Robbie4296 said:
This should be fun, I was a butcher for 10years(worked in slaughterhouse for 5 of them) got some nice ones on hands, wrist and even on the back of the arm!! Allways wear protective gear!!!!!!!
Hey Robbie, I have a lot of respect for workers in that industry. I am not surprised that you have scars. It's a very dangerous job. I was sent into the Stockyards ( Keele and St. Clair ) many times before they shut it down in the 1990's. It was the biggest slaughterhouse in Canada.
Lots of lacerations. Power saws, augers, knife blades. Amputations too. Guys getting their arms caught in the pulling machines, conveyor belts and meat grinders. Even the occasional decapitation. Crushing trauma, getting hit and run over by forklifts, trucks, even slow-moving trains. Sides of cattle falling on people. Swinging meat-hanging hooks hitting them in the face or eye. It was a frigging blood bath. Not just for the animals. Machines I don't know the names of. They called us in for caustic chemical injuries too. Fuel burns. They were inhaling chlorine, bleach and amonia, all mixed in with animal waste and disease. Lots of hot solutions in tanks. The toxic waste must have been incredible.
I never saw a stampede in there, but was told they happen.
I don't think I ever saw them slow the line down for anyone, unless they were trapped. There wasn't much publicity either. You couldn't get a drink in that area. They knew from experience that the workers would drink themselves into oblivion. It was only after they shut the slaughterhouse down that the local residents finally voted "wet".
I was in the poultry place too, but it looked a lot safer because it was highly mechanized, and the birds were so much smaller.
There is still an abattoir on Niagara St., which is very close to where I used to work. Depending on which way the wind was blowing, the stench was pretty bad. But, like so many things, you get used to it.