A Visit to a Slaughterhouse

When the suggestion was made that I visit a slaughterhouse to observe first hand blatant infractions upon the rights of animals, I was very skeptical. The reason for my skepticism was that I felt a slaughterhouse did not present an example of cruelty far enough removed from everyday life to be poignant or relevant in a discussion of animal rights. I felt that I should be writing on something a little more esoteric or something considered cruel or immoral, such as the clubbing to death of baby seals. I was gravely mistaken. And the fact that what goes on inside a slaughterhouse is done because of the demand the vast majority of the American public has for the flesh of other living beings makes it all the more poignant and relevant.

There is no convenient escape from guilt by association for what goes on inside a slaughterhouse as there is from the case of the baby seals in the Arctic. While it is easy for most of us to refrain from purchasing the goods for which seals were slain - thus incurring no guilt for their deaths - most people willingly (and thoughtlessly) eat the flesh of one type of animal or another whose life has been terminated within the walls of a slaughterhouse....

Source: A Visit to a Slaughterhouse
Author: by Dave Gifford

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Schlachten ? Bitte nicht in meinem Viertel! (de)

The Jungle Revisited (en)

'For a mouthful of meat...' (en)

Grausames christliches Schlachten in einem EU-Schlachthof (de)