Abattoirs: An Inside Look
{If you'd rather not read about animal slaughter, don't read this.}
Today in public health we watched a couple videos about Excell slaughter and meat packing operations. It was quite the eye opener, left me with a mixture of thoughts.
I don't have a problem with killing animals, but the mass production aspect did not seem to grant animals due respect (not that they have rights to such respect - it just seems that we should accord it to God's creatures). The cattle are unloaded from trailers, channeled into narrow passageways, crammed into a holding pen where they are washed with water - none of which is all that bad. Once the animals are cleaned they are stunned with an air-gun (this makes the rest of the procedure more humane - but can you imagine a job shooting cows all day long? It seems like it would mess you up psychologically.), strung up by one leg and carried along on a track. Not all of the animals are one hundred percent out of it, but hang there jerking a bit. The carotid artery is slit and then the carcasses are jolted with electricity to improve marbling, as they hang dead from the track.
Shortly, the hides are removed - stick a bar in between the back skin and pull up, taking the skin off that side. Then imagine a cow hide being peeled off and over its head - it just seemed wrong.
So maybe I'm just a pathetically, unreasonably sympathetic female. Most of what bothered me didn't hurt the animals - it just didn't seem right. Maybe I anthropomorphosize too much - but there could be some principle at stake. If there is, perhaps a partial return to small farms would be in order (that, of course, would be more fun for a vet, so you see I have selfish reasons, too :) ).
What's sort of funny is that a fish operation like that wouldn't bother me nearly as much. Somehow I draw a line between fish and mammals - or maybe the difference lies in the animal size. That seems sort of hypocritical - it's not really fair to the fish.
In addition to being shocked/disgusted, I was also duly amazed. Watching these guys rapidly cutting up carcasses (they were fast!) and wondering how often they cut themselves, observing the special machinery for each part of the meat production operation, visualizing the enormity of the establishment and thinking about the impetus and drive that was behind it - yeah, I was pretty impressed...
Impressed, but I still can't imagine myself grading carcasses 8 hours a day - not me, no way.
Today in public health we watched a couple videos about Excell slaughter and meat packing operations. It was quite the eye opener, left me with a mixture of thoughts.
I don't have a problem with killing animals, but the mass production aspect did not seem to grant animals due respect (not that they have rights to such respect - it just seems that we should accord it to God's creatures). The cattle are unloaded from trailers, channeled into narrow passageways, crammed into a holding pen where they are washed with water - none of which is all that bad. Once the animals are cleaned they are stunned with an air-gun (this makes the rest of the procedure more humane - but can you imagine a job shooting cows all day long? It seems like it would mess you up psychologically.), strung up by one leg and carried along on a track. Not all of the animals are one hundred percent out of it, but hang there jerking a bit. The carotid artery is slit and then the carcasses are jolted with electricity to improve marbling, as they hang dead from the track.
Shortly, the hides are removed - stick a bar in between the back skin and pull up, taking the skin off that side. Then imagine a cow hide being peeled off and over its head - it just seemed wrong.
So maybe I'm just a pathetically, unreasonably sympathetic female. Most of what bothered me didn't hurt the animals - it just didn't seem right. Maybe I anthropomorphosize too much - but there could be some principle at stake. If there is, perhaps a partial return to small farms would be in order (that, of course, would be more fun for a vet, so you see I have selfish reasons, too :) ).
What's sort of funny is that a fish operation like that wouldn't bother me nearly as much. Somehow I draw a line between fish and mammals - or maybe the difference lies in the animal size. That seems sort of hypocritical - it's not really fair to the fish.
In addition to being shocked/disgusted, I was also duly amazed. Watching these guys rapidly cutting up carcasses (they were fast!) and wondering how often they cut themselves, observing the special machinery for each part of the meat production operation, visualizing the enormity of the establishment and thinking about the impetus and drive that was behind it - yeah, I was pretty impressed...
Impressed, but I still can't imagine myself grading carcasses 8 hours a day - not me, no way.
posted by Claire at 17:40
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