Slaughterhouse

Saturday 3 November 2007

First of all, I need to credit Ryan with this gorgeous photo. I forgot my camera today (I know, a terrible crime!) so he lent me a picture. We visited the old slaughterhouse in Fray Bentos, a town a little ways south of Paysandú, where we are staying. It was definitely an interesting trip, seeing all the old equipment and all. This factory produced canned and condensed meat products (they could fit the goodness of 32 kilos of beef into 1 kilo of beef extract!) to Europe for 116 years. Soldiers in both of the world wars carried their products in their rations kits. In fact, they were so efficient, they said, that they only part of the cow they didn't use was the moo! (They also produced fertilizer, if you're wondering where the bones went.)

Our tour guide said that in the fourth grade she was taken here on a field trip. They took 9-year-olds to a working slaughterhouse! She said she passed out from the smell of all the blood, although the sight didn't bother her. (Well, beef in all its forms is a very common sight down here, after all.)