Operation Glass Walls
Operation Glass Walls
In the United States and across the globe, farmed animals and slaughterhouse workers are often hidden from the public eye, shielded behind private walls and isolated in remote locations.
Undercover footage regularly reveals shocking animal cruelty in animal factories. The meat industry usually responds by condemning their workers, and assuring the public that those involved will be punished. Thus, instead of the abuse being addressed as standard practice, each case is treated as an “isolated incident”.
These mixed messages leave many of us wondering who to trust and what to believe.
So what really happens in an everyday slaughterhouse?
In Defense of Animals is tearing down the wall of secrecy, and informing consumers by asking the workers themselves.
Investigator: Gail A. Eisnitz, Author of Slaughterhouse.
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1) “I’ve seen thousands of cows go through alive. Sometimes they have all the skin out and they’re all peeled. You can tell they’re alive because when you look at their eyes, you can see tears…” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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2) “I’ve complained about the way animals are treated to the foremen, the inspectors, the kill floor superintendent over the beef division… I’ve gotten so mad some days I’d go and pound on the wall because they won’t do anything about it.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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3) “A lot of the guys drink and drug their problems away. Some of them end up abusing their spouses because they can’t get rid of the feelings.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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4) “On the slaughter trucks in winter, pigs freeze to the steel railing. They’ll hook a cable on him and pull him out, maybe pull a leg off while they’re still alive.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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5) “We used to trim the shit off the meat. Then we washed the shit off the meat. Now, the consumer eats the shit off the meat.” -David Carney, USDA Meat Inspector. |
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6) “Piglets that don’t grow fast enough are swung and bashed headfirst onto the concrete floor. This is standard practice by mega-farm workers and called ‘thumping’” – U.S. Factory Farm Worker. |
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7) “The company won’t allow workers to leave the line when they have to go to the bathroom. Sometimes they have to relieve themselves on the floor.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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8) “Rotten meat is mixed with fresh meat and sold for baby food… We are asked to mix it with the fresh food, and this is the way it is sold. You can actually see the worms inside the meat.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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9) Q: “So what’s the procedure for checking humane slaughter?” A: “There isn’t one… Inspectors are required to enforce humane regulations on paper only.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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10) “They end up drowning in the scalding tank before they ever bleed to death. They hit the water and start screaming and kicking.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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11) “You don1t care about people’s pain anymore. I used to be very sensitive and willing to listen. After a while, you become desensitized.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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12) “Pigs on the kill floor have come up and nuzzled me like a puppy… two minutes later I had to kill them… I can’t care.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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13) “Mucous and blood clot defects on the animal’s flesh don’t count unless they are over 2 cm long. The USDA has set tolerance limits at 35 defects per carcass..” – U.S. Meat inspector, affidavit. |
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14) “The boss paid the inspector off in meat, sometimes cash, to let them get away with stuff which shouldn’t happen.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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15) “If I see a live animal, I can’t stop the line. The supervisor has told us that you have to work on a live animal.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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16) “If she collapses near a chute, a meat hook is shoved through her cheek and she’s just dragged forward.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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17) “Nobody knows who’s responsible for correcting animal abuse at the plant. The USDA does zilch. Especially in hog kill, where you have hogs going through at eleven hundred an hour, the abuse is totally out of control.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse worker. |
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18) “I’ve seen birds with cancerous tumors come through regularly, sometimes all day long. While on quality control, I’d pull off those I saw, but I couldn’t possibly catch them all.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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19) “What they usually do is when the cow’s guts fall onto the gut table, they rip the uterus open and pull these calves out. It’s nothing to have a live cow hanging up in front of you and see the calf inside kicking, trying to get out.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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20) “They’re fighting you, kicking at you, squealing, trying to bite you- doing whatever they can to try and get away from you…You become emotionally dead.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse worker. |
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21) “They cut off the feet while the cow is breathing. It makes noise. It’s looking around… Their eyes look like they are popping out. Cows can get seven minutes down the line and still be alive.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse worker. |
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22) “I can remember conscious hogs blowing bubbles in the blood collection tank – it was sickening.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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23) “After they are hung, some chickens fall into the drain that runs down the middle of the line. This is where roaches, diseased parts, fecal contamination and blood are washed down… The Perdue supervisors told us to take the fallen chickens out of the drain and send them back down the line.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse worker. |
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24) “The USDA vet would stand there to see how many live ones were going in. I’d be shooting every one five, six times. She’d yell at me but she’d never stop the line. They don’t slow that line down for nothing or nobody.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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25) “It bothers me to hear them. You can hear them bellow.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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26) “All animals fear when they are going to die” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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27) “Sometimes they can’t get close enough with the knocking gun. Sometimes the gun gets wet, gets blood up in it, and it don’t shoot. The boss tells us, ‘Run and cut his throat!’…He’d cry out. Cry and Kick. And he’d be choking from the blood, still blowing out air.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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28) “I’ve seen trucks dump piles of cripples from eight feet off the ground.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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29) “Sows with broken pelvises pull themselves around with their front legs, scooting along on their rumps for so long they get emaciated.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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30) “These animals are just screaming in pain” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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31) “I’d go to the office, I’d go to OSHA [Occupation Safety and Health Administration], the USDA… No one would take action.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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32) “Two or three drivers chase the hogs up. They prod them a lot because the hogs don’t want to go. When the hogs smell blood, they don’t want to go.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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33) “Line speeds are so fast, they don’t have a chance to bleed out.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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34) “I’ve taken out my job pressure on the animals, on my wife –who I almost lost– and myself, with heavy drinking.” – U.S. Slaughterhouse Worker. |
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