Rating: Summary: A painful but necessary eye-opener. Review: I highly recommend Slaughterhouse to anyone who is brave enough to discover how animals become meat. Although I already avoided meat for personal reasons, I was still horrified and saddened by the gruesome facts in this book, many of which I was ignorant. The toll upon the workers in this industry, the safety and health of the public, and the tortured deaths of the animals themselves is enough to make anyone think twice about supporting the industry. I challenge anyone who eats meat to read this book and try to remain unchanged.
Rating: Summary: enlightening Review: this book opened my eyes to the sheer brutality of factory farming. this is a MUST READ! Thanks to this book I became a vegetarian. It is impossible to read this book, and not be effected by the horrific treatment of "food" animals and the filthy conditions in which they are processed.
Rating: Summary: Revealing corporate disgraces Review: Gail Eisnitz writes an extremely vivid account of how the USDA is truly out for the interests of Agribusinesses and not at all interested in the health and safety of the American public. The upper eschelon of the USDA is actually past heads of the Cattle industry. A MUST READ
Rating: Summary: Amazing documentation of greed. Review: This book details many ways in which corporations and our government turn a blind eye to human and animal safety when it might cut into the profits of mega corporations. A disgusting account of the mistreatment of animals and people within our meatpacking industry, all because our government values corporate profits over public safety.
Rating: Summary: Gripping and compelling--what a book! Review: I first saw mention of this book in the Prometheus Books catalog, thinking, "there has to be some intense stuff in there". Being a big fan of Sinclair's The Jungle, a somewhat morbid curiosity won out in me and I ordered my copy. I don't know what it is about this subject that causes me to linger in it. I read Slaughterhouse in one afternoon and two evenings, on 2 consecutive days. It all has a ring of truth, especially with the way Eisnitz paints the portraits of the plant workers she interviews. Nothing can stop the chain, so you have desperate folks keeping up quotas by any means possible. What's wrong with that? It's the American way of employing labor to process the proceeds of the land. It is something, though, how we can have all of this in our immediate midst, yet keep it so hidden. The stranger part, though, at least in my case, is how I will devour this kind of book as though it were a succulent, well-marbled rib-eye, cooked well done, of course. I can't say that I'm leaning any closer to the various meatless ways of life, even with this story under my belt, since I suspected as much all along. I suppose a person can readily believe that there just has to be a population so barbarous, given man's own fallibility for being another example of the flesh consumed in that burger or that wurst. Eisnitz does an incredible job of exposing this vein (and possibly an artery, too) of evil that the dominion of the food chain will never be rid of. The precedent of The Jungle resonates through Slaughterhouse, as we're exposed to the same sentiments of commerce and individual conscience alike. I would not say that the book changed my life, but it did reinforce several notions I've had all along about the kind of things people will do. It was rather like having a chance to see the destruction of a fatal car accident at length, rather than being hurried past by the police. It is morbid curiosity, the matter of meat, and Eisnitz feeds us well with her depiction of an all-too-plausible reality.
Rating: Summary: SLAUGHTERHOUSE IS A MUST READ - DISTURBING FOR ANYONE Review: This book is a must read whether you are a vegetarian or not; whether you are an animal lover or not; whether you have children or not. I have long been aware of factory farming and the cruel treatment of animals and workers, but I was totally amazed by the degree in which humans treat each other and animals. I do not encourage meat eating; however, I respect others and ask that you read this book so that you can insist that the government stop protecting big business and begin protecting the workers, our families, and the animals. The conditions are inexcusable. THIS IS AN AWESOME BOOK, PLEASE READ!
Rating: Summary: a must-read for vegetarians Review: This book shows how it is a political act to be a vegetarian. All animal rights activists need to read this book so that they understand how animal abuse and the meat industry are intricately connected to capitalism and corporate greed. It covers the seldom talked about issue of human rights abuses in the meat industry. It traces animal abuse in the industry to the slaughterhouse bosses, to the corrupt USDA, to congress, and all the way up to the World Trade Organization and Bill Clinton (who was president at the time this book was written, and who is also best friends with Mr. Tyson of Tyson Foods). This book shows how vegetarianism and veganism isn't a single issue thing that only involves animal rights -- it involves human rights, national soveirgnty, and capitalist oppression.
Rating: Summary: Truly a Shoking Look at the Meat Industry Review: Eisnitz does an absolutely amazing job of presenting the facts of the meat industry system. She approaches the topic from several distinct views, raning from the treatment and abuse of slaughterhouse workers, to the cruel grotesque way in which the animals are raised and slaughtered, as well as the political motivations that allow the industry to persist on in this illegal and inhumane mode of operation. Ultimately, Eisnitz reveals how the meat industry puts profit above the our safety (through diseased animals, bacteria, feces, and other contamination), non existent worker "safety", and she presents how the meat industry makes a mockery of our elected governemnt, with the USDA protecting profits, not us. THIS IS THE MOST ENLIGHTENING AND DISTURBING BOOK THAT I HAVE EVER READ. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK VEGETARIAN OR NOT, IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE, AND ULTIMATELY ARMED WITH THIS INFORMATION THE MEAT INDUSTRY CAN BE REFORMED.
Rating: Summary: The Horrors never Cease Review: I am a vegetarian so I have long been aware of factory farming and the cruel treatment of animals and workers. I have also read The Jungle which came out in 1906. It is interesting to find out it still all goes on!! I in no way encourage meat eating, but if you insist on being a carnivore, this book will enlighten you to fight for more sanitary conditions and humane treatments. I am incensed at how these folks turn into alcoholics and abusers of many kinds becasue of their jobs that allows them to torture another living being. I am not surprised though to find that our government, which apparently is greed personified, turns there head to properly prepared foods. Wait until one of them get sick and almost die like some of these kids in the book, and then see how quick the USDA does the job they are supposed to do!
Rating: Summary: If only this were a bestseller... Review: There'd be alot less hell for animals out there. Until now, I'd read other horror stories about the treatment of livestock from the workers, and was disgusted thinking there are actually people out there with attitudes like that, but this book opened my eyes to how the workers are being mistreated and, unfortunately, take out their frustration on the farm animals. Another testament to how people use and abuse animals and there's hardly anyone noticing, Gail Eisnitz's "Slaughterhouse" is disturbing, but also educating and stimulating to make a move and take action to change laws and regulations in the U.S. meat industry. This book is an absolute MUST READ to anyone who eats meat or cares about animals or their own well-being from the meat they consume. A striking look into human greed, concience and ignorance towards anything other than us, I recommend "Slaughterhouse" to all.
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