I think one of us is misunderstanding what he said.
The way I read it, he was not saying "butchering made a connection between me and the animal I was butchering," but rather that "butchering helped me make a connection between the steak and the animal it came from."
That is to say, I understand him as saying that he now recognizes that a given cut of meat comes from a given place on an animal, rather than being just a piece of meat.
As I mentioned, I'd seen the full process (farm to plate) before on TV in documentaries and I'm fully aware that the pig in the field will eventually end up on my plate, but actually having the dead pig in front of me and cutting it up helped me fully connect the two by adding the hands on aspect of actually being involved.
This isn't about having a connection with a particular animal, it's having a connection with the process.
The way I read it, he was not saying "butchering made a connection between me and the animal I was butchering," but rather that "butchering helped me make a connection between the steak and the animal it came from."
That is to say, I understand him as saying that he now recognizes that a given cut of meat comes from a given place on an animal, rather than being just a piece of meat.