Slaughter video raises questions

Re No more silence about the torture of animals, Opinion, Dec. 21

I’d like to thank the Star for beginning to uncover what animal activists have know all along: the meat and dairy industry is cruel beyond most people’s imagination and we need to stop it.

Many people think it is only on factory farms that animals are treated in such a despicable manner. But all animals get sent to the same slaughterhouses and face the same inhumane treatment in transport and at the abattoir. The only option is to stop contributing to the torture by not consuming animals and moving toward a plant-based diet. Not only would this help the animals, but one’s health and the environment as well. Susan Larson, Toronto As a student, I had lucrative summer jobs working as a mechanic in Toronto’s slaughterhouses. I was skeptical about Linda McQuaig’s account of slaughtering at the Ryding-Regency plant. In my experience, no one would see an animal writhing on the kill floor with its throat slit. A steer would be led into a “knocking box,” where a bolt gun would be applied to its skull. The animal would drop immediately, unconscious or dead, and a gate would open to roll the carcass onto the kill floor. A federal inspector had to be present at all times to ensure humane treatment of animals.

I watched the video McQuaig refers to and I was shocked and deeply disturbed by what I saw. I can’t believe the slaughtering process has evolved to this today. My only question is whether that plant was somehow adapted for kosher or halal slaughter, which does not permit use of a bolt gun. Mirek A. Waraksa, Toronto