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abattoir work !

heyyy
im planning on doing 2 days work experience in 2 different abattoirs [one for pigs, and one for cattle and sheep]
just waiting to here back from them after speaking to their vet on ze phone :smile:

what do you have to do during the day, does it just involve watching the animals being slaughtered or do you have to participate in anything ?
Sorry if theres allready a thread for this sort of thing but i didnt want to search through all the pages to try and find one lol
If there is just point me in the right direction :smile:

Reply 1

kat_2k4

Lol. Well you're not gonna be killing anything yourself, you have to be licensed to do that, if that's what you meant by "participating" :p:

You'll probably be shown the lairage with the vet, to check the animals before slaughter to make sure that they're all clean and healthy. You'll see them getting stunned, I would imagine, and then the slaughtering. All the little other bits before they reach the meat inspector (having hides removed etc.). I spent most of the time with the meat inspector, twas very, very interesting, checking for signs of disease. Pigs are slightly different, they have to remove the hair, and then they can be flamed or not, depending on whether they're going to be used for bacon. Checking lymph nodes on cattle. Different bits and bobs, enough to keep you interested :biggrin:

Oooh and a tip - wear layers! It can get pretty chilly. Hope you have fun! (You know what I mean)

Reply 2

ashefbjhsdab

When I went, it was ante-mortem checks with the vet (and he also explained about working for DEFRA/ national disease control stuff) then saw the whole killing process and then spent the rest of the day with the meat inspecors, who were very knowledgable and were really keen to teach me things. Such as how to look for liver flukes or about the different chambers in ruminant stomach.

Reply 3

laurasaurus

OP

oo it sounds really interesting :biggrin:

thanks for replying :smile:

really looking forward to it now
only thing is im a vegetarian so its definatly gonna put me off for life haha

Reply 4

ashefbjhsdab

laurasaurus

oo it sounds really interesting :biggrin:

thanks for replying :smile:

really looking forward to it now
only thing is im a vegetarian so its definatly gonna put me off for life haha

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, I was impressed at how tidy and quick and skillful the killing was. It'll be interesting to hear a vegetarian's view on it.

Reply 5

laurasaurus

OP

lol ive seen it on Gordan Ramseys 'the F word' when they slaughtered the cattle and it was way faster than i thought it would be !
This will probobaly sound really stupid but...does it smell bad in there :| I had to ask lol

Reply 6

ashefbjhsdab

Yea there is a distinctive smell, but you get used to it.

Reply 7

kat_2k4

The smell's ok, just breathe through your mouth a bit if it bothers you, you won't notice it by the end of the day :smile:

It is very efficient and humane. I think this is one of the main reasons I enjoyed it, because it put a lot of the worries I had out of my mind, that you get from reading stuff and statistics.

Reply 8

Phoebe_Vet

1

Yeah it does smell pretty grim. Tripe comes to mind.....It's really interesting though. I'm a vegetarian and although it's a bit of a shock at first, you soon get over the gruesomeness and start appreciating the work that goes on there.

One piece of advice.....DON'T WEAR STRIPEY WELLIES!!!! I got the mick taken out of me something chronic lol but it was only cos I didn't want to turn up in my mucky stable ones!

Reply 9

laurasaurus

OP

tripe...mmmm haha
yeah im hoping it wont make me feel even worse about meat, i stopped eating it after doing lambing at a farm; all this work experience will be the death of me ! lol
it sounds proper interesting though im glad im going to do it :smile:

aww i only have boring old green wellies so no worries there lol
at the moment i think they are still caked in mud and such from my farm work....

Reply 10

Annaconda

17

laurasaurus

tripe...mmmm haha
yeah im hoping it wont make me feel even worse about meat, i stopped eating it after doing lambing at a farm; all this work experience will be the death of me ! lol
it sounds proper interesting though im glad im going to do it :smile:

aww i only have boring old green wellies so no worries there lol
at the moment i think they are still caked in mud and such from my farm work....

haha really? when i came back from a lambing course i had lamb for dinner!

i really want to go to an abattoir but theres only one within like 30 miles, and it wont take people under 18 for insurance reasons, i even spoke separately to the vet to try and worm my way in, but no luck. I'll juts try and go sometime next year

Reply 11

laurasaurus

OP

haha i made the mistake of taking a lamb pasty for lunch with me on my first day and i couldnt stomach eating it !
oo ive had no problems with the insurance things with an abbattoir, the vet there just told me to send them a letter saying when i can work and with a couple of references
so used my head of 6th form and my uncles surgery, pretty handy aye :p:

lol
but the stables ive contacted needs my school to sort all these insurance things out for me :s-smilie:

hopefully itl be done soon so i can go in the october holidays !

Reply 12

lwescott

7

Sounds fun.
I'm trying to find an abattoir near me, with not much luck.
Is yours close to Birmingham, or the other side?

Reply 13

laurasaurus

OP

erm well im from wolverhampton and thats about 40 minutes away from birmingham
one of them is in parkfeilds and the others in bloxwich, theyre only about 10 minutes away from where i live
the company is F.A.Gills ltd
where are you from ?

Reply 14

lwescott

7

I'm for Sutton Coldfield.
I know where bloxwich is (by walsall) but not sure about parkfields.

Reply 15

Rebbers

2

OllyH

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, I was impressed at how tidy and quick and skillful the killing was. It'll be interesting to hear a vegetarian's view on it.

I'm a vegetarian and I found it pretty much the same as you - I didn't get the impression that the animals were overly stressed at all. Mind you, the one I went to was really small and the impression I got from the abattoir workers was that the larger ones aren't as conscientious... Not sure how true that is though, because everyone has to conform to basic standards!

I'm glad I didn't see kosher killings though...

Reply 16

Phoebe_Vet

1

The one I went to was a halal abattoir :s-smilie:

Reply 17

lwescott

7

Phoebe_Vet

The one I went to was a halal abattoir :s-smilie:

What did you think?
I know the difference of how the killing etc is done.
But what is the difference to the experience yuo can get there? Do the same rules and regulation apply? I would have thought it was harder to get a placement at a halal abattoir, because of it being a religious place.

Reply 18

Future African game vet

11

Annaconda

haha really? when i came back from a lambing course i had lamb for dinner!

i really want to go to an abattoir but theres only one within like 30 miles, and it wont take people under 18 for insurance reasons, i even spoke separately to the vet to try and worm my way in, but no luck. I'll juts try and go sometime next year

yeah me too - damn my August birthday...I'm going to be a baby for ever!

(although -at least everyone will be old and wrinkly a bit before me :biggrin:

)

Reply 19

nempozpag

9

I'm going on abbatoir experience next wednesday and dreading it. I'm a veggie and the place i'm going gases 2500 pigs a day (the pig holocaust!? :frown:

) I also listen to lots of ALF/ animal rights supporting bands (Conflict/ Active Slaughter spring to mind) so i'm gonna keep away from them for the next week and try and covince myself its not that bad.

Really, really glad i'm not going to halal or kosher abbatoir, although i probably will end up doing so just because it'll look good on my application i suppose.

I'm gonna be a hardline vegan and animal rights militant at this rate!

abattoir work !

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