“
My nose filled with the pointy brown scent of cattle shit and the patient green smell of cattle breath, the acrid vinegar smell of cattle piss and the rich, coppery smell of cattle blood—great shining oceans of cattle blood, draining into sluices arranged in the kill floor. I saw giant pellucid piles of cattle nerves and caul fat, and I watched the peculiar way that the quieted eyes of cows lolled as their throats were professionally sliced. I witnessed the snick of the blade and the mercurial quiver of death running quick through a one-ton animal. I saw hides slick and shiny with gore, and I saw lines of men bent over tables of meat, intent as rabbis over scrolls, taking apart the cows with lawful precision. I saw chickens, too, so many flappy birds, and sheep, bleating like human children, their long-lashed eyes innocent and bright—until they were neither.
”
”
Chelsea G. Summers (A Certain Hunger)