35 carabaos butchered daily for palate of P’sinense

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANGALDAN – The supervisor of the abattoir here said that 35 carabaos are slaughtered everyday to satisfy the palate of the people of this town, nearby Dagupan City, and other municipalities.

Slaughterhouse Supervisor Veronica Junatas said that 24 hours a day with 27 personnel garbed on their sanitary uniforms like red t-shirts, black head covers, and rain boots not only   butchered countless numbers of hogs and cattle but water buffaloes in the stockyard located half a kilometer from the municipal hall here.

CARCASSES of water buffaloes on a side and supine positions

 at the slaughterhouse of Mangaldan in Pangasinan Province.

Most of these carabeefs are served to pigar-pigar (deep fried beef sprinkled with fresh slices of onions) restaurants here and nearby Dagupan City and Pindang (dried cured beef) stores that people inside and outside the mammoth Pangasinan province patronized.

Pigar-Pigar or Beng-Beng and Pindang are popular delicacies in the province.

Inside the slaughter house the workers teemed with activities on four dead carcasses of carabaos in a supine and side positions with their knees tied by a nylon rope as they were either skinned or their oozing blood from the neck were caught by an array buckets.

“We don’t use electrocution just like abroad to slaughter, we just stabbed and slit the center vein under the throat,” one of the workers explained how to kill the four hoofs animal while his other companions use brawn in hanging the roughly fifty kilos each of the five slabs of meat to an iron railing.

A woman checker listing the activities inside the abattoir said that all those slabs hanging on the railings would be transported to Dagupan City.

The city has a population of 171,271 (2015 Census) while this first class town, a twenty minutes ride to the City has a demography of 106,331 (2015 Census).

“We operate here 24 hours a day,”  Junatas told Northern Watch during their well-attended and lechon or roasted pigs overflowing Christmas Party.

 Junatas, who has been in the post since time immemorial, on her past interview cited that during holiday seasons roughly 200 cattle and carabao are slaughtered a day in the abattoir.

The fee for the butchers of each of the hog, cow, and water buffalo are P100, P190, P270 respectively.

Slaughterhouse Supervisor Veronica Junatas (sitting front row) recently hosted

 inside the new building of  the abattoir the Christmas Party where food particularly lechons abound.

A saleslady in the meat market said that in an ordinary day she sells three slaughtered pigs while during Christmas and New Year’s Seasons she trade ten butchered hogs to the consumers.

Another factor that spikes the activities of the abattoir here is because of the vaunted pindang or carabeef patronized by buyers.

According to Municipal Planning Development Officer Milagros Padilla there are 100 meat traders that stimulate employment here.

A half skinned carcass of a supine carabao.