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Animal love Quote by E. Everett Evans

“They walked gingerly across the junk-filled vacant lots to the local abattoir - a place of infinite fascination, with its strange sights and stranger smells. It was a thrill - because it outraged their every sense of animal love - to watch the killings. To see calm, innocent cattle led one by one…” quote by E. Everett Evans
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““They walked gingerly across the junk-filled vacant lots to the local abattoir - a place of infinite fascination, with its strange sights and stranger smells. It was a thrill - because it outraged their every sense of animal love - to watch the killings. To see calm, innocent cattle led one by one into that room with the fetid smells and the stained, concrete floor always a'swish with running water. To see brawny, heavy-set Gus Milner and his equally big son, Charley, slip the snubbing rope through the ring in the cow's nose, and relentlessly draw its head down and down until its nose touched the heavy ring set in the floor, then fasten it. Their hearts did strange nip-ups just back of their mouths as one of the men would pick up the heavy sledge, and with one great, perfectly aimed blow, strike the animal just between and a bit above the eyes. They always jumped at the sudden slump as the carcass dropped, spraddled and lifeless, to the floor. ("The Shed")””

E. Everett Evans

About This Quote

Source Short Story: “The Shed” by E. Everett Evans, 1955

The passage describes a disturbing fascination with animal slaughter, highlighting the clash between empathy for animals and the brutal reality of killing.

In simple terms: People can be both horrified and intrigued by violent acts.

Key Takeaway

Recognize and question the allure of cruelty.

Themes

violence empathy human nature

Mood

uneasy reflective

Type

literary descriptive

When to use this quote

  • rural life
  • farm work
  • animal processing
  • spectatorship

Key Concepts

psychology of fascination ethical conflict

Questions to Reflect On

  • Why do we feel a thrill from witnessing suffering?
  • How does distance affect our moral judgment?
A Different Perspective

The narrative may romanticize brutality, obscuring moral responsibility.

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