The Slaughtermen of Bassatin
Poetry by Jenny Moxham

From all-creatures.org
Animal Rights Poetry

The slaughtermen of Bassatin

Were brandishing their knives.

The slaughtermen of Bassatin

Were bent on taking lives.

They cut the cattle's tendons

And ignored their anguished cries,

The torturemen of Bassatin

Then stabbed them in the eyes.

- - -

In the Bassatin slaughterhouse in Egypt, slaughtermen disable cattle by cutting the tendons of their legs then plunging a long knife through the eye which then serves as a handle to jerk the animals head around for ritual slaughter.