Paris, Texas--The Abattoir
An abattoir or slaughterhouseAbattoir is a word that I seldom see, or use for that matter. It is the same meaning as slaughterhouse.
When I was a kid we used to live across the road from the city abattoir. Paris, Texas had become a cattle and farming center around 1845 and was the site of the first municipally owned and operated abattoir in the United States.
I can vividly remember the terrible smells that emanated from the place when the wind was from a certain direction. The burning of wastes from slaughtered animals caused the smells. Other times if the wind was not blowing from that direction then we smelled nothing.
I was unable to find out if Paris still has an abattoir but I am sure it must have. It is a place where farmers or anyone can have an animal slaughtered for processing.
In fact, in an earlier post I told of my parents two hogs that they had raised to have our meat for the winter and just before butchering time they became sick with erysipelas and had to be euthanized causing a total loss of their meat for the winter. My Dad took those hogs to the city abattoir to be euthanized and destroyed.
I think the use of the word abattoir has mostly been replaced by slaughter house. I still recall vividly the bad smells that came from the City abattoir across the road from us.
posted by kyra lafain @ 11/09/2008 12:30:00 PM
2 Comments:
The abattoir has been gone for many years. I want to say it was shut down probably sometime in the 1940's or 50's. I know I don't remember it being there. There's a municipal swimming pool there now.
Please excuse my lack of agreement, but the abattoir was not a rendering plant. In Paris, the rendering plant, aka, “soap factory” was located on Clement Street where offal provided by the abattoir was rendered for the gelatin and fats used in soap or glue manufacturing. The abattoir (Fr. slaughter house) was located on Center Street, just off North Main. It was established in 1909 and received live farm animals for slaughter and processing for private individuals and retail markets. It was not the source of any bad smells, for it was operated under strict sanitation guidelines.
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