1839. Comic Almanack, Sept. Soon they’ll be senseless brutes,
without a bit of feeling, Or else they’ll pine away so fast, the
knackers scarce will skin ’em.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lond. Poor, i. 189. The cat and
dogs-meat dealers ... generally purchase the meat at the knackers’
(horse-slaughterers’) yards.