Slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse, Gail A. Eisnitz, Prometheus Books, 1997

Here is a more than scathing look at America's slaughterhouses in the 1990's. Eisnitz, an investigator with the Humane Farming Association, chronicles, with quotes from slaughterhouse workers, how animals are supposed to be humanely killed with electric shocks or with a gun that fires a retractable metal bolt into the brain. If the power isn't turned up high enough, which happens frequently, more than one jolt may be needed. An animal which is still alive after the first jolt will not meekly accept more jolts. This leads to scenes of workers using any means at their disposal, including beating to death with metal pipes or wrapping a chain around the nearest available part of the animal and dragging it along, while still alive, so as to keep the assembly line going.

The blame for this situation starts with a Department of Agriculture which is too friendly with meat producers to enforce the Humane Slaughter Act, intended to regulate the industry. Each individual slaughterhouse has a USDA veterinarian, with authority to stop the line at any time or remove any carcass that looks less than healthy. Without backup from Washington in case the company that owns the slaughterhouse complains, rarely, if ever, does that happen. The USDA inspectors, also with line-stopping authority, are basically trapped at their stations and unable to inspect the start of the whole process. At the average chicken processing plant, for instance, the carcasses go past the inspector at the rate of 35 per Minute. Without enforcement from Washington, the first law of slaughterhouses seems to be Thou Shalt Keep The Line Going (No Matter What).

Rare are the books that I can call an eye-opener; rarer still are those that leave me speechless. This book left me speechless. It is not for those with weak stomachs; it also shows that the famous USDA Seal of Approval is little better than worthless. The reader of this book will never again look at a hamburger or slice of ham in the same way.