leastfivehoursbeforethejourneyisresumed.Obviously,a
periodoftwenty-eighttothirty-sixhoursinalurchingrailway
car without food or water is still long enough to cause
distress,butitisanimprovement.Asforslaughter,therehas
beenimprovementheretoo.Mostanimalsarestunnedbefore
slaughter now, which means, in theory, that they die
painlessly—althoughasweshallseetherearedoubtsabout
this, and also important exceptions. Because of these
improvements,transportationandslaughteraretodaylesser
problems, I believe, than the factory like methods of
production that turn animals intomachines for converting
low-priced fodder intohigh-priced flesh. Nevertheless,any
accountof whathappens toyourdinnerwhileitisstillan
animal would be incomplete without some description of
transportation and slaughter methods.
Transportationofanimalsincludesmorethanthefinaltripto
slaughter. When slaughtering was concentrated at major
centerslikeChicagothisusedtobethelongest,andinmany
casestheonly,triptheanimalsmade.Theygrewtomarket
weightontheopenrangesonwhichtheywereborn.When
refrigerationtechniquesenabledslaughteringtobecomeless
centralized, the trip to slaughter became correspondingly
shorter. Today, however, it
ismuchlesscommonforanimals,especiallycattle,tobeborn
andraisedtomarketweightinthesameregion.Youngcalves
maybeborninonestate—say,Florida—andthentruckedto
pasturemanyhundredofmilesaway—perhapsinwestTexas.
Cattlewhohavespenta yearout ontheranges inUtah or
WyomingmayberoundedupandsenttofeedlotsinIowaor
Oklahoma.Theseanimalsface tripsofup totwothousand
miles. Forthem, thejourneyto the feedlot islikely to be