So Dustin is going to school to be a butcher. Usually on Tuesdays they do the kill floor, and that's his favorite part. I took work off to go see him, but they had no animals lined up for the day. Instead we went to Theurer's, a custom meat shop up North. The cool part-- they were processng bison.
Like I said, it was awesome.
So if you don't want weird gruesome details, you should, er, stop reading.
(I learned a lot of this today:)
Buffalo have two skulls, so they have to be shot. They brought the buffaloes in a stall and shot them with a .38. They have bars over the stall because the buffalo try to jump up a lot. After they're shot, they stuck and bled them, and when that's done they hoisted them up by a hook and chain on a runner. One of the guys has a big scissory thing that cut off the legs (wahooo, this is kinda gross). And somewhere between there and the next station they cut off the head.
The next part (and coolest, in my opinion), was when they took off the hide. The bison were hung back feet up so the guys started at where the legs had been cut off and pretty much they, uh, peeled the hide off. When they got halfway down the back (I think) they attached a hook and chain from a machine that slowly pulled it off as the guys continued to cut. The amazing part was how quickly they did it. I probably just watched this process for a good 15 minutes because I was so intrigued.
Dustin says I'm intrigued easily, but this was top-quality amazement!
After the hides were taken off, they were gutted. As gross at this sounds, they had to dump all the guts into a large cart. The tongues, liver, and other certain organs were set aside, but for the others they just wheeled them to a room and dumped them out. It happened to be right by where I was standing, so I probably looked like an awkward goose when I kept shifting to the side as the guy came over to dump them. Luckily nothing got on me, although we were standing in a giant puddle of blood.
Then there was a big A saw. They cut the beast right in half. It made the bison look like it was made out of butter.
The last part they just went through and the made sure that there was no hair or other bits left. So the guys checked the whole carcass and then sprayed it down with a solution to prevent bacterial growth. Then they pushed the hanging carcass into the meat cooler in the next room (which, by the way, was really cold).
This is the sort of stuff I listen to Dustin tell me about all the time. I've learned a lot since we've started dating. Lots of things... about killing. Yes. I'm okay with it.
And last, but not least, if you're not grossed out by now, here's the head:
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| (Some students took some heads home.) |
Field trips are awesome.
