I’m reading the book Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz, It offers an inside look at the meatpacking industry, more specifically a beef slaughterhouse. So far,
the book has made me feel many emotions; disgust, anger, sympathy and shame. It
has so far focused on the author’s journey to understand what is going on at the southerern beef slaughterhouse, Kaplan. She first
finds and interviews several workers and USDA members who have witnessed what is
going on first hand. The interviews were pretty graphic as the employees had a
lot to share. They talked about how the cattle was being skinned alive, and how
the workers lives were being put at risk because the animals were not being
properly put down before they came into contact with the other workers. The first
100 pages of this book were so gruesome and eye opening. I was kind of
surprised.
The part I found the most interesting was when Gail went to
a conference and heard the stories of parents whose children had died or come
close to it due to consuming raw meat. It made me angry as a citizen to see
government officials failing to do their jobs correctly and putting the lives
on innocent civilians at risk. When Walker was telling Gail about all of the
people he tried to contact and report the issue to and the response he got I was
honestly appalled. For a member of the USDA to go to several higher officials
with pretty serious complaints and get ignored like that is ridiculous. It makes
me really question whether or not I should be not only buying meat, but eating
it too. I have a feeling that by the end
of this book, I will hopefully have made a mental decision to cut down on the
amount of meat I consume. I was going to post a video of abuse in a slaughterhouse, but I couldn't get through the first 20 seconds of the video without feeling sick. However, if you are for some reason interested to see the graphic evidence of these violent acts, click here. This site offers many undercover investigation videos however I do advise caution as they are really graphic.
I'm reading the same book.. I also found the descriptions by the parents hard to read. Its crazy to think that places like Kaplan can affect people to that degree.
ReplyDeleteAnimals skinned alive? That's horrific. And my question is, WHY? Why do things like that even happen. I can't imagine working in a slaughterhouse and being responsible for that personally. However, I am currently a meat consumer, does that make me just as guilty? I'm almost afraid to say that it does.
ReplyDeleteThat really is terrible, this information needs to be common knowledge. Buying meat is the driving force maintaining this. Americans go on strike from eating meat and I bet animal rights policies are updated in slaughterhouses.
ReplyDeleteI am reading this book also. The scenes of the cows still alive are horrific!
ReplyDeleteI am also reading this book and the same part with the parents had the biggest affect on me. The fact that animals are being tortured is bad enough, but add in the pain in the those families' lives and the factory has gone way too far. I'm really hoping for some justice to be done by the end of this book.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds really good since it already sounds intense. I feel angry just hearing about how the children were nearly killed. And animal torture? Man, it'd be a torture to read with all the images and whatnot, but I think it would still be pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds very interesting and I will have to read it next. I think that it is crazy that the animals are still alive in some cases when they are being skinned or if they are sick, they are not being tagged. I believe I would be feeling the same way reading this book as you do.
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