Slaughterhouses act as the starting point of the meat industry, where stock come from farms/market to enter the food chain. They have existed as long as there have been settlements too large for individuals to rear their own stock for personal consumption.

Early maps of London show numerous stockyards in the periphery of the city, where slaughter occurred in the open air. A term for such open-air slaughterhouse is a shambles. There are streets named "The Shambles" in some English towns which got their name from having been the site on which butchers killed and prepared animals for consumption

Law

In Alberta, meat inspection is conducted in Provincial abattoirs by inspectors from the Meat Inspections Branch of the Regulatory Services Division of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

For more information from the Government of Alberta please visit the Government of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development web site.

(opposite - In the slaughterhouse, Lovis Corinth, 1893)