Exsanguination is the process of draining the blood from a slaughtered animal — the bleeding step that follows stunning. The major vessels of the neck are severed and the carcass is hung or positioned to drain completely, since thorough bleeding is essential to meat quality and safety: residual blood accelerates spoilage, darkens the meat, and carries contamination. Religious slaughter law — halal and kosher — prescribes the method precisely, requiring the cut and the drainage as a condition of permissibility. The blood itself is not wasted where markets exist — collected hygienically, it becomes black pudding, blood sausage, and industrial protein. Speed matters: bleeding must follow stunning immediately, both for welfare and for quality. It is the first and most fundamental transformation of the slaughter line — the animal becoming a carcass.