Voices
paragraph. I identify with that
anxiety very much.
Nevertheless, I will continue
to load pigs and lambs up and
drop them off at the slaughterhouse to be killed because I am
— so deeply that I feel it in my
bones — a livestock farmer, and
as such, I kill for a living.
On the farm, the way I interact
with and care for the animals is
driven by ideas, about the idea of
ethical care, of sound ecological
management, of community, and
about the idea of finding a viable,
satisfying alternative to my life
in a cubicle. The slaughterhouse,
however, is the place where ideas
go to become reality. I feel that
to continue raising animals for
the express purpose of having
them killed so people, myself included, can eat their meat, I must
consider the slaughterhouse, as
the stark reality of the slaughterhouse is, so to speak, the meateater’s ethical moment.
There is a lamb on the farm
that I call My Pretty Girl. She is
the cutest, most adorable thing I
have ever seen. She has the whitest, cleanest, most delicatelyfeatured face you can imagine.
She has great big doe eyes. And,
while skittish, she is quite bold
BOB
COMIS
HUFFINGTON
11.17.13
and curious. She approaches me
with her little nose stretched out,
crinkling it as she sniffs the air
between us. As “My Pretty Girl,”
she is the perfect lamb with whom
(not, note, with which) to consider the slaughterhouse.
The morning that I take My
Pretty Girl to the slaughterhouse
will be stressful for her. Animals
are critters of routine, and when
I come to load My Pretty Girl and
The slaughterhouse...
is the place where ideas go
to become reality. I feel that
to continue raising animals
for the express purpose
of having them killed so
people, myself included,
can eat their meat, I must
consider the slaughterhouse.”
her group onto the trailer, that
routine will be shockingly interrupted. Instead of bringing the
lambs their feed, I will open the
pen and slowly herd My Pretty
Girl and her pen-mates first into
a holding area, then up an aisle,
and finally onto the trailer. While
I herd them, the group of lambs
will be extremely nervous and will