Slaughterhouse Noise's

Slaughterhouse Noise's 

By Paul McCann

The old slaughter house stood beside a waste ground in Mossy Valley  . Most of the local men folk worked in there . It was a hard job and a cruel environment however it provided them with a weekly wage and other benefits  as their families were never short of food . Most every nights the screams from the cattle , sheep and lambs could be heard all over the town  . It was as if the animals knew what was coming .  There were some men who revelled in killing the animals but many just put up with it as a way to earn a living . The herding of livestock from trucks and train carriages into the abattoir and restraining of the beasts kept many men busy every day . There were many jobs to be done by the men . The heavy laborious task of carrying sides of beef into the trucks for delivery to butchers . The cleaning up of all the blood and guts as well hosing down all of areas frequently during the shifts . Then the abattoirs themselves had their own sections where butchers worked tirelessly to package the best meats for top hotels and wealthy homes .

There in dark corners butchers knives worked away in the hands of those who knew exactly what areas to cut and how to utilize every scrap they could . 

The lambs would be sent to the slaughter house door in a section called the Brae before they were taken away to be killed . The short lives of the lambs ended suddenly . They were here and gone and seen no more .Cattle were helpless standing in the firing line and offered no resistance apart from their moaning and eerie screams of fear as their lives were about to end .

For years the slaughter went on until eventually as more people came to live in the area , the slaughterhouse finally closed its doors and the floors were hosed and all of the machinery was sold .

Now in its place a new owner arrive and kept chickens in cages . The new owner Greg Easterby , had thousands of chickens laying eggs that were collected and put into boxes for supermarket stores .

Gregs Eggs supplied several large stores in the region and required only a small number of workers to be employed to keep the place running day and night . Some of the night shift workers had heard and seen some unusual activities that made them a little scared . There was an awful smell that constantly filled the air and sometimes they would hear ghostly baa’s that seem to echo and one of the workers described one of the sounds as a rattling from the gates of hell .  Then passers by also began to hear sounds at night that echoed all around the neighbourhood . The local church began to get involved and sent prayer teams into the egg factory .

The focus of attention caught the interest of the local media and some tv came crews were soon at the old doors of the slaughterhouse .

Greg sold the place as there were issues now about the cruel way he was treating chickens

Strange as it seems many of the original workers that were employed by the abattoirs were dying from an unknown illness that spread like wildfire around the town .  

Some reports came in about little lost lambs being found around the place where the old slaughterhouse stood .

The local council made a decision that the land where the slaughterhouse had once stood was never to have house built anywhere on it or near it . The land became a wasted land and even though the old doors of the slaughterhouse were closed it was rumoured that the sounds of the slaughtering could sometimes still be heard by people passing by . Someone in the church erected aa small monument to all the animals that has been slaughtered there .

The words were simple but they said a lot .

“I’m a lamb at the gate and it’s dark in this place

There’s no where to escape and no where to keep safe.

Where is the good shepherd I’m a lamb at the gate,

I’ve wondering where to go , how long must I wait “.

The End