Visit to the abbatoir.

[Laava]

Had a very interesting conversation with friends tonight which jogged my memory a bit back to when I was in Form2 at Whangarei Intermediate School.
We were talking about meat and then cuts of meat and then the whole process and then I told them about when we went on a class trip to the abbatoir. I had a female teacher, Lesley, who was a complete spunk and all the boys had a crush on her, especially after she dived into the school pool and her top came off![Whoops- sorry!-sidetracked] Anyway, I don't know who arranged it but we went to the meatworks, as a class, with a few parents who drove us there. As a quick note, Lesley had been reading us the Roald Dahl story "Pig". At the meatworks we re-grouped and basically headed on in as a class. I was near the front with my Mum who was a driver that day, and of course, as we went through, the first area is the killing floor.
So we were looking down over this large area where they do all the animals but today they were doing pigs so they have smaller races to run them up. One guy approaches with the old electric stethoscope and stuns the animal and then another bloke whacks a chain around one of the back legs and up they go off the floor and along the line to the bloke who gets to slice the jugular. There was a thick frothy river of blood heading out below us by now. I am standing there watching, fascinated, as I am used to seeing the old man doing the sheep at home for the freezer. Behind me there are children fainting and adults and children alike clamouring to get out, as it turns out, to go throw up outside! I was unaware as I had moved on into the boiling them in a bathtub room and then on it goes.
So my friend that I was talking to tonight [ministry of education] was staggered that this could happen at school and we laughed about it and agreed that even then it probably was not the norm. My Mum still is amazed that we went as a class!
Anyone else have a similar recollection?

[carl freimann]

my father ran a home kill operation years ago and often the local school would send down a class to see animals being slaughtered, and suprisingly for a rural area few had seen the actual killing process, but it certainly gave the kids an appreciation for their place in the food chain ,and i hope a bit of respect for the meat they ate.

[Motu]

Kids at my school used to work in the abbatoirs during the school holidays.They earned good money...I was more interested in the holiday part of the school holidays.

[Mikkel]

Lesley? Pics or it didn't happen!

[Forest]

I think it should be a compulsory school outing.

Most of my generation seems to think that meat is something that grows on the supermarket shelves.

[cc rider]

my primary school in brissie was built on a tannery, does that count

[PirateJafa]

A tour of one of the AFFCO meatworks was certainly one of the most interesting and instructive experiences I've had.

Would recommend it to most anyone.

[Trudes]

We went on a school trip to McDonalds when it first opened in Gisborne, now that was an exciting trip!!!!!
We also went for a school trip to Cedenco (food processing factory) and I still remembered it when I started working there 10 years later, hadn't changed

[Dave Lobster]

I went to school in an inner city until I was about seven. There were only a couple of us in our class that knew where milk 'really' comes from. ie, not the milkman.

[Laava]

So you left school at 7?
Didn't go work in the abbatoir did you?

[rainman]

So my friend that I was talking to tonight [ministry of education] was staggered that this could happen at school and we laughed about it and agreed that even then it probably was not the norm. My Mum still is amazed that we went as a class!
Anyone else have a similar recollection?

Sounds like you went to a sensible school... should have more of that, most kids think food comes from the supermarket.

[Headbanger]

The works near Marton, Only built about 10 years ago has a glass walled walkway all the way through the entire factory so people can view the killing, butchering, and packaging of the animals.

Went through it as part of a Christmas function, a few hundred people, Most of them were kids, Didn't see any of them faint or throw up, They were all pretty much interested.

Did see a few stupid mums shocked that "this" is what goes on, on a killing floor.

[Flatcap]

When I was at Primary school in Hokitika, Mr Beaumont took the class on a feild trip to his farm where he blew a bloody great hole in the middle of a paddock with dynamite.

No blood and guts involved, but it sure seems dangerous looking back now

[KiwiGs]

I used to work at a freezing works, and we had quite a few visits from schools.
Mostly secondary schools though.
There was always a bit of fainting and the like, especially once the offal and eyeballs started getting chucked around.

[Headbanger]

I used to work at a freezing works, and we had quite a few visits from schools.
Mostly secondary schools though.
There was always a bit of fainting and the like, especially once the offal and eyeballs started getting chucked around.

heh heh heh, when I was a kid we would head down the abattoirs, and throw whoever was the smallest into the bin with the offal. And they would keep the eyes in a bucket, so we would take a few to school and stash them around the place.LMFAO.