One of our pigs went to the abattoir this morning.
We've been preparing for a while for this now, making sure the animals were comfortable with the trailer and happy to clamber into it without being prodded or shoved. A lot of people make things unnecessarily stressful for their animals by producing the trailer at the last minute, starving them for 24 hours and then forcing them in. We were determined that wouldn't be the case. Sometimes abattoirs request the animals have no food for 24 hours prior to being killed, but I think that is cruel and just for the convenience of the abattoir when they are butchering so it's not so 'messy'.
We did two practice morning runs in advance, and the appointed porker was quite happy to climb in and out, quite unconcerned. Come this morning at 6:30am, he went in for the third time no problem at all and had his breakfast in the back with some apples. Separating the pigs and getting him in took about 2 minutes. Then we put the gates back and set off.
We got to the other end about 40 minutes, he was fast asleep in the back. We waited a few minutes for another trailer unloading, and then it was his turn. All was going well until some stupid cow from the previous unloading decided to get involved while waiting for her father to come out from filling in some paperwork. Before we could stop her, she's clambered in through the side of the trailer and started yelling and slapping him to get out because he was so slow, spooking him and making him squeal. She left the side door open behind her so the pig made a dash for freedom, with her kneeing him and slapping him back.
I was so angry and upset. We've NEVER treated our animals like that. We don't whistle or yell, slap them, or poke them, we don't slam boards against them to get them to move. Gloucestershire Old Spots have lop ears that cover their eyes, so it takes a bit of time for them to figure our what's going on as the ears act like 'blinders'. We didn't get a chance to get his feed bucket out and lead him out because of her. In the end he almost tumbled down the ramp and the slaughterman took him into the lairage, an area where the animals go to calm down for a while after travelling and before slaughter. He was clearly stressed.
Being honest, it was horrible. We've raised these animals free from stress on good ground with good food and natural stimulation. I read everything I could about how to give them best stress-free ending possible. Then all that hard work was undone in the last 20 minutes. It left me wondering if I can ever do this again but then I remember why I'm doing it.
If I'm eating meat, I don't want to eat cheap, intensively reared animals that have been kept indoors all of their life and know fear. I want happy healthy animals that have been reared outside on good food, good ground and with kindness. I want that guarantee. I don't want to eat meat that the producer claims has been treated well and I have to take their word for it. The only way to guarantee it is to do it myself.
I just have to find a way of slaughtering them with minimal stress. Next time we will try another abattoir (maybe even consider a home slaughter with a mobile slaughterman), make my wishes for quiet unloading known and be alert to the possibility of nosy gits getting involved and stop them before they do.
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