Although it's now popular to try and be more connected to where our food comes from, it's interesting that whilst many parents would happily take their kids strawberry picking or down to the vegetable patch, they wouldn't dream of taking them to the slaughterhouse. Some parents will take their children to small petting farms to hug and stroke the animals we eat, but when it's time to hang them upside-down and cut open their throats, we keep it firmly hidden from view.
In an age where many are trying to reconnect with 'real' food and the sources of what we eat (local, organic, etc), why do we still actively avoid seeing how meat is produced? If our killing and eating of these animals is a normal, natural and necessary process, then seeing it take place should elicit no more emotion than chopping vegetables, and taking our kids to the the slaughterhouse should be just as fun and educational as taking them to pick apples.
Below you'll find lambs being slaughtered using the electric shock method rather than the captive bolt mentioned in the cartoon. The video is not particularly controversial and the workers are breaking no laws - just methodically going about their business. As you watch, ask yourself if you'd take your kids here on a sunday afternoon before enjoying a meal of lamb chops. And, more importantly, ask yourself if these animals deserve what we're paying these men to do to them.
In an age where many are trying to reconnect with 'real' food and the sources of what we eat (local, organic, etc), why do we still actively avoid seeing how meat is produced? If our killing and eating of these animals is a normal, natural and necessary process, then seeing it take place should elicit no more emotion than chopping vegetables, and taking our kids to the the slaughterhouse should be just as fun and educational as taking them to pick apples.
Below you'll find lambs being slaughtered using the electric shock method rather than the captive bolt mentioned in the cartoon. The video is not particularly controversial and the workers are breaking no laws - just methodically going about their business. As you watch, ask yourself if you'd take your kids here on a sunday afternoon before enjoying a meal of lamb chops. And, more importantly, ask yourself if these animals deserve what we're paying these men to do to them.
The short documentary 'Farm to Fridge' also follows the lives and slaughter processes of the animals we eat.
"I choose not to make a graveyard of my body for the rotting corpses of dead animals."
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw