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leSchaf t1_j476kb9 wrote

I don't actually have first hand knowledge but slaughtering livestock just for adrenal glands simply makes no sense. A meat processing facility will buy livestock, slaughter them, process them and then sell the various components. There's a certain demand by companies making compounds such as epinephrine for animal parts used in synthesis. They will go through a supplier that will purchase animal parts from meat processor that they know they can sell at a certain price. I'm sure for at least some meat processors it's more lucrative to separate out kidneys with adrenal glands to sell separately at a higher price than e.g. just sell them together with all the rest to a company making dog food.

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sighthoundman t1_j49fby3 wrote

>I don't actually have first hand knowledge but slaughtering livestock just for adrenal glands simply makes no sense.

And yet.

We (as in humans, not as in you and me) slaughter rhinos for their horns, sharks for their fins, (both of those are "traditional medicine") and elephants for their teeth (to make trinkets and piano keys).

Bezoars (most frequently gallstones but sometimes other types of spherical objects from an animal's intestines) were popular in Europe from the 11th to the 17th centuries. Unicorn bezoars could cure anything.

Only the piano keys is /s. Everything else went away when we adopted a more scientific approach to life (/s), but was once believed to be true.

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