Inside a Haitian Slaughterhouse

A wheelbarrow loaded with two butchered pigs is seen at La Saline slaughterhouse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 19, 2015. Reuters photographer Andres Martinez Casares: “The grunts of a pig or the bleating of a goat are one thing. Then there's the sound of animals about to be killed. That's something else. If you haven't heard that before, it's quite something. It's very early in the morning when this happens, well before dawn. Day after day, it's the same toil over and over again. The market of Croix des Bossales, in an area that once held a slave market, stands among impoverished Haiti's interim parliament compound, shipping ports, and downtown Port-au-Prince. The outdoor slaughterhouse of La Saline, which supplies the market, is mired in mud and littered with rubbish. It's a cluster of shacks, some with tin roofs, other with tarpaulins. It isn't among the best neighbourhoods, so to start with it was complicated being there. Little by little people became more trusting and let me work in peace to document the daily grind of killing and preparing the market. Smell is one of the most basic associations we have, taking us back to childhood or reminding us of a loved one. The stench produced from burning animal skins is very distinctive. But the smell that best defines this place is a mix of damp earth, animal dung and blood, which you can savour from the road when you pass by. If in the future I happen to chance on that kind of smell again, I am sure it will take me back to Port-au-Prince in the hours before dawn”. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)
Inside a Haitian Slaughterhouse
   
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