watching a cow die
A couple of days ago I went with the morning class to watch a slaughter and butcher at a local slaughterhouse/meat company. Nobody from my class went because they can't wake up in the mornings...but anyway.
I have been showing slaughter videos off and on for the last six months...pretty much anytime my class gets complacent, I throw in a slaughter video and talk about respect for the animal and foods. Here is a good one just in case you would like to check it out...CADE (Part 2): The Good Slaughter: A Proud Meat Cutter Shares His Processing Floor on Vimeo.
So it wasn't a real surprise. But, with the exception of a chicken when I was a small child, I have never in person seen an animal killed. It was something I felt like I needed to do. I am not squeamish, and the thought of killing something really doesn't affect me much, but I felt that in order to get a better understanding of the process and in order to better respect the meats that we use, I needed to see the actual killing.
When we arrived, they had a cow hanging with the head off. The head was being inspected by the USDA inspector to check the lymph nodes for disease. After that they removed the tongue and further processed it. The rest of the cow was then skinned by hand, gutted, reinspected, split with a huge hanging band saw, sprayed with surface disinfectant, washed, sprayed again with a salt solution and then rolled into a large cooler. All pretty much as we had been watching on video.
Then they brought in a new cow. The cow came in a door, into what was basically a large metal box. You could see its feet, and then occasionally a very puppy dog looking nose sniff around under the edge, but you couldn't really see more of the cow from where we were. Then the butcher loaded his 'stunner', which is basically a large hammer looking device that uses a 22cal blank to fire a metal rod into the cows head to kill it. He then climbed onto the walk way around the box and tried to get a good angle to kill. The cow, sensing this or just normally cow skittishness, bucked a little and ended up turning around in the box, but then was finally 'stunned' and crashed to the floor. The butchers hoisted the side of the box up and the cow rolled onto the floor. They then wrapped a chain around its ankles to hoist it up to bleed it out. The funny thing about being 'stunned' to death though is that there is still muscle energy in the dead cow. The first time they wrapped the chains around it's ankles, the cow kicked them off and they flew across the room...lucky for us, not into anybody. So the butchers let the cow kick itself out for about 20-30 seconds. Pretty sad. And then they hoisted it up, the butcher made a long incision in its jugular, and the blood drained from the body in about a minute.From here the butcher skinned the head, removed it and gave it the inspector, and then the rest proceed as before.
We were shown the rest of the operation which is one of a handful of operations in the US that slaughters, fabricates, processes sausages, distributes, and has a retail operation all under one roof.
It was all interesting, but also somewhat emotional. Its hard to see an animal killed, particularly if it looks like a large dog. (my lab looks like a small black calf). And so then I had to go home and pet my pooch for a while.
All in all, if you are a chef or cook who has not seen or participated in slaughter and butchery, then you are doing yourself and your products a disservice.
I have been showing slaughter videos off and on for the last six months...pretty much anytime my class gets complacent, I throw in a slaughter video and talk about respect for the animal and foods. Here is a good one just in case you would like to check it out...CADE (Part 2): The Good Slaughter: A Proud Meat Cutter Shares His Processing Floor on Vimeo.
So it wasn't a real surprise. But, with the exception of a chicken when I was a small child, I have never in person seen an animal killed. It was something I felt like I needed to do. I am not squeamish, and the thought of killing something really doesn't affect me much, but I felt that in order to get a better understanding of the process and in order to better respect the meats that we use, I needed to see the actual killing.
When we arrived, they had a cow hanging with the head off. The head was being inspected by the USDA inspector to check the lymph nodes for disease. After that they removed the tongue and further processed it. The rest of the cow was then skinned by hand, gutted, reinspected, split with a huge hanging band saw, sprayed with surface disinfectant, washed, sprayed again with a salt solution and then rolled into a large cooler. All pretty much as we had been watching on video.
Then they brought in a new cow. The cow came in a door, into what was basically a large metal box. You could see its feet, and then occasionally a very puppy dog looking nose sniff around under the edge, but you couldn't really see more of the cow from where we were. Then the butcher loaded his 'stunner', which is basically a large hammer looking device that uses a 22cal blank to fire a metal rod into the cows head to kill it. He then climbed onto the walk way around the box and tried to get a good angle to kill. The cow, sensing this or just normally cow skittishness, bucked a little and ended up turning around in the box, but then was finally 'stunned' and crashed to the floor. The butchers hoisted the side of the box up and the cow rolled onto the floor. They then wrapped a chain around its ankles to hoist it up to bleed it out. The funny thing about being 'stunned' to death though is that there is still muscle energy in the dead cow. The first time they wrapped the chains around it's ankles, the cow kicked them off and they flew across the room...lucky for us, not into anybody. So the butchers let the cow kick itself out for about 20-30 seconds. Pretty sad. And then they hoisted it up, the butcher made a long incision in its jugular, and the blood drained from the body in about a minute.From here the butcher skinned the head, removed it and gave it the inspector, and then the rest proceed as before.
We were shown the rest of the operation which is one of a handful of operations in the US that slaughters, fabricates, processes sausages, distributes, and has a retail operation all under one roof.
It was all interesting, but also somewhat emotional. Its hard to see an animal killed, particularly if it looks like a large dog. (my lab looks like a small black calf). And so then I had to go home and pet my pooch for a while.
All in all, if you are a chef or cook who has not seen or participated in slaughter and butchery, then you are doing yourself and your products a disservice.
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