Until the early 1930s, all the slaughtering at a freezing works was done by solo butchers. Each man would kill four or five sheep at a time, then skin and dress the carcasses one by one. A skilled butcher could easily kill and dress over 100 sheep in a day. This photograph from around 1926 shows how unhygienic the system was, as the meat could easily be contaminated by the skins and waste.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Alexander Turnbull Library, Steffano Webb Collection (PAColl-3061)
Reference:
1/1-019459; G
Photograph by Steffano Francis Webb
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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