Thoughts of a Slaughterer

I will never forget my conversation with a slaughterer in Brazil. He told me almost in tears how physically painful it is to slit throats, his hands shake at the end of the day, and the pain doesn’t go away even after the work is done. "But when you slaughter calves raised for white veal, It’s a pleasure, like cutting butter with a knife".

This talk maybe me think this slaughterer is not fundamentally different from society, from us. He prefers the textural pleasure of cutting a young soft throat to the pain of a think mature one, and we prefer the textural pleasure and taste of meat to avoiding causing animal suffering and death. For him, it is avoiding great pain. Maybe for us too. We all seek relief from pain.

The slaughter industry is ultimately shaped by our desires, e.g. piglets are routinely castrated to prevent an odor and taste that some consumers find unpleasant in pork. We all seek to avoid unpleasant experiences and crave pleasant ones. This is true for the piglet as well.

There has not been a single day in all of history, anywhere in the world, when slaughterhouse workers strike out of compassion. And although every day, every moment, is an open opportunity to say “we don’t want to kill today”, they have never seized it. Nevertheless, they sure go on strike for more money, e.g. to increase the "price per throat" they slit by a few cents. It is not them. It is us.