Chapter Twelve: Slaughter: In a Glass Abattoir

1. (Oddly enough, there's actually only one subsection to this chapter, but it was labeled one anyways. Pollan must have been as excited about wednesday as I was about looking for 2. Wednesday Afternoon, which doesn't come until the next chapter!) WEDNESDAY
Today was the day Pollan was going to kill a chicken, well several chickens actually. Today was slaughter day, and the killing area was set up outside. Several neighbors walked over to help with the killings. Technically, farms like Polyface shouldn't be slaughtering their food (thats why Joel has to (unhappily) send his cows and pigs to a nearby slaughterhouse) due to USDA regulations that make it hard for non-industrial farms to comply. But Salatin says he is selling his product as live to the customers and then preparing it for them (so it's not in that order, but it is still clever). I would rather a chicken be killed outside by the people who raised it rather than in a cold, metal building by people who take satisfaction in the death of a chicken. Although, personally I would still rather the chicken wasn't murdered at all, poor thing. Anyways, the details of the killing made me squirmish so I'd rather not tell them to you. Honestly I'm not sure why anyone would want to read about this stuff. Basically you catch a chicken, lock it into place, kill it, put it in a spinner to de-feather it, and butcher it. I didn't want the added information about the spasms the chickens had, or the stink of the blood clumps, intestines and feathers in the compost pile. Yuck. When it's all said and done, the compost adds nitrogen to the grass, the chickens feed happy customers, and I am glad to be a vegetarian.
(I thought it would be appropriate to not add a picture to describe this chapter)