Hi everyone, I did a day at an abattoir last December and I strongly recommend you go and experience it and I found it has kind of change my whole view of meat and abattoirs. I was really scared and worried about going, I started to cry the night before and was really close to bottling it but my dad made me go and I'm really glad he did. There is honestly nothing to worry about. The smell isn't bad it just smells like a standard butchers, even quite a clinical smell. After you get over the initial shock of walking in its really interesting, I found it just like dissection on a massive scale, so just see it as an anatomy lesson. Things that are strange but if you're expecting it are: after been shot/tazered the animal still has reflexes so when it's hung in the air it flails a bit until the bloods drained. Also the noise is a bit surreal there is a lot of machinery and clunking which is a bit strange at first.
All I did was watch the vet, he showed me how he checks their fit for slaughter when alive, then he talked me through step by step in the abattoir and then told me what he was looking for when inspecting the meat and insides.
If you have any questions I'm more than happy to answer cos I wish someone had reassured me before going because I'd never been so anxious for anything before, but now I've done it theres such a sense of relief xxx
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