Abattoir Dakar

Abattoir Dakar is Senegal's primary slaughterhouse complex. It serves as a major economic hub and an industrial waste-to-energy model in the country. Several hundreds of cattle, sheep and goats, as well as pigs and camels are processed daily to supply the capital. In addition to meat production, the facility recycles its waste to feed an industrial biogas production plant. The site supports thousands of small jobs, ranging from traders to micro-entrepreneurs who collect slaughter by-products for various commercial uses. Thanks to one of these traders who is also a client of a microfinance institution that I work with, I had the opportunity to visit Abattoir Dakar. These images might be considered disturbing and brutal, and many people might think that such places should not exist. I was deeply touched by this experience, too. At the same time, I believe much more consideration and respect is shown for these animals than for their peers spending their whole life squeezed in intensive animal farming systems and treated with clinical detachment.