Haiti slaughterhouse

If you haven’t heard that before and you’re not prepared, it’s quite something.

It’s very early in the morning when this goes on, well before dawn. Day after day, all through the week, 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, others with tarpaulins.

Jesner Sakage, seen here peeling a goat’s head, is one of the slaughter workers. He scrapes the snout free of its hair with a dull butter knife, adding to the pile of fur in between his feet.

“I’ve been here since 1982," says Sakage, 78, his mouth with less than half its intended teeth.

This isn’t among the best neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince, so to start with it was complicated, at times, being there.

Some people didn’t agree with me taking photos and that became a little problematic. But little by little people became more trusting and let me work in peace.

I spent several days over a number of months documenting the workers’ daily grind of killing and then preparing the animals for sale when the market opens.

Jean Libonet has been slaughtering and skinning goats for some 16 years.

Libonet and an assistant drape the goat's head over the edge of the table, cut its throat, and collect the blood in a bucket below. Nothing goes to waste.

He works a knife from the back hoof, slicing the skin and tendon up the knee, then snaps the bone at the knee joint. He drapes the dead animal over a wooden rod, joining six others.

His wooden butchering table has machete and knife marks all over. Anxious stray dogs hide under the table, ready to pounce on any loose morsel falling in view.

Here, Sackage sticks his hand into a slowly bubbling pot of green liquid and fishes out a goat head.

Seeing animals being killed isn’t new to me.

In some places in Spain, where I am from, the winter slaughter still happens. It’s traditional in rural areas. Families kill pigs, especially, but also cows, then prepare dry-cured meat that can last a whole year.