October 25, 2013

Pat:


Day 1

After only two days at Windward I learned that a large animal harvest was on the schedule. A two year old ram named Tweedle Dum (brother of tweedle dee) was on the docket. I had a certain amount of curiosity about the process and what my own reaction would be.

I was required to necropsy mice in the lab and also performed survival surgery. In such a clinical setting you can detach your emotions and view it as a procedure, an experiment. It’s even referred to as a collection, especially as you are harvesting the liver for future experiments. The rest of the animal goes into a little plastic bag in the carcass freezer.

I have watched several videos of animal slaughter. None of this gave me great comfort, as witnessing the death of an animal almost as large as me at such close range might elicit more of a response.

As I approached the harvesting area, I felt some apprehension. The others in the team (Andrew, Lindsay and Claire) were rather quiet, grave and there was tangible tension in the air. I felt as though Andrew in particular was moving and speaking with calm deliberation to mask the tension that the ram might perceive.

The process of dying took longer than I expected. Andrew was kind and gentle with him as he died, removing his collar and rope. The throes and the labored breathing near the end were a bit gut wrenching. But there is a strange kind of beauty in death, as we can see below:

After death, the harvesting process began. The procedure was very methodical, giving you a small bit of distance from what you just witnessed. Now, while we harvested him, we could fully appreciate what a magnificent animal he was. The hide comes off very slowly, so it can be tanned as one large piece, starting at the hind legs:

Again, the process was slow and painstaking, with Andrew making certain it was done properly and paying the ram due respect.

Finally the hide is removed along with the head, and forelegs.

We removed the contents of the abdomen, including stomachs, intestines, liver, pancreas and spleen. The gall bladder is isolated from the liver as it contains strong organic acids and the bladder is tossed away.

We tied the end of small intestine with dental floss before pulling them through the pelvis. Removing the organs required a wheel barrow for temporary storage of the offal, which will shortly be fed to the pigs. We can see that the abdominal cavity of a ruminant constitutes a large portion of its apparent bulk:

Andrew eventually used the liver and brain in the tanning process when we finished quartering the carcass. Claire used the intestine for sausage. Lindsay removed the outer membranes of the testicles, leaving a soft white tissue for “fries”. I had a plan to marinate the heart for use in lunch in a few days.

We stored the quartered carcass in the freezer for further processing the next day. Andrew moved to the tanning area with the hide to begin that process.

Day 2

We thawed the quarters and back, rinsed them thoroughly, began deboning the meat and smoking it in batches while Claire continued to clean and process the small intestine. This took most of the day.

After the meat was smoked we weighed out two pounds at a time and packaged it in butcher paper. Some meat was also packaged for grinding. I chopped the heart into small pieces and soaked it in a marinade.

Day 3

Claire and Martin set up the meat grinder and made bulk sausage, links and ground mutton, which was also packaged and stored. We ended up processed about 45 pounds of stew meat and 40 pounds of sausage and raw meat for the freezer. Andrew cooked the fries for lunch today. They were quite tasty.

In the end, I can say the whole animal was used. I could see no waste being created. It was quite an amazing and humbling process.