Dear Editor,
I feel compelled to respond to Bernard Rollins’ comments (Can Vet J 2013;54:630–631) in his reply to the April 2013 ethical question of the month regarding the use of undercover camera, and more specifically his comment encouraging video footage of slaughter houses to be available to consumers.
Although I agree that people should know where their food comes from, to reveal the graphic nature of an abattoir has the potential to cause a drastic repercussion in an already floundering beef industry.
Revealing slaughter procedure would have had a significantly less “shock and awe” effect on people 50–100 years ago, when a lot more people were from rural areas and were well aware of where their food came from.
Cinematography has the ability to be educational rather than horrifying. Exposing urbanites to scenes on film meant to reveal the horror of an abattoir could be likened to teaching a population that has long forgotten how to swim by taking them out to the middle of a lake and pushing them in without so much as letting them get their feet wet beforehand.
Footnotes
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