The Slaughterhouse

I’ve made no bones about what I think in relation to hunting. I think hunting, in general, is an abhorrent activity and for the majority of people who hunt, it is done as a sport with the intent to kill and not to feed and as a result, is an activity that (in my opinion) should be reserved for necessity and not for posterity. One of my favorite TV shows (Sports Night, only available on DVD) has an episode where Jeremy “gets the call” and is sent to produce a segment with a hunter out shooting big game. Other than the overtly political statements made in the show, Jeremy describes a rather romantic view of Native Americans and their reverence for the animals they hunted and killed for food and fur. The meat was used to eat and the fur was used to cloth and protect. In the romantic view of the show, every element of the animal was used and the Native Americans gave thanks to the God’s in the hopes that they would eat through the winter and that the God’s would be kind to them for a few months. I don’t believe in an overtly religious or romantic view of hunting either.

What I do believe is that animals are on the earth for a purpose. There are biological necessities that an abundance of animals are meant to answer. Some are to feed other animals, other animals exist to keep herd levels low. Most animals on the planet refuse to be domesticated. People have been trying to domesticate elk and deer for as long as people have hunted them (controllable herds are easier to handle than wild herds). However, deer, elk, moose, and others animal herds have refused to be domesticated for a variety of reasons and as a result we end up with sheep and cows.

Religiously, Adam (first man) was given dominion over the beasts of the field or over all animals. Throughout history, the idea (or notion) of Adam (representing humanity) being the dominant species on the planet has led to arguments about what Adam is meant to do in relation to the animal. In some instances, there have been complete eradication of species (ever hear of the dodo???); and at other instances, we have over protected species that are distinct not because of genetic differences but because they exist in a specific area separated by land mass or water mass. As a result of this, there is an on-going dialogue about what the nature of Adam’s responsibility with animals is.

Some people believe that animals (in this context cows) are equal to human beings. As a result, if you have a cow and want to kill it, then you are committing murder because killing a cow is like killing a human being. This applies human principles and ideology to an animal that cannot express more than needs and wants. If a cow is hungry it moos and gets food. If it wants out of its pen it makes different noises, noses at the barriers, and left alone, will force itself out of whatever pen you have it in. Animals do not have the necessary or functional capacity to express more than want of food, want of sex, or want of freedom and cannot tell someone else (to include other animals) why it believes or what it believes or how it believes or even, for that matter, form a belief.

People, though, have a tendency to take animals, especially comfort pets, and apply more personality or ability or thought process than actually exists. I don’t disagree that animals can’t express love and affection, but in allowing for the expression this implies that the feelings or expressions are base and do not require higher thought or construction of relationship. Spend enough time with anyone or anything and you will form an attachment and that attachment will instinctively be described as love. Love is more complex than that and I believe that we often apply an attachment to an animal that doesn’t belong.

As a result, I believe that we love animals and that animals respond to that love, and that we often assume that in respond (or the animals response) is love, but that animals do not actually recognize love; at least, not in the way we recognize love.

Animals cannot legally defend themselves. They cannot build buildings. They don’t create technology and they cannot communicate adaquately. As a result, the only reason that animals have rights is because people give them rights. And as Adam, I do believe it is our responsibility to make sure that the wonton destruction of anything is curbed or (in some cases) completely curtailed. I do not believe that killing animals for food is wrong.

Killing animals simply because they exist is wrong.

The outcome of these thoughts is witnessing the butchering process of a series of bulls. The day started (for me) at 4:45 a.m. when I drove to campus, parked in a “Y” lot and hiked up to where the professor of the class and I parked the vans we would be driving. I got in mine, started it, and then pulled it to the curb and started letting people on board. By 5:40 a.m. we were on the road to Spanish Fork, UT where the LDS church owns and operates a slaughter house. It is visible from the Interstate and is also a non-descript building that doesn’t suggest slaughterhouse or anything else, but would fit comfortably in an industrial neighborhood.

We walked into the building. Inside we were ushered into a room and told to put on white jackets and hair nets. No one looks good in a hair net, just so you know. After that we walked through a couple of doors into one of the coldest buildings of my life. As we walked through we were taken past a line of butchers who were cutting up the outcome of the end of the slaughterhouse we’d come to see… the sides of beef.

Once we got to the Killing Room Floor, the butchers had already killed one of the bulls and it was hanging by one of its rear hoofs from the ceiling. As we stood there I looked into the face of this dead animal, blood dripping into a grate on the floor, and two (slightly overweight) men with knives and sharpeners beginning to cut into the hide of the animal. The first cut (other than to drain the blood) is straight up the stomach from neck to tail. From there, the butchers work on removing the hide from the animal. This is completed when the animal is moved a few feet down to a roller with chains that attach to the hide of the animal and slowly (as the butchers run knives to continue loosening the hide from the meet) roll onto the roller. Before all of this happens, they use pneumatic saws and pneumatic cutting scissors to cut parts of the cow off (to include the hooves.

As soon as the head and hide are off the animal, one of the butchers uses a band saw to (literally) cut the remaining animal in half. This is where we get sides of been and, in a matter of days, where the butchers cutting the rips and various cuts of beef into their component parts, will eventually get the animal. After the animal is cut in two, the sides are weighed and you get the after-slaughter weight of the animal. This weight is about 60% less than the starting weight of the animal. When the sides are weighed one side and then the other goes through a shower of citric acid that is meant to kill off bacteria. From here the two sides are moved into a freezer room where they will sit for a couple of days. From there various cuts are taken from the sides.

What impressed me about the process is that nothing on a cow is wasted. The hide is literally turned into leather or other products. The bones are ground down and used for dog treats and other things. Even the blood is and can be used for fertilizer. Every part gets used.

When we were done looking at the various butchering and slaughtering operations, our guide took us over to where beef is ground and packaged as well as where hotdogs and baloney is produced and then packaged. This was (for me) the worst part of the entire trip as this part of the building smelled like hotdogs and as a result, when we left, the entire group smelled like hotdogs. Even though the hotdog process was rather interesting (the hotdogs have to be removed from casings before being packaged which happens in a machine that shoots the hotdogs and shoots them into a container like a shotgun). What we learned was that hotdogs have to be cooked for 170-ish seconds at 148 degrees Fahrenheit.

I went into this expecting to feel sad or bad or upset or even sick at the prospect of these animals being killed and then cut into pieces. Admittedly, when I looked at the first bull I thought I should be sad. And I was. But then I started to think about the process. Specifically, that I have no problem eating hamburgers or steaks or other animal byproducts. As that thought occurred to me, what I watched was not the slaughtering of an animal that was meant to feed. The outcome was that everything that started came out of a living animal would end up somewhere else and would be used. Death in this case results in life somewhere else. The bulls all died to preserve and promote life. Their lives were not wasted.

Religiously, Adam was given dominion over the beasts of the field. This means that he was given a stewardship. As the offspring of Adam are the stewards of the animals, it is our responsibility to ensure that we are not needlessly destroying the very creatures we are stewards of.

There are people and groups that would kill just for the sake of killing things. There are other peope who would stop the killing and force everyone else to move to a vegan diet.

Finding a middle ground is essential for the preservation of life and it is also essential that we legislate standards for the ethical treatment of all animals. In the context of animals for slaughter, their lives before death should be humane. What I witnessed from the initial killing of the animals (because they were bulls and have thick skulls shotguns are used) through the gutting, skinning, and butchering process was exactly what was necessary and nothing more.

Erin shared with me a website: http://www.themeatrix.com/. This is a parody of The Matrix but exposing the meat industry for what it is. This is shared to show you that, in some instances (not all) the inhumane treatment of animals can exist. The Meatrix is one view of the industry and I believe it is a bad one. My father worked for the USDA in the OIG and investigated companies and people who committed crimes. He has seen the seedy underbelly.

The long and short of it, for me, was that the experience was positive. No. I wouldn’t want to work in the industry killing and cutting up cattle; and no, I am not going to stop eating meat or beef. Hopefully the class will decide, pretty universally, that they want to go to the feed lots in a week or two. The process of cattle production starts in the fields and pastures and with cattle drives and herds and moves to feed lots before ending at the slaughter house (for meat cows). I can’t wait to see the preceding step in the process.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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