The legalized suffering and slaughter of farmed animals is horrific. Because of this, many of us instinctively feel that the suffering of slaughterhouse workers is something they deserve given their “choice” of profession, but quite often there is not much true choice involved. Many slaughterhouse workers are immigrants escaping horrors in their home country, desperate for work to support themselves and their families. Slaughterhouses often deliberately hire undocumented workers, manipulating them into doing unethical jobs in inhumane conditions under the threat of deportation.

Those workers born in the US are usually from low-income areas, disadvantaged in terms of educational prospects, and with few job opportunities. For almost all slaughterhouse workers, the choice is to scrape a living in this industry, or find themselves without basic necessities like food, hygiene or housing.

Not only is the rate of physical injury in slaughterhouses three times that of other factories in the US, with thousands of injuries going unreported every year, but slaughterhouse workers also suffer immense mental health problems. Being forced to kill animals at a rate of one thousand an hour, lest you or your own family go hungry or become homeless inflicts incredible damage on a human being. This leaves slaughterhouse workers with posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, and completely desensitized to violence. As a result, criminologists have found a strong correlation between the presence of slaughterhouses in a town and high crime rates, even when compared to counties with similar socio-economic statuses without slaughterhouses.

Meat, eggs and dairy are violent products that wind up on our plates through violent processes, gravely impacting the people unfortunate enough to be forced into this work to survive, spreading greater violence throughout the community. If we buy these products, we are the ones truly responsible for causing immense animal suffering as well as the suffering of the people we are paying to kill animals. Rather than blaming workers, which is easy to do, but counterproductive and pointless, we need to focus our attention up the ladder to the see the system as a whole and to be honest about our role in supporting it. This involves the corporations that build and fund farms and slaughterhouses, and the consumers, who drive the demand for animal products. If the market demand for animal products dried up and was replaced by alternatives, these terribly dehumanizing jobs would no longer exist. It’s that simple.

Be part of the solution by downloading our free electronic Vegan Starter Kit here

To read more about Animal Agriculture and Slaughterhouse Workers
click here and here

Animal Abuse = Human Abuse

Why is making the connection important?

As animal advocates, we are often met with the claim that our advocacy for animals is somehow less important because human suffering is a priority. However, by clearly illustrating the connection of how animal abuse also leads to human abuse, this not only counteracts this quick dismissal of animal suffering, but it can also make our message easier for others to relate to from a human rights perspective since abuse is cyclical.

This is the 10th and final release of our series “Animal Abuse = Human Abuse” designed to help expand the reach of our advocacy for animals to new audiences.

Stay tuned for the release of our Top 10 Animal Abuse=Human Abuse list, as well as an official announcement from IDA regarding a new community project we’re launching this year to address these animal and human abuses.