Quote:
Originally Posted by herr_oberst
Because your family has history, I'm sure you know all about how Upton Sinclair made his early bones writing a book about the meatpacking industry at the turn of the 20th century. Miserable conditions. (And I hope the mention of The Jungle doesn't send this into PARF territory.)
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Grandpa talked about the early days and how they made hot dogs back then. He would not eat hotdogs until the day he died.
He had a few stories that he would laugh hard through the telling of them as they were funny many years later about the kill floor. Way back they just used a large man, with a sledge hammer that had more of a pick end on it. Swing and drop em. One bull evidently was just knocked out and he stood up after they had hauled him to the second floor where they slit the throat to bleed them. Men scattered and chaos eschewed.
To use a gun was too expensive for a bullet, and the pneumatic bolt used now was not available then.
Imagine that job. Swinging a 6 or 8 pound sledge into the skull of cattle to kill them, in a hot factory day after day for many months.