THE REALITY OF SLAUGHTER

Whether from the standpoint of animal advocacy, worker’s rights, or consumer safety the view of a contemporary slaughterhouse promises to horrify even the most insensitive of us.

Every meatloaf recipe ever written has forgotten step one. It should read something like this: “When using the captive-bolt method of stunning, it is essential that you bleed the animal immediately to ensure rapid death. The easiest way to bleed an animal is to cut the throat completely from ear to ear, exposing the spine and ensuring all major blood vessels are cut. Due to the unusual blood supply to the brain in cattle, it is worthwhile performing a chest stick (after the throat cut), by inserting the knife into the chest just above the heart to sever the blood vessels where they leave the heart and to ensure a rapid loss of consciousness. The signs of an effective bleed out are rapid blood loss for around two minutes. Once the animal is bled out and the kicking has ceased, dressing may take place.”

Those instructions were taken from a pamphlet on do it yourself animal slaughter. As a slaughterhouse worker holding down what the US Department of Labor repeatedly labels as one of the most hazardous job options you would repeat those steps dozens of times throughout your workday. You would also witness how 1 out of every 20 times the “stunning” isn’t effective and leaves the animal writhing in unimaginable pain. The captive bolt gun used as the first step in the slaughter of a cow is a device that forces a bolt fired by pressurized air into the brain of a cow. Under ideal circumstances that rarely exist it is known for about 95% accuracy in delivering painless immobilization. This leaves 1 out of every 20 cows with an immeasurably painful, seizure inflicting hole in it’s head as it is dragged to be hung upside down to face the, more than likely, dull knife that will be inserted into it’s throat and heart. Don’t forget that this is under ideal and almost nonexistent conditions what actually happens has been witnessed to be much worse.

The floor of a pig slaughterhouse is equally as gory and the treatment of the animals is equally as morally offensive. Replace the captive bolt gun with an oversized pair of tongs that are fitted upon the faces of the pigs. An electric shock is delivered through the tongs in order to render the animal into a “passive state” (aka. violent seizure). Slaughterhouse workers are known to “cheat” and reduce the legally mandated duration of the electric shock in order to boost efficiency making an already horrifying and painful process even worse. The animal is then sent off hanging upside down still alive and suffering greatly to face the same treatment from a dull knife that was mentioned in step one of our meat loaf recipe.

In a slaughterhouse designed for the large scale factory style of murder that is reserved for chickens, turkeys, and other birds the idea that forgoing red meat and only consuming “white meat” is a more humane choice is stripped away in a fashion rivaling any previously mentioned gore. The birds, generally in about the 7th week of a potentially 7 year life span, are slaughtered in a frighteningly automated process. The animals are hung upside down by their feet and dragged through a pool of electrically charged water in order to “stun” them. Next they face an automated neck cutter. Electrified and with throats slit many survive to face the next stop on the conveyor belt which will consist of being boiled alive.

Cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals are suffering through every horror mentioned here right now as you read this. These death factories operate nearly nonstop and offer countless terrified and suffering individuals the heartless, painful and brutal extermination described. If you eat meat, dairy products or eggs you are to blame. You have a hand in every single act of violence and that hand is dripping with blood.