Former slaughterhouse worker who grew up dreaming of being a VET reveals reality of killing 250 cows a day, saying ‘the smell of dying animals hung thick in the air’ – and left a co-worker suicidal
- WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT Worker who once dreamed of being a vet has shared what it’s really like to work in an abattoir
- Says odour of dying animals ‘hangs thick in the air’ and you ‘see and smell’ guts
- In BBC Stories article, woman says she worked as a quality control manager at slaughterhouse for six years and oversaw the killing of up to 250 cows a day
- Describes work environment as ‘dangerous’, as ‘spasming’ cows would kick out
A former slaughterhouse employee has revealed the brutal reality of working in an abattoir, saying the job made her feel physically sick and the smell of death hung ‘thickly’ in the air.
The unnamed worker, who spent six years working in a UK abattoir as a quality control manager, said the experience affected her mental health and saw one of her colleagues left suicidal by the daily slaughter of cattle.
Speaking to BBC Stories, the woman said she had once dreamed of being a vet – but was left with nightmares after her job saw her forced to make a daily journey past a skip full of cows’ heads, where she would feel ‘hundreds of pairs of eyes watching her’.
A former slaughterhouse employee has revealed the shocking reality of working in an abattoir, saying that she would have to walk past hundreds of decapitated cows’ heads on a daily basis, something which gave her frequent nightmares
The worker said that new employees would frequently pass out on their first tour of the slaughterhouse, saying: ‘On my first day, they asked me pointedly and repeatedly if I was OK. It was quite common for people to faint during the tour, they explained.’
She also revealed fears for her own physical safety, calling the environment ‘dangerous and brutal’ as she described how the animals died in graphic detail.
‘There were countless occasions when, despite following all of the procedures for stunning, slaughterers would get kicked by a massive, spasming cow as they hoisted it up to the machine for slaughter.’
The former quality control manager said conditions in the unnamed slaughterhouse were dangerous with ‘spasming’ cows often kicking out at staff
Life in the killing factory was so bleak that one of her colleagues, she said, had been driven to the brink of suicide.
She reveals how the worker, who was ‘a bit of a joker’, admitted he’d been plagued by suicidal thoughts after breaking down in front of her one day, something she puts down to the daily grind of working in such a harrowing environment.
The worker says: ‘He admitted that he was plagued by suicidal thoughts, that he didn’t feel like he could cope any more, and that he needed help – but he begged me not to tell our bosses.’
Slaughterhouse numbers in the UK are in decline, with around 250 red meat abattoirs now in operation, compared to around 1,900 50 years ago.
Despite a rise in the number of people becoming vegetarian or vegan, the UK still kills around 2.6 million cattle, 10 million pigs, 14.5 million sheep and lambs and 950 million birds for human consumption, according to the Humane Slaughter Association.
Under UK laws, animals must be effectively restrained and stunned ‘rendering it insensible to pain’ before being slaughtered quickly.