The Crumby Ex-Butcher

This is my dad. I call him Bestest Daddy. 

It was Fathers Day in the UK yesterday (17th June), so I thought now would be the perfect time for a topical post. You see, there is something very interesting about Bestest Daddy: He used to be a butcher. Yea I know what you’re thinking, that’s not very interesting, but there is more to it… Now he’s vegan. 

That’s pretty interesting, right?

It’s only in the last year that Bestest Daddy has opened up about his days as a butcher. I’ve learnt so much from his personal experiences.

Whilst working there, he was completely desensitised to the suffering and death of animals, such a difference to the man he is now. Him and his colleagues would gut pigs, remove organs, de-feather chickens and turkeys, remove eyes – all done completely at ease with no thought for the animal.

Bestest Daddy also told me of some horror stories which would be completely normal practice in butchery, whether at a factory farm or private establishment. He told me of the tumours they would find on the animals, animals which had clearly been sick before slaughter, they would remove the tumours as best as they could but the rest of the body was still prepared as normal. Eating tumours shouldn’t give you cancer (in some forms it is contagious but not many) but whether harmless or not, who actually wants to eat cancer? This is aside from the enormous amount of pus, fat and boils that they would try to avoid when butchering the animal. Anything edible that couldn’t be used was collected up with the old meat and made into mince. 

I always wondered why he avoided mince. 

Bestest Daddy also told me how they used to spray meat so that it would look fresher. This got me Googling and it turns out (although banned in Europe – UK watch out!) that it is super common practice to spray carbon monoxide on meat to make it look fresher than it would normally, especially in the US. Yummy! 

Skipping many years ahead, on more than one occasion Bestest Daddy would suggest that I was too thin and pale, so I should ‘get a steak and kidney pie down me‘ – typical butcher, right? But then his attitude began to change when he rescued 5 chickens from a battery farm, it came as no surprise that he then struggled to eat his neatly packaged, supermarket chicken for Sunday dinner. From then on his transition began to accelerate… From eating meat to pescatarian, a quick move to vegetarian, then after a while of claiming he’d never give up cheese, we’ve arrived at vegan. Yep, his feelings for animals now perfectly align with his actions and he’ll tell you that he feels amazing for it. 

It’s not often that we hear of middle-aged (sorry Bestest Daddy!) men going vegan and I am over-the-moon proud that my dad has gone against social norms and now refuses to take part in the intentional suffering of animals. 

Thank you for your mega-ness Bestest Daddy and happy Fathers Day 💚