Slaughterhouses are facilities where animals are killed and processed for meat. They handle a variety of animals and can be specialized for organic, kosher, or halal meat. Large meat plants have replaced smaller facilities due to public aversion to noise and odor.
A slaughterhouse is a facility where animals are slaughtered and the first steps of the meat packing process take place. Slaughterhouse plants, also known as abbatiirs or slaughterhouses, are found around the world, with the largest known facility, in Tar Heel, North Carolina, belonging to Smithfield Foods. Slaughterhouses handle a wide range of animals used for food in various regions of the world, including pigs, geese, ducks, chickens, cattle, turkeys, goats, sheep and horses.
A typical facility includes holding pens for animals awaiting slaughter and an “extermination plan” in which animals are stunned unconscious and then expelled. Stunning is required by law in some regions of the world in response to animal welfare concerns. Once bled, the carcasses can be processed and inspected by health inspectors who confirm that the meat is safe to eat. Inspectors and slaughterhouse staff may also grade meat to determine how it can be labeled and sold.
There are a few specialized types of slaughterhouses. A community slaughterhouse can operate on a much smaller scale, providing farmers with a place to take animals to a butcher when they require just a few animals to be slaughtered. Some butchers also run mobile abbatiirs, which lead to the farm where the animals are raised so they can be processed on site.
Kosher and halal slaughterhouses handle animals in accordance with religious laws. Both kosher and halal facilities have an exemption from the law requiring stunning, and the facility may be supervised by a religious authority or official who confirms that the slaughterhouse is being run properly. Meat from such slaughterhouses can be more expensive, as the kosher or halal certification process is more labor intensive.
Organic meat can also be handled in separate slaughterhouses to avoid confusion of organic and conventionally produced meat during slaughter and processing. Specialty slaughterhouses are required to comply with the sanitary code, like their conventional counterparts, and are subject to unannounced inspections by government representatives who can assess conditions in the slaughterhouse. Inspectors can also check the slaughterhouse to confirm that it is truly organic, kosher or halal.
Historically, many cities had at least one slaughterhouse, and cities such as Chicago had large numbers, demonstrating that the city served as a railroad hub where numerous animals could be shipped for slaughter and processed meat could be shipped back. This trend has changed, as members of the public are often averse to having slaughterhouses near their neighborhoods due to noise and odor. This had led to the emergence of colossal meat plants in centralized locations, rather than smaller facilities handling a limited number of animals and scattered across a region.
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