Compassion in World Farming UK has launched a petition aimed directly at the Lebanese Agriculture Minister asking him to shut down the notorious Karantina Slaughterhouse. And who can blame them? Last year, my class and I visited the Karantina Slaughterhouse and what we found was disturbing to say the least: tortured animals being beaten to death or hanged and left to die in agony; men following the animals and screaming until the latter fall from sheer fear; feces, blood, urine, rotten flesh and cats eating the rotten flesh surrounding living animals. And for those of you who are Muslims, the resulting meat is far from being anything close to Halal.

CIWF released a video as well as a short eye-witness account. Needless to say, the video is not easy to watch. After seeing and reading everything for yourself, please visit the Petition page to help the campaign.

The account reads:

“The slaughterhouse is chaos. Everything is coated in a layer of blood, faeces and body parts. The slaughter area is heaving with people, live animals and slaughtered bodies. The sounds and smells are overwhelming.

Men grab defenceless sheep by the fleece or back leg. They fall to their knees and are forcefully dragged, one by one, to the slaughter line. Cattle are dragged by ropes around their necks. When they try to resist restraint they are yelled at and beaten viciously with metal rods. The animals are visibly terrified and in their frantic attempts to escape they slip, trip and fall, slamming their heads into the concrete floor.

Groups of sheep are forced to jump over dead bodies and wide gutters full of blood. They desperately try to force their way away from the bodies of other sheep they have just watched being slaughtered. Cows are left suspended fully-conscious by one leg for long periods of time, their faces resting in pools of other animals’ blood. They watch animals being slaughtered all around them. I wonder if they realize it will soon be their turn?”

To support the campaign, I want to help with the documents in my possession. Below, you will find:

The video I shot while in the slaughterhouse

6 images taken inside

A short eye-witness account with the link to its full version

Taken by myself Taken by myself Taken by myself Taken by myself Taken by myself Taken by myself

The following post is an eye-witness account of the horrors happening inside the Karantina Slaughterhouse. I have visited the slaughterhouse last Monday the 2nd of July [2012] with my Environmental and Public Health Class of the American University of Beirut. This post is accompanied with graphic images and a video which are placed at the bottom end for those who feel like they cannot handle it. This is only an eye-witness report.

It wouldn’t have been easy for me to believe that such a thing existed so close to my daily path to university. When one thinks of a slaughterhouse, one does know that cows and sheep are killed in the end. However, one doesn’t necessarily imagine a place where cows and sheep are freely tortured and die a slow and agonizing death.

But that’s what we saw. Not only was the place in such as state of filth that is beyond description, but the inhuman and inhumane conditions that both men and animals have to go through is beyond description as well. I was out of breath for a good deal of my stay there despite considering myself as being now used to difficult conditions. Most of my classmates were in total shock to say the least and some of us, including myself, were extremely angry at what was going on.

[…]

You can read the full account here

33.888629 35.495479

Msaytbeh, Liban