Tiltable poultry shackle

A shackle for transporting an eviscerated poultry carcass suspended by its legs along a processing line and for tilting the carcass to a position for visual inspection as the carcass is advanced along the processing line, comprising:

• a hanger rod having an upper end for connection to a trolley of a suspended rail and trolley transport line and a lower end;
• a carcass hanger having an upper end and a lower end with said lower end including leg receiving recesses for receiving the legs of a poultry carcass and suspending the poultry carcass for movement along the processing line;
• said carcass hanger being tiltably connected at its upper end to said lower end of said hanger rod for tilting said carcass hanger and a carcass suspended therefrom with respect to said hanger rod for visual inspection of the visceral cavity of the carcass;
• said carcass hanger including at its upper end a lock engagement surface;
• and
• a lock member mounted to said hanger rod and movable with respect to said hanger rod into and out of locking engagement with said lock engagement surface of said carcass hanger to hold said carcass hanger in tilted relationship with respect to said hanger rod.

A method of inspecting the previously eviscerated visceral cavities of poultry carcasses comprising:

• suspending carcasses by their legs from carcass hangers of poultry shackle assemblies each having a carcass hanger tiltably suspended from a hanger rod by inserting the knuckles of the legs through the front leg-receiving recesses of each carcass hanger;
• advancing the poultry shackle assemblies and their carcasses in series along a processing line;
• in response to advancing the poultry shackle assemblies along the processing line tilting the carcass hanger and carcass of each poultry shackle assembly forwardly with respect to the hanger rod to tilt the legs of the carcass laterally;
• as the carcass hanger is tilted, restraining the tilting of the hanger rod;
• while the carcass hanger and carcass of each shackle assembly are tilted, visually inspecting the visceral cavity of the carcass;
• and
• after the visceral cavity has been inspected returning the carcass hanger to a vertical attitude.