Traveling in the early '80's with Brahma sampradaya prabhu in Virginia it was late, 10:30 pm or so and we were really just looking for a place to rest for the night. But we saw a factory of some sort with all it's lights on. So we pulled over.
It was a chicken slaughterhouse. Needless to say it was horrible. The smells, the sounds, everything. Just horrible. There was a truck unloading chickens who were more dead than alive just from the transport. Stuffed too many in cages piled high on the truck. The workers had aprons stained with blood and very wild looks in their eyes. Two workers were playing at a knife fight in the parking lot near the truck. One chicken tried to escape but the unloader had a stick with a crook at the end. Like a cat he toyed with the poor bird trying to run away but finally caught it.
The birds were placed upside down fastened by their feet on conveyors as their wings fell open from the force of gravity and their weakened condition as they rotated high in the air on the way to the examining room and then the end of their journey in a chicken body.
The smell was so horrible I can still smell it. It was break time and the workers were deciding what kind sandwiches they wanted from the vending machines. We were able to distribute Back To Godhead magazines to everyone, blood stained aprons and all.
I couldn't sleep that night. I tossed and turned from the horror. Finally I had somewhat of a realization that what I had seen what the workings of the modes of nature at they direct the karma of the jivas. The workers were headed for a fate much like their victims and the victims had no doubt acted in a way that got them into the situation they were in. The only solution for the suffering and the unbreakable cycle of karma was devotional service to Krishna.
There they were blood stained aprons and giving a donation for Back to Godhead magazine. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
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