$JES 921 Book of Compassion Reverence For All Life Reference Book

Author(s): Pramoda Chitrabhanu, Pravin K Shah
Publisher: JAINA Education Committee

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2. - DAIRY COWS - LIFE USAGE SUFFERINGS
Slaughterhouse Process: Modern slaughterhouses are part assembly line, and part chop shop. An efficient plant processes 250 cows an hour, 16 hours a day, breaking them into dozens of parts as the carcass flow down the line on steel hooks. First, the cows are led up a ramp. Their heads are placed in a holder and they are zapped unconscious.
A worker, called the "sticker," plunges a sharp blade into the animal's jugular vein. As the cow dies, the spurting blood is collected in a trough; later it is baked to a dark red powder that is protein rich animal feed.
Next the hooves are removed and the hide is stripped for sale as leather and suede (if the cow is pregnant, the unborn calf's hide is stripped to make the top grade of leather, called slunk). Then the head is sliced off, the chest split open and the internal organs removed. The organs called offal are sent to the offal room and placed on something akin to a conveyor belt, where workers in splattered smocks segregate the parts: one group collects stomach linings, another lung. Other workers remove hearts, pancreases or thyroids. Most of the bones and hooves are rendered that is, baked to make bone meal, a fertilizer and high protein animal feed; the rest are sold, primarily to manufacturers of collagen, gelatin and pet toys.
THE BOOK OF COMPASSION
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