The BBC has recently published some anonymous reflections of a slaughterhouse worker. This individual's story confirms several things that we have long suspected: that "doing the job" depends upon living in a constant state of dissociation; that one needs to "divide¹" the cow into a list of composite meat products to avoid seeing it as a living being; that the whole enterprise depends on avoiding the animal's gaze; that workers in the abattoir have thoughts of suicide.