causes severe pain to the animal''". According to the study: "''these experiments on sheep and calves carried out within a clinic show that during a ritual slaughter, carried out according to the state of the art using hydraulically operated tilting equipment and a ritual cut, pain and suffering to the extent as has since long been generally associated in public with this kind of slaughter cannot be registered.''" However, the published account of the study notes that the "''objective results presented for the captive bolt application in sheep (..) rather (..) indicates that the captive bolt device used is suspect''" and that these initial "''scientific findings and the results presented are only a very first contribution''" and that they "''need to be followed as a high priority by further investigations in the continuation of the scientific clarification of the issues of loss of pain and consciousness during slaughter of this kind with and without stunning using the same experimental approach with a representative number of grown cows of various breeds.''"

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schulze, Wilhelm German veterinarians 1920 births 2002 deaths Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany