Behind Opaque Walls: A Story of Cruelty

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we’d all be vegetarians.” – Paul McCartney

Slaughterhouses are not housed in glass. Most are hidden behind thick walls of concrete, where no one on the outside can hear the grinding of machinery and the screams of frightened animals hidden behind the sounds of electrocution, drowning, and torture. The horrors that occur daily in slaughterhouses are unfathomable, not just for the animals but also for the workers who kill them. Animals slaughtered for consumption, including pigs, cows, chickens, and turkeys, are routinely beaten in brutal fashion before being killed. To speed animals through the slaughterhouse, workers employ cruel methods, such as the use of stun guns and cattle prods. If a pig or a cow is moving too slowly, slaughterhouse workers will “shock the animals into obedience.”  Countless hours of footage released from undercover cameras depict slaughterhouse workers punching, kicking, and slamming animals into walls. Fearing for their lives, animals have often jumped from moving trucks on highways while trying to escape their unfortunate fate.

To be clear, it is illegal to allow animals to feel pain while being slaughtered. The Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act of 1958 provides specific slaughter requirements for all meat producers supplying the Federal Government. However, the government has completely failed to enforce the law and protect either animals or house workers. Government inspectors routinely do nothing in the face of rampant violations, and of the most egregious offenders, the few that are prosecuted often get nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

One former slaughterhouse worker has spoken up about the horrors she witnessed every workday. In a chilling op-ed entitled, “It Was a Vision of Hell,” she writes, “The agonizing pain you are faced with every second, the brutal and dangerous conditions – it all traumatized me. And of course, it was worse for the animals. It was a vision of hell.” She further states:

“The fear has its own scent. It’s not something I could put into words, but even now, I would recognize it…The worst thing was seeing these poor, innocent animals, and knowing what was going to happen to them. Their whole lives had been misery and they would now die a violent, frightening death, in a cold, brutal place.”

Because Food Safety and Inspection Service officers are required to publish their audits, the public can learn about many of these horrors. Here are merely a few: (1) In a North Carolina slaughterhouse, a pig was shot through the head, enduring unspeakable pain for more than 90 seconds. The animal was bleeding from a hole in its forehead and was circling around the stunning area. (2) In a New York slaughterhouse, a pig "began to vocalize loudly and move about” while bleeding out after being cut. The employee continued to hoist the pig and several more sticks were attempted, each resulting in additional loud vocalization from the animal. The pig ceased breathing and appeared dead about 1-2 minutes after the initial stick." (3) At Swift in Colorado, an unspecified animal was shot six times over five minutes. The FSIS report noted that it "went wild after the first shot, circling its head, falling over, running into the fence and, at one point, charged toward the pen supervisor."

Nor are animals the only beings affected in these slaughterhouses. COVID-19 rates are rapidly increasing amongst workers in extreme-speed slaughterhouses, as the CDC reported 16,233 cases of infected workers in meat and poultry processing facilities, with 239 fatalities. On top of these COVID-19 cases, slaughterhouse workers are extremely susceptible to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to the PTSD Journal, slaughterhouse employees, are “hired to kill animals, such as pigs and cows that are largely gentle creatures. Carrying out this action requires workers to disconnect from the pain they are inflicting and from the creature suffering through that pain. This emotional dissonance can lead to consequences such as domestic violence, social withdrawal, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, and PTSD.”

This cruel process cannot be the normal way for humans to produce meat, for both the humans’ and animals’ sake. Change is needed, now more than ever.