• This topic has 31 replies, 24 voices, and was last updated 15 years ago by SST.
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  • Would you work in an abattoir . . . .
  • SST
    Free Member

    My old boss moved to another part of the country 3 years ago and he’s now offered me a job working for him at an abattoir/meat packaging plant . . .

    It’s maintenance enginering, not “butchering” as such, but he says the ability to “stand ankle deep in blood and guts” would be a advantage!

    Not for me, that’s for sure.

    jimmy
    Full Member

    watch fast food nation, then decide

    nonk
    Free Member

    you would get used to it i reckon.

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    FoxyChick
    Free Member

    Used to live almost opposite Stanley abbatoir in Liverpool when I was a student.
    I can still remember the smell…….. 😯

    nonk
    Free Member

    i have a mate who is a fireman..”how many crustys have we got in there then?” apparently you just get detached.

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    Cant see the problem, as nonk says you’d get used to it pretty fast. My dad used to maintain the phone systems in on IIRC, never mentioned it being a problem. MTFU!

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    There was one near where I grew up and we used to cycle to it as kids to watch the guts get dumped into a massive bin.

    Absolutely ****’ disgusting sight and smell 😆

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Why not? Do you eat meat? If you do and you are not prepared to watch animals being killed or even kill animals for food then is that not hypocrisy?

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    If you do and you are not prepared to watch animals being killed or even kill animals for food then is that not hypocrisy?

    Not really – you dont have to *like* watching them being killed, you can accept they get killed but not particularly wish to watch it day in day out. I like driving a car but I’d not particularly like wallowing in a scrapyard day in day out as a job.

    Jenga
    Free Member

    My brother in law does. Does the killing. Says you get quite detached from it. Mind you – he’s a bit of the blacksheep in the family. Sometimes we think he’s a bit detached himself. But if you’re not at the sharp end it’s just another job isn’t it. Depends how much you want to work.

    nonk
    Free Member

    i used to agree with that TJ but at the end of the day whats to stop you eating meat if someone else says “yer alright man i’ll kill it for you”.

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    If necessary, yes.

    However, it would certainly make me view my current job in a better light.

    joe1983
    Free Member

    I worked in a butchers shop when I was younger, and loved it. You quickly acclimatise to the blood and guts aspect until you don’t even notice it.

    mudshark
    Free Member

    As a youth I used to weep in butchers’ shops….

    I’d kill an animal for food in a way I felt was humane but couldn’t deal with an abattoir but they are a necessary evil – assuming eating animals is necessary!

    Also, whilst I’m sure I would get used to the work I’m not sure I’d want to be hardened to that.

    cannondaleking
    Free Member

    i used to work in one i was a butcher mainly removed pigs bowels,hearts,lungs and such like parts and place them on hooks to send down the line hard work smelly at first but you get imune to it and smell really quickly it was good money as well £14.58 an hour used to work mon-fri 6am-6pm

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    Been to a few dropping off sheep and collecting rumen fluid from cows (dont ask why), the people who work at them always struck me as a little odd. interesting places to visit but wouldnt want to work in one.

    druidh
    Free Member

    A friend of mind tends the ovens in a crematorium – cant say it seems to bother her at all

    nonk
    Free Member

    tends the ovens lol i can just see her poking stuff with a stick.

    UncleFred
    Free Member

    I ride past one everyday and always thought you’d have to be a bit unhinged to be a slaughterman. Wouldn’t killing things all day affect you?

    mudshark
    Free Member

    anagallis_arvensis – What do you use rumen fluid from cows for?

    doc_blues
    Free Member

    I regularily goto one to pick up tissue to obtain samples from. You get used to it after a while, but the people are all slightly bizarre – strange humour and very macho (gets worse when my female colleagues come with me – bit like when women appear on here sometimes!) If the moenys right and the gaffers good, then go for it – there are far worse jobs out there

    vadar
    Free Member

    I worked in one for the past 20 years on ‘n off. My last stint was 6 years.Which ended last Janruary.
    Its ok to work in,and i dont think you will be up to your pits in it.
    A job is a job… So go do it ,as it will be good experience for ya.

    samuri
    Free Member

    I’ve worked on a pig farm and a chicken farm. In those days the farmer brought slaughtermen onto site to do the work. Very interesting stuff and the guys doing the work were real craftsmen. yes it stinks when you cut a fresh animal up. Rabbits are the worst, I’ve gutted quite a few of them and never got used to the smell. I’d not want to do it for a living.

    miketually
    Free Member

    It would depend on the abattoir. One of the smaller ones, probably. One of the ones used by Bernard Matthews, probably not.

    grizzlygus
    Free Member

    I used to have a saturday job in a butchers as a kid. I would help out doing all sorts of things including drawing chickens and turkeys, didn’t bother me in the slightest, but I was harder then. Couldn’t do it now.

    tyke
    Free Member

    I worked in one as a student. Wasn’t qualified to do the killing so just moving carcasses around and boiling up some of the offal. Found it quite depressing and refused to eat sausages for years after seeing what went into them.

    It did seem to be a very macho environment and not a job that attracts your average type of person. I certainly wouldn’t want to work in one again.

    Coyote
    Free Member

    I had a mate, “Strange Darren”. He worked in a slaughterhouse. He used to make glove puppets out of the skinned lambs. We aren’t in touch anymore.

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    What do you use rumen fluid from cows for?

    I told you not to ask!!! As briefly as I can I was doing a PhD on seed dispersal in hay meadow plants. Using rumen fluid is a pretty standard way to test feed digestibility so I was using it to see how it affected the germination of different plant seeds. I could send you a paper about it if your really interested!!

    Ben_mw
    Full Member

    SST, I’m a service engineer for a company supplying machinery to abattoirs and food factorys. If you’re being offered a job as maintenance engineer, then in a factory that kills and packs, then i would suggest that you’ll spend far more of your time at the packaging end of things as your average thermoformer/traysealer is a lot more complex and delicate than a singeing tank or the like.
    Condititions on a kill line, I don’t think are bad at all. Yes there is blood and guts and stuff, but it’s often fairly warm (depends slightly what is being killed) and the smell of an abattoir is not unpleasant, it’s kind of a warm slightly sickly sweet smell.
    Further down the line the smell pretty much leaves (ever smelt a packet of mince – it doesn’t smell that strong does it)? But, and this is the bit I hate, it gets cold, really cold,and often wet. It’s quite often only a few degrees c, which is alright if you’re doing physical work (pace line boning etc will build up a sweat) (that last bit reads a bit wrong)! but if you’re sat there with the brains of a machine in your lap for an hour or so it does get cold! However engineers sheds are generally the warmest places on earth!

    I don’t know what your background and skills are, but all of the good factory engineers i know, and there are’nt as many as there should be,are multi skilled(electrical/electronic/mechanical/pneumatic/hydraulic/bullsh1tt1ng/blagging and tea making) and good at working under pressure. As a rule you simply can’t stop certain parts of an abattoir once started (due to animal welfare)! so expect to spend a lot of time getting something going by any means possible and then going back later to fix it properly.

    Doc B mentions the humor and macho attitude, and is very right, be prepared!

    Just a quick point for all those whose noses are turning up at the thought of an abattoir – by far the most disgusting, smelly, nauseating factory I go in to makes chocolate puddings. Don’t get me wrong, it’s as clean as it needs to be, and they produce for some of the bigger chain eateries, but the horrible smells of hot milk, cocoa marg etc just turn my stomach, and the smell stays with you all day. I can’t eat chocolatre puddings, but nothing has ever put me off a sausage.

    Not that i’m being nosey, but what is the factory/company? Some would definately be more pleasant places to work than others.

    (PS, Derinders, Membrane skinners, Ice machines, Mincers, Cookers, packers etc for sale! I’m assuming i don’t need to put that in the classifieds!)

    Wow, my longest post ever.

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    i wouldn’t fancy the slaughtering, but the gutting and pairing down wouldn’t be a problem, but then i did do 5 years as a butcher, rendering plants on the other hand would not be my cup of offal

    and if you want bad smells come work in a mortuary in the summer

    vadar
    Free Member

    Cheers tyke..
    I thought i was your average type of person.
    I did the job cause there was nowhere else paying the same cash.Plus the employment in my area is very slim.
    In fact everybody from the local secondary schools has worked there at some point.
    My arms are like popeyes though….lol…job keeps you fit if nothing else.
    SST you will have to get the lines in both the kill and boning hall working at all costs if you have a breakdown. If your a great problem solver you will love the job. It does smell of shit and fat,but you get used to it though….I say go for it..

    SST
    Free Member

    Ben_mw – yes these “electrical / electronic / mechanical / pneumatic / hydraulic / bullsh1tt1ng / blagging and tea making” are pretty much the skills I have 🙂

    The factory is a Lamb processing one, (approx 5000 per day!) in Somerset.

    vadar – yes I appreciate that getting the line running is paramount, and cleaning the blood off first might be a luxury I don’t get!

    I have previosly worked in a cake factory and a relish factory. Both had areas with “Ming Factor 10” 😉

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