mike;i applaud your episode on rendering cows,having lived on a farm and calling what we call the dead wagon many times in the past and also helping driver to load carcasses in truck,i know what it was like to have done it,not something for a weak stomach!but i have also hauled the finished product from such plants when i drove a truck hauling grain,which included meat&bone meal,blood meal,which is highly toxic and very nasty to unload,to feed plants around the country who manufactured pet foods and livestock feeds,so my hat is off to you for covering that story.not sure how rest of your veiwers will feel about it but i understand its neccesity and function for enviorment,thanks again for that insite into how a rendering plant functions as i never had the oppertunity to see exactly how the whole thing worked from when the truck got there to when final product loaded out.
Originally posted by donethat: mike;i applaud your episode on rendering cows,having lived on a farm and calling what we call the dead wagon many times in the past and also helping driver to load carcasses in truck,i know what it was like to have done it,not something for a weak stomach!but i have also hauled the finished product from such plants when i drove a truck hauling grain,which included meat&bone meal,blood meal,which is highly toxic and very nasty to unload,to feed plants around the country who manufactured pet foods and livestock feeds,so my hat is off to you for covering that story.not sure how rest of your veiwers will feel about it but i understand its neccesity and function for enviorment,thanks again for that insite into how a rendering plant functions as i never had the oppertunity to see exactly how the whole thing worked from when the truck got there to when final product loaded out.
Welcome to the board donethat. Tonights show covered things that most people don't want to think about. It is a necessary and important function to the environment and I thought this was one of the better shows as far as being really informative. Hats off to you, Mike and anyone else that has ever been a part of it.
Great job Mike I can't imagine how hard it was to keep our stomach settled in this episode!!! Thanks for the insight to the matter of rendering. I had always heard about it and never could find anything out. Great job!!! Was this in the top few jobs that were the most disgusting for you Mike?
I also thank you Mike for doing this one! As a lifetime Rancher I have called the death truck many times. I have never known what happened to the animals once they were on the truck. I think that it is great that the network allowed you to do this one. I never figured they would allow you to do it. To many tree huggers that would think that was desecrating a temple or something. I always laugh when I see the death truck sitting infront of a fast food establishment!!! Maybe making a delivery? Just kidding! Take care and keep the ag. related shows coming. It is great for people to see that there food doesn't just come pre wrapped in a supermarket and what it takes to get it there! Thanks from me and tons of other Rancher/Farmers!
The other day my 17 year old son and I watched the DJ episode about rendering.
As you are fond of saying, "Good Lord, Man!" How did you deal with the smell in addition to the sight of guts and the sound of grinding bones? A veritable cornucopia of sensory input, I'm sure.
You should be proud that you were able to gross out a teenage boy. Of course it probably didn't help that he and I were sharing a pizza right about the time the first carcass went into the grinder....
Great episode!!! We had a rendering plant here a few years ago sadly it closed down. I always wondered what went on there. Its such a shame now that all dead creatures have to be taken to the local dump. It is truly the ultimate in recycling!! So glad you guys had the guts to show an episode like this its REAL life keep up the good work!!!
Hi, my Aunt is writing this for me. We watched your episode of rendering tonight on t.v. I want to know did you get freaked out when you saw the cow getting chopped up?
Hi Trevor. I noticed that too. I was wondering if it was because Discovery is just a little bit gun shy about rendering part of the episode. Here in Denver that early Tuesday time slot is at 6 p.m. and it wouldn't surprise if somebody decided maybe that really wasn't the appropriate time to be showing that episode.
Who knows??
I really enjoyed your segment. Ever since I was very little and first heard about the Tarpits I've been very curious about them and just how they sit in the middle of a large metropolitan area. It was nice to finally get a better idea of the whole operation.
I really, really love to see stuff like this! Dirty Jobs shows us what goes on in the world, I don't think that anything else comes even close to this. It satisfies a curiosity in me and I want to know more, about everything. Thanks to Mike and everyone else involved,
This episode really emphasizes what the show is about and I really appreciated it. There's too much censorship and in the real world places like that rendering facility need to exist for the greater good. This in my opinion was one of your best episodes so far! Thank you Mike for you contribution.
I have driven past or near that plant near Chico, CA dozens of times and it can sometimes be smelled over 25 miles away. I commend Mike. I used to drive past that place as little as possible and as quickly as possible. That was a very interesting episode by the way!
Hey Mike. Just another positive comment about the show on rendering. I think it's very important that ALL jobs are shown that are regularly kept in the "dark" as is shows everyone that it takes guts to do a job well done. Thank you for being there to show us for the last 5 years, and hopefully for many years to come.
I'm glad this episode was done as many people have no idea. I was a little disappointed though. Rendering is also used in petfood as meat and bone meal. (sometimes the meat is specificly labeled, sometimes not) So many people do not realize that the lower grade pet food you buy (cheaper) the more rendering is used. I think many people would look at the quality of the food they feed their pets. It would have been nice if that connection was made for people to think about.
Mike asked at one point why when they asked many companies to shoot this and this was the only one to say yes, everyone else said no. Most likely it's the petfood connection that companies don't like to advertise or bring to the consumer's attention. No one wants to think that people are feed dear Fido this stuff.
