abbatoir trucks: late night driving

[soybean81]

has anyone else noticed that trucks used to take animals to slaughterhouses are usually driven late at night, when the general population is sleeping and there are very little cars on the road? damn sneaky meat industry, trying to do the dirty work when noone is watching!!!

i was on the highway late last night and i must have passed by about 8 trucks filled with cows and pigs in less than 1.5 hours. :cry: it was very upsetting. at one point while passing a truck, i looked in and saw this cow staring back at me. it looked so sad. :(

[Hummusisyummus]

Now that you mention it, I can't remember if I've seen a truck with animals in it during the day. Also, I live right next to a railroad. 95% of the trains I see during the day are passenger; the freight trains go by mostly during the dead of night.

[veggirlie]

has anyone else noticed that trucks used to take animals to slaughterhouses are usually driven late at night, when the general population is sleeping and there are very little cars on the road? damn sneaky meat industry, trying to do the dirty work when noone is watching!!!

i was on the highway late last night and i must have passed by about 8 trucks filled with cows and pigs in less than 1.5 hours. :cry: it was very upsetting. at one point while passing a truck, i looked in and saw this cow staring back at me. it looked so sad. :(

I'm sorry you had such an awful experience. :( My mother sees chicken trucks driving by very often. Whenever she does, she makes it a point to drive up and down the road a few times to see if any chicken might possibly have fallen off. She picked up a very injured chicken a few years back, and one thing that surprised us then was that the poor little thing was still a baby (her comb wasn't fully developed yet, and she was making those little peeping noises that baby birds make). It was really sad. :( We later found out that chickens are generally slaughtered when they're just 6 or 8 weeks old.

Edit: I don't mean to say that it's OK to slaughter chickens when they're older or something. No way.

[rainbow_clouds]

I'm sorry you had such an awful experience. :( My mother sees chicken trucks driving by very often. Whenever she does, she makes it a point to drive up and down the road a few times to see if any chicken might possibly have fallen off. She picked up a very injured chicken a few years back, and one thing that surprised us then was that the poor little thing was still a baby (her comb wasn't fully developed yet, and she was making those little peeping noises that baby birds make). It was really sad. :( We later found out that chickens are generally slaughtered when they're just 6 or 8 weeks old.

Edit: I don't mean to say that it's OK to slaughter chickens when they're older or something. No way.

What does she do with the injured chicks? Yes, chickens are slaughtered very young.

[veggirlie]

What does she do with the injured chicks? Yes, chickens are slaughtered very young.

That chicken was the only one she ever found. There wasn't much we could do for her -- she was very badly injured and died the same night. :(

[FudgeTort]

Chickens reach slaughter weight when they are about 42 days old :evil:

I see these trucks during the day quite often,I cant drive anywhere without seeing at least one :no:

[Texaspice]

It takes every once of my will-power not to flip off the driver of those trucks when I see them. Not that helps anything in any way at all but it makes me so incredibly furious I want to just scream.
:whack:

[bumble]

It is a very sneaky business.

We all need to get bumber stickers and put them on our cars.

"if slaughter house had glass walls we'd all be vegetarians"

Serously,everyone should have an AR bumber sticker.Spread the good word...

[Kurmudgeon]

Not to defend such an abhorrent unethical industry, but if they are transporting the cattle etc. over long distances, you may have just encountered some during a night-time part of their journey. They don't really need to move them under cover of darkness; they could just somewhat disguise the trucks.
And I can't give enough credit to the average omnivore to think that they'd associate a truckload of cows with their steak at dinner.

I see plenty of them during the daylight hours (I live in Australia though, and these things may be handled differently here).

[MrFalafel]

Actually moving them around during the cool of night is more humane than hauling them around during the heat of the day.

It's also how the business works. Fresh meat is delivered to meat markets in the middle of the night to be ready for the buyers who show up at 3-5am to be ready for restaurants and markets for that day.

[jl770567]

It is a very sneaky business.

We all need to get bumber stickers and put them on our cars.

"if slaughter house had glass walls we'd all be vegetarians"

Serously,everyone should have an AR bumber sticker.Spread the good word...
good idea!! make them and market them and i bet people would buy them!!

[soybean81]

It takes every once of my will-power not to flip off the driver of those trucks when I see them. Not that helps anything in any way at all but it makes me so incredibly furious I want to just scream.
:whack:

hmm...i dunno :-/ , i had a conversation with a guy who drove chickens to slaughter, and he had real sympathy for the animals...he felt bad for them, their ****ty existences, the way they were mishandled and flung into the truck (he said he only had to drive them to the slaughterhouse, didn't have to put them in or take them out; other people were hired for that), their fates...i felt bad for the guy, having to do this everyday...but he had to make a living and support his family.

[soybean81]

It is a very sneaky business.

We all need to get bumber stickers and put them on our cars.

"if slaughter house had glass walls we'd all be vegetarians"

Serously,everyone should have an AR bumber sticker.Spread the good word...

What a great idea. I haven't seen any bumper stickers with that particular message, I wonder if I could get my own made!

[soybean81]

Not to defend such an abhorrent unethical industry, but if they are transporting the cattle etc. over long distances, you may have just encountered some during a night-time part of their journey. They don't really need to move them under cover of darkness; they could just somewhat disguise the trucks.
And I can't give enough credit to the average omnivore to think that they'd associate a truckload of cows with their steak at dinner.

I see plenty of them during the daylight hours (I live in Australia though, and these things may be handled differently here).

It is weird, I am on the highway ALL the time, and I never see these trucks during the day. Therefore, I consider it sneaky. And they couldn't just disguise the trucks, these trucks are very distinguishable from regular trucks because of the large slits on the sides (i guess so the animals can breathe).

[soybean81]

Actually moving them around during the cool of night is more humane than hauling them around during the heat of the day.

It's also how the business works. Fresh meat is delivered to meat markets in the middle of the night to be ready for the buyers who show up at 3-5am to be ready for restaurants and markets for that day.

Except that I live in Canada and our nights are freezing cold. It would be better for the animals to be transported during the day, which is a bit warmer. I once saw passed by a truck on a cold November night, it must have been about -30 Celcius with the windchill...and even more cold for the animals because the truck was doing about 100 km/h. I wanted to just die. I was traumatized for days thinking about that. :sick:

[lilac wine]

i've seen them during the day, too. one day i was on the highway coming into denver around 4pm and sitting in traffic there was a truck full of cows right next to me. making eye contact with the animals was excruciating. as informed and cynical as i am, sometimes i still feel this sense of complete horrified shock over what we do to animals because we can get away with it.

[bumble]

www.cafepress.com to make your own bumper stickers,t-shirts ect..

[jAded]

I've seen cattle and sheep trucks but no other ones. I remember quite a few years ago seeing one sheep one where it was so packed that one sheep was basically sitting on top of all the others.

Most recently i saw a big truck with what appeared to be a few bulls [separated from each other]. they kept stamping which was attracting a lot of attention. This was on St. Kilda road too which is just outside the cbd of melbourne in broad daylight.

[kpickell]

It seems to me that it would be less stressful to transport at night. It's not as noisy, the animals are more relaxed, and it's safer.

[Nella]

I see them during the day all the time, but then i spend a lot of time in the country.

[Kurmudgeon]

I've also ever heard of many "livestock" truck accidents occuring during the day (some quite close to where I live), where animals end up dead or injured (in which case they are usually shot in the head at the scene).

Assuming concerns for "humane" transport and keeping the animals less stressed is giving too much credit to the meat industry. For example, look at Australia's live exports of sheep and cattle.

[sky73]

That's very depressing. I've never seen that around here. :(

[*Star*Lass*]

Soybean81..... :hug:

I don't see any slaughterhouse trucks around here, i rarely travel very far and there aren't any slaughterhouses nearby. I can imagine how it would ruin your day, or even your week.

[rainbow_clouds]

I've never actually seen one of those truck in person.

[angelsdecay]

I've been fortunate myself, never seen one in my whole life. If I did i'd be devastated and break down..