Out here on the island they raise beef cattle, organic I think.
Some areas are still pretty rural, shared private roads going back into a few spreads/acreage.
When I first moved up here I was doing residential plumbing.
I was on one of these roads going to a house when I came around a sweeping bend, I saw a box truck with a boom coming out the back of it.
I saw guys and a bunch of cows.
I saw where they had penned up a bunch of cows.
I was wondering what in the heck was going on.....
Was it a vet thing, or????
Then I saw a guy take a stick like thing and punch a tethered cow in the head....
It dropped instantly to the ground.
I almost lost my stomach.
I then glanced at the cows penned up, they were freaking.
I drove off sick.
I guess they kill these guys in the field here, then hook them to that boom, pull into a refrigerated box truck and take them to be butchered elsewhere.
It still gives me the creeps, but I put it under the reasoning of things I just don't have to get/understand.
I love a good steak ( I pretty much have to cook my own, like fish too, as most places don't really do it right ) and I am glad others are willing to do what it takes so I can enjoy something.
Life is really full with stuff like that, I will put it in the " It is what it is" category and go on
PS: I too remember the butcher shop JOG, it was a treat to go with my dad there. To be a butcher in those days was a good paying job. to know one in the neighborhood was always a good thing, and was a special treat to go to their bar-b-ques