{"id":128449,"date":"2019-02-25T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=128449"},"modified":"2019-02-22T08:07:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T08:07:37","slug":"animals-workers-and-consumers-suffer-under-usda-slaughter-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/02\/animals-workers-and-consumers-suffer-under-usda-slaughter-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Animals, Workers and Consumers Suffer Under USDA Slaughter Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is letting slaughter plants kill at increasingly dangerous rates, benefiting only the meat industry at the expense of animals, workers and consumers.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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Nasty, brutish and short: As many as 175 birds are killed each minute at this Amick Farms facility. (Photo credit: Compassion Over Killing)<\/p><\/div>\n

21 Feb 2019 – <\/em>One of the U.S.\u2019s most dangerous industries is becoming even more hazardous for workers, as animal welfare and consumer safety are also put on the line. The federal government is allowing more and more slaughter plants to kill animals at increasingly dangerous rates.<\/p>\n

At the end of September, the Trump administration announced<\/a> that the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) would be granting waivers allowing chicken slaughter plants to operate at higher kill speeds\u2014going from a staggering 140 birds killed per minute (or more than two birds every single second) to 175.<\/p>\n

This misguided decision benefits only the profit-driven meat industry. It does so at the expense of millions of animals, workers and consumers.<\/p>\n

Four waivers have recently been granted to chicken plants<\/a> that will join 20 already killing as many as 175 birds each minute. A gut-wrenching new undercover investigation<\/a> by my organization, Compassion Over Killing (COK), reveals high-speed horrors behind the closed doors of one of those initial 20 plants, and why these waivers must come to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n

Reckless High-Speed Slaughter Exposed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marking the second time in just three years that a COK investigator has exposed the alarming consequences of high-speed slaughter, this heartbreaking hidden-camera footage was filmed inside Amick Farms in Hurlock, Maryland.<\/p>\n

COK\u2019s investigator documented workers punching, shoving or throwing birds down the hurtling line; birds slowly drowning in electrified stunning baths during equipment breakdowns; and \u201cred birds,\u201d chickens who were not fully bled out before entering the scalding tank\u2014evidence that they entered the tank while still alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirds can be seen\u2014still hanging from the shackles\u2014in the water bath. \u2026 It is likely that the birds would have experienced prolonged, possibly painful electrical shock while they died of drowning,\u201d said Dr. Sara Shields, a farm animal behavior and welfare specialist at Humane Society International, in an expert statement in response to COK\u2019s footage<\/a>. \u201cThis situation is totally unacceptable from an animal welfare perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

COK submitted its video evidence to local authorities as well as to FSIS, urging the agency to revoke increased line speeds at Amick Farms and other high-speed plants, and stop issuing any further waivers. Though the criteria<\/a> for receiving a waiver specifies that plants \u201cmust be able to demonstrate that \u2026 faster line speeds will maintain or improve food safety,\u201d among other requirements, COK\u2019s new investigation has shown that faster lines lead to enormous animal suffering.<\/p>\n

Amick Farms responded to The Washington Post<\/a>\u2019s coverage of the investigation, neglecting to take any real responsibility for the cruelties happening behind the doors of its slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n

At current rates of 140 birds slaughtered per minute at most plants, birds are already enduring horrific suffering. In addition, workers, who must keep up with the fast-paced assembly line environment, are forced to take inhumane shortcuts. Yet, with the government\u2019s recent announcement, we\u2019re moving quickly backward from bad to much worse.<\/p>\n

Other COK investigations have documented birds being improperly shackled, dumped onto the conveyor belt and being roughly handled by workers struggling to keep up with rapidly moving lines. Birds suffer during this short and tragic journey to the kill line\u2014already having endured severely overcrowded and filthy conditions on factory farms where they were bred for unnaturally rapid growth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After these birds spend their lives standing, eating and sleeping in their own waste (often causing painful ammonia burns on their skin) and possibly even having their legs collapse under the unnatural weight of their own genetically manipulated bodies, the life of a \u201cbroiler\u201d chicken farmed for food culminates in the horror of painful slaughter.<\/p>\n

In addition to the obvious cruelty toward farmed animals in the final moments of their short lives, high-speed slaughter lines also pose grave danger to workers. Many employees at slaughter plants are already vulnerable undocumented workers<\/a> exploited in one of the nation\u2019s most dangerous industries to work. Even at current line speeds, they\u2019re often denied bathroom breaks to keep up the pace at all costs, and can suffer painful medical issues and severe injuries\u2014even amputations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But instead of taking pause to address the dangers of this reckless program, the USDA is expanding it\u2014and not just for chickens.<\/p>\n

The Public Speaks Out Against High-Speed Pig Slaughter<\/strong><\/p>\n

In late 2015, a COK undercover investigator worked at Quality Pork Processors<\/a> (QPP) in Austin, Minnesota, a pig slaughterhouse that exclusively supplies to Hormel, the maker of SPAM and other pork products. Held up as a model plant for the USDA\u2019s high-speed pig slaughter program\u2014the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point-Based Inspection Model Project\u2014QPP kills approximately 1,300 pigs<\/a> every hour.<\/p>\n

The terrifying truth revealed in undercover footage paints a picture very much like the horrors seen at Amick Farms: pigs being beaten, shocked and dragged to the kill floor. Many were also improperly stunned, possibly leading them to enter the scalding tank alive\u2014just like the \u201cred birds\u201d documented at Amick. In this fast-paced environment, pigs covered in feces or pus-filled abscesses were also seen processed for human consumption\u2014all with a USDA inspection seal of approval.<\/p>\n

In April 2018, Compassion Over Killing\u2019s former investigator, now out from behind the camera after his work at QPP and other slaughterhouses, delivered<\/a> a quarter-million signatures to the USDA demanding it to end its regressive high-speed pig slaughter program.<\/p>\n

Yet the USDA continues to frame its high-speed program as a \u201cmodernization\u201d of the meat industry. There\u2019s nothing modern about reducing already minimal protections for consumers, animals and workers.<\/p>\n

Though animal organizations and workers\u2019 rights<\/a> advocates alike are fighting these reckless speed increases, and the USDA has received more than 83,000 comments<\/a> regarding this program\u2014many opposed to it\u2014the enormous lobbying power of the National Chicken Council<\/a> continues has put pressure on the USDA to eliminate speed caps altogether. The USDA has denied a countrywide increase so far, but there\u2019s little stopping the agency from granting waivers for individual slaughter plants across the United States.<\/p>\n

To stand in solidarity with exploited workers, tortured animals and unknowingly duped consumers, the easiest solution is to leave these cruelly mass-produced animal products off our plates. By voting with our dollars and avoiding these products altogether, we show the USDA, National Chicken Council and huge corporations running these plants that we do not support these cruel practices that harm human and non-human animals in the name of profit.<\/p>\n

Allowing slaughterhouses to run their kill lines at even faster speeds is a reckless decision by this administration that will lead to increased animal suffering, continued worker exploitation and compromised food safety. Tell the USDA: Not so fast. Take action and sign the petition at HighSpeedHorrors.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Laura Cascada is Director of Corporate Outreach at Compassion Over Killing<\/a>. She works to increase the availability of vegan options nationwide and bring about positive changes for animals in the meat, dairy and egg industries.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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