Large ‘industrial’ slaughterhouses a necessary evil
Idon’t know if “good old days” syndrome is the correct term for thinking everything was better in the past, but it will do. There’s a lot of it about and slaughterhouses are on the list.
The basic complaint is that bureaucracy has closed hundreds of smallscale slaughterhouses in the past 20 or 30 years. The bonus for believers in the good old days who have a grievance about the present system is that most of the rules governing slaughterhouses are related to membership of the European Union.
That’s probably why the French word abattoir became the favoured description rather than good old British slaughterhouse. Under either word, rules now include the presence of a vet and, from the end of this year, CCTV to cover the premises.
The complaint from owners of small slaughterhouses and farmers who use them is the cost of providing vets and cameras and complying with many of the other rules on hygiene and good practice.
They say they can’t compete with “industrial scale” slaughterhouses where, they claim, in spite of all legislation many animals are ill-treated and probably tortured during the countdown to slaughter.
Advocates for local slaughter also point out that sheep, cattle, pigs and poultry have to endure travel over increasingly long distances from farms before they reach a slaughterhouse. That is bad, they say, when the animals could almost walk to a local slaughterhouse, in the process meeting demand for locally-produced meat in a small geographical area. Video and eyewitness evidence in recent years has confirmed, convincingly, that some animals are badly treated between arrival and killing at some slaughterhouses. The abuse is usually involved when trying to get reluctant animals to move along to the slaughter point.
There has also been evidence that some slaughtermen are callous and careless when killing. Animal welfare organisations obviously, and fairly, home in and denounce this sort of treatment, as they do with occasional video evidence from so-called factory farms.
A recent example of that was cruel treatment of pigs on a farm in the south of England, the crucial point being that the farm was a member of the Red Tractor scheme, a food label guarantee to shoppers that the meat they buy is produced under strict good animal welfare rules.
“Farm Animals Tortured Under Red Tractor Label” was the headline, but the story made the valid point that only about one inspection in a thousand under the scheme was unannounced. In almost every case, a farm was given notice of an inspection and could make preparations or hide evidence of bad practice.
Monitoring farm quality schemes has never been easy since the concept was introduced. Most producers try hard and honestly to comply, but there will always be some who cheat. And, as with larger slaughterhouses, managing thousands of animals is not easy. Mistakes are made and some pictures, such as lots of pigs lying tight-packed, look worse to a layman than they do to a stockman who sees contented animals.
As for slaughterhouses, the point to remember is that at one time Britain had thousands of small slaughterhouses, many no more than backyard operations, and many were dirty and unhygienic. Legislation to get rid of them was welcomed by consumer groups. Now they’re being touted as the good old days.
Big, modern, hygienic, slaughterhouses with vets in attendance and close supervision at every stage were built to handle much bigger numbers and designed to reduce stress for animals as much as possible. Animals might have to travel further to get to them, but loading and unloading are the most stressful parts of the trip, regardless of its length.
And yet again, the crucial point has to be said: that if we continue to eat meat, animals have to be killed to provide it and there is no known way of making that a pleasant process. There is blood and guts and excrement, feathers and skin and smells.
I’ve seen large and modern and small and blood caked and know which I prefer. I accept that there must be well-run, humane, hygienic small slaughterhouses, but claiming that small is best just because it’s small is a mistake.