It's What's For Dinner
Look beyond the white fence and green field. That’s not a hill of dirt. Those are thousands of cattle about to meet their maker. Feed lots like this, usually found adjacent to beef processing plants, are scattered throughout Kansas. I’ve never bought into the "soulful eyes" perspective of cattle. I’ve been around the animals enough to know that they they’re pretty vacant. Still, I pity their horrid fly-swatting existence and inevitable fate.
posted by Happy In Bag @ 7:42 AM
3 Comments:
At 9:23 AM,
FletcherDodge said…
Yeah, and they taste really good when grilled over and open flame or cooked at low heat for about 12 hours (depending ont eh cut).
At 5:10 PM,
Anonymous said…
Nothing dumber than a cow!
My family lives in Garden City, KS - the Garden spot of Kansas. They slaughter 10's of thousands of cattle a year out there. The stockyards that feed the slaughterhouses look just like your picture. They still pay cowboys to ride the fence for $10 - $15 per hour and they get to provide their own horse and tack. The gangs of poor workers at the plants (legal and illegal) run the streets and fill the hospitals. It smells like death and manure, the wind blows all the time and they are reliving the dust bowl. Luckily, there are plenty of trailers to live in, they have a new Walmart and, excitingly, an Applebees. There is a dry riverbed and some sand dunes in close proximity for recreation – the putt putt closed last year.
Come to think of it -- the cows may not be the dumbest....
At 5:16 PM,
Happy In Bag said…
Yeah, I didn't mention the odor- "death and manure" captures it. And towns like Garden City are being completely transformed by the immigrant workers you refer to- I'm a big fan of tamale stands and cantinas, though, so it works for me.
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