A slaughterhouse, also called a slaughterhouse (/ˈæbətwɑːr/ (listen)), is an establishment where animals are slaughtered to provide food to people. The slaughterhouses deliver the meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging plant. These slaughterhouses have been regulated by law to ensure good hygiene standards, prevent the spread of disease and minimize unnecessary cruelty to animals. The slaughterhouse had to be equipped with a special water supply system to effectively clean the area of application of blood and offal. Veterinary scientists, including George Fleming and John Gamgee, advocated strict levels of control to ensure that animal diseases such as rinderpest (a devastating outbreak of the disease covered all of Britain in 1865) could not spread. By 1874, three meat inspectors had been appointed for the London area, and the Public Health Act of 1875 required local authorities to provide central slaughterhouses (they did not have the power to close unhygienic slaughterhouses until 1890). [13] However, the appointment of slaughterhouse inspectors and the establishment of centralized slaughterhouses took place much earlier in the British colonies, such as the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, and in Scotland, where in 1930, 80% of cattle were slaughtered in public slaughterhouses. [14] In Victoria, the Melbourne Abattoirs Act 1850 (NSW) « limited the slaughter of animals to prescribed public slaughterhouses while prohibiting the killing of sheep, lambs, pigs or goats anywhere else within the city limits. » [15] The animals were shipped alive from Ireland, Europe and the colonies to British ports and slaughtered in large slaughterhouses in ports. The conditions were often very bad. [16] However, divide the slaughterhouse into its components, reduce + -ory, and things will become much more interesting. Ory is simple: it means « a place for », as in the factory, the laboratory and even the auditorium. Abate is more complex. Today it means « to diminish, » but back then, when it switched to English via the old French Abattre, it meant « to strike, » a meaning that old French had inherited from the Latin ad (« to ») + battere (« beat »).
So when you think of the slaughterhouse, you can think of the idea of « beating » or the life of an animal that « relaxes » until it`s gone. Built in 1910, the Edinburgh slaughterhouse had well-lit laboratories, hot and cold water, gas, microscopes and equipment for growing organisms. The Public Health (Meat) Regulations 1924 required notification of slaughter to allow inspection of carcasses and allowed for the identification of carcasses inspected. [18] Beginning in the 1980s, Cargill, Conagra Brands, Tyson Foods, and other large food companies moved most of their slaughterhouses to rural areas in the southern United States that were more hostile to union efforts. [51] Slaughterhouses in the United States often illegally employ and exploit underage workers and illegal immigrants. [52] [53] In 2010, Human Rights Watch characterized work in slaughterhouses in the United States as a human rights crime. [54] An Oxfam America report found that slaughterhouse workers were not allowed to take breaks, often had to wear diapers, and were paid below minimum wage. [55] As a result of these tensions, meat markets were closed inside the city and slaughterhouses were built outside the city limits. An early framework for the establishment of public slaughterhouses was created in Paris in 1810 during the reign of Emperor Napoleon.
Five areas were reserved on the outskirts of the city and the feudal privileges of the guilds were reduced. [5] Until modern times, the slaughter of animals usually took place arbitrarily and without regulation in different places. Early maps of London show many livestock farms on the outskirts of the city, where slaughter took place outdoors or in shelter such as wet markets. A term for these open-air slaughterhouses was debris, and there are streets called « The Shambles » in some English and Irish cities (e.g., Worcester, York, Bandon), which get their name from where butchers killed butchers and prepared animals for consumption. Fishamble Street in Dublin was a bunch of fish. Sheffield had 183 slaughterhouses in 1910, and it was estimated that there were 20,000 in England and Wales. [2] A slaughterhouse is a slaughterhouse or place where animals are killed. It is not a word you are likely to hear or use unless you are involved in these activities. The large-scale slaughter of animals raises significant logistical, animal welfare and environmental issues, and the process must meet public health requirements. Due to the public`s aversion to different cultures, it is also important to determine where slaughterhouses should be built. Mobile poultry processing units (MPPUs) follow the same principles, but typically require only one trailer and can be legally operated in much of the United States under USDA exemptions that are not available to red meat processors.
[30] Several MPCs were already in service before 2010 under different operating and ownership models. [31] Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is not intended for human consumption are sometimes referred to as cracker farms. Here, animals are slaughtered that are not fit for human consumption or that can no longer work on a farm, such as retired working horses. In some communities, the slaughter of animals and permitted species can be controlled by religious laws, especially halal for Muslims and kashrut for Jewish communities.
