I went to the slaughter house when I was twelve or thirteen years old. I don’t remember much of it: a cow was killed with a bolt gun in her head. Then she was tipped out on the low floor, about one meter down. There were carcasses in the background. It appeared to me that the open corridor below us was dreadful: there was no escape, just one way to go. And we were standing above. During about several weeks, I thought about the meaning of this corridor which always leads to death.
Have you ever been to the slaughter house?
- Thread starter Gaspard
- Start date
Lou
Forum Legend
No. but...
My brother married into a family that had a meat processing and delivery business. They would take delivery of cows that were already cut in half (lengthwise). I guess these were shipped from the slaughterhouse.
My recollection is that the head, hooves, guts, and skin were already removed. Then at the "shop" the "half" was cut into the things we see at the grocery store. Steaks, ribs, ground beef.
A lot of the employees did the butchering. Electric saws were involved.
My brother oversaw the delivery part of the business. Just trucks and drivers. I did visit my brother at work a bunch of times but rarely ventured into the "shop". His work was just office work organizing the trucks, truckers, and deliveries. sometimes venturing into the garage and the parking lot.
My brother left the company 30 years ago. I doubt the company is still in existence. I think most of that kind of work is done in huge plants now.
At the time, the carcasses never bothered me. And every time I went there I ended up with a box of NY steaks in ice. However, his daughter spent more time in the shop. That is where all her uncles and grandfather worked. She stopped eating beef 30 years ago and I don't think she has had any in recent memory. It used to be tough on her at family dinners cause she didn't eat beef (just fish and chicken). Me becoming vegan was actually a relief for her cause from then on I got all the negative attention.
My brother married into a family that had a meat processing and delivery business. They would take delivery of cows that were already cut in half (lengthwise). I guess these were shipped from the slaughterhouse.
My recollection is that the head, hooves, guts, and skin were already removed. Then at the "shop" the "half" was cut into the things we see at the grocery store. Steaks, ribs, ground beef.
A lot of the employees did the butchering. Electric saws were involved.
My brother oversaw the delivery part of the business. Just trucks and drivers. I did visit my brother at work a bunch of times but rarely ventured into the "shop". His work was just office work organizing the trucks, truckers, and deliveries. sometimes venturing into the garage and the parking lot.
My brother left the company 30 years ago. I doubt the company is still in existence. I think most of that kind of work is done in huge plants now.
At the time, the carcasses never bothered me. And every time I went there I ended up with a box of NY steaks in ice. However, his daughter spent more time in the shop. That is where all her uncles and grandfather worked. She stopped eating beef 30 years ago and I don't think she has had any in recent memory. It used to be tough on her at family dinners cause she didn't eat beef (just fish and chicken). Me becoming vegan was actually a relief for her cause from then on I got all the negative attention.
rogerjolly
Forum Legend
Yes I have.
And as a child in Canada in the fifties I remember my uncle built his own little slaughter area on the family farm. It was over a stream and had spaces between the floorboards. The cow was led onto the boards where it was struck on the head with a sledgehammer. Its throat was then slit. Cuts were made behind the tendons of the hind legs and a large hook inserted. A block and tackle device was then then used to hoist the animal upwards so it could bleed freely and then have its bowels easily removed.
Nowadays the process is the height of “efficiency” and allegedly much more animal welfare friendly. Live animals go in at one end and come out dead at the other.
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.” Paul McCartney
Roger.
And as a child in Canada in the fifties I remember my uncle built his own little slaughter area on the family farm. It was over a stream and had spaces between the floorboards. The cow was led onto the boards where it was struck on the head with a sledgehammer. Its throat was then slit. Cuts were made behind the tendons of the hind legs and a large hook inserted. A block and tackle device was then then used to hoist the animal upwards so it could bleed freely and then have its bowels easily removed.
Nowadays the process is the height of “efficiency” and allegedly much more animal welfare friendly. Live animals go in at one end and come out dead at the other.
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.” Paul McCartney
Roger.
No, I have never been to a slaughterhouse, but I have seen a video on TV news filmed by secret cameras which were smuggled into a Halal slaughterhouse by animal rights activists. There sheep were supposed to be killed with one clean cut but untrained staff hacked away at their penned in heads with knives. The sheep did not want to go into those pens (for obvious reasons) and stubbornly refused to walk, so the men dragged, kicked, grabbed and threw them. It was horrific. The thought of slaughterhouses always fills me with terrible dread, because, no matter how 'humane' the process might be executed, it is still killing of innocent creatures, who are not given a chance.
I haven't been inside a slaughterhouse, but when I was a child my Spanish family force me to watch a rabbit execution. I was less than five years old, I still remember it. There were so happy to do that and show me. I was happy to play with animals such as rabbit when I arrived. And then we kill it and have to eat it. That's was a part of education there. That's still unfortunately education for most of the world. I'm ashamed for that.
