Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Raccolta D’Inverno, Winter’s Harvest (1979)

play Animal suffering or death
clip Porcine processing

This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

A pig is slaughtered and disembowelled at the abattoir. Its carcass is carved up and joins dozens of others in a refrigerated storeroom.

Curator’s notes

by Damien Parer

A strong contrast to the slaughter depicted in clips one and two. The sight of a live pig being hung up and put on a production line still kicking is distressing.

This clip shows the process involved in killing and preparing a pig to be sold as meat. The footage is taken inside an abattoir where the live pig is rounded up prior to being stunned, killed, cleaned, dismembered and hung in the refrigeration unit. The process is handled with speed and efficiency and the images of killing, washing and dismemberment are accompanied by the natural sounds of the animal squealing and then the sounds of the equipment that is used to process the animal.