The Truth Behind Animal Slaughterhouses

(Warning; Some disturbing images)

Most people go to a store and buy their meat, never stopping to think about what the animal went through before it was chopped and packaged. I was one of those people, but thanks to some new allegations against the meat industry, I decided to look into it. After spending hours doing extensive research into the topic of abuse in animal slaughterhouses I have been enlightened to some truly disturbing truths surrounding that industry. The 'Humane Methods Of Livestock Slaughter Act' or simply the 'Humane Slaughter Act' is a federal law in the United States which was officially approved back on August 27, 1958. The law states that an animal has to be sedated and unable to feel any pain before being killed or cut up. This law specifically puts protection over cattle, horses, sheep, mules, and swine; no form of poultry is mentioned. With that being said, over 9 billion chickens are put to death every year in the United States. In order to sedate these birds, they often put them into electrically charged water.

Even with the laws in place, there are still places who go around them and do disgusting and evil things to these animals. In fact, more slaughterhouses have strayed away from the Humane Slaughter Act than those who've stuck to it. Gail Eisnitz, an author, wrote a book where within she recorded all of her interviews with people who had or currently worked inside of a slaughterhouse. All of those interviews revealed the dark secrets that slaughterhouses have tried to hide over the years.
For example:
"Hogs get stressed out pretty easy. If you prod them too much, they have heart attacks. If you get a hog in the chute that's had the shit prodded out of him and has a heart attack or refuses to move, you take a meat hook and hook it into his bunghole. You try to do this by clipping the hipbone. Then you drag him backward. You're dragging these hogs alive, and a lot of times the meat hook rips out of the bunghole. I've seen hams' thighs completely ripped open. I've also seen intestines come out. If the hog collapses near the front of the chute, you shove the meat hook into his cheek and drag him forward." (Quote is taken from Eisnitz's book, 'Slaughterhouse.')

Workers are required to kill more than 1,100 hogs an hour and often they end up taking out their anger of the animals. On multiple other accounts throughout her book and from other sources, workers admit to the slaughter of completely awake animals. These animals are skinned, beaten, strangled, boiled, burned, and disassembled while still conscious, shrieking, and kicking. A big part of this is due to the speed that they are forced to work at. Of course, larger livestock such as cattle and horses who are fighting put slaughterhouse workers at a higher risk of injury. In fact, a recent study has shown that American slaughterhouse workers are three times more likely to sustain a serious injury than the average American worker.

A study done by criminologist, Amy Fitzgerald suggests that "slaughterhouse employment increases total arrest rates, arrests for violent crimes, arrests for rape, and arrests for other sex offenses..." An article from the PTSD Journal offers an explanation for this, "These 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 what they were doing and from the creature standing before them. This emotional distance can lead to consequences such as domestic violence, social withdrawal, anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, and PTSD." Along with this slaughterhouses commonly and illegally exploit underage workers and illegal immigrants. Workers at these establishments have also been noted to not be allowed breaks from the killing and quite often having to wear only diapers. They've also been known to receive less than minimum wage.

An American slaughterhouse worker, featured in Eisnitz's book, shared his own struggles with having to disconnect from the animals. "The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll. If you work in the stick pit for any period of time... you kill things but it doesn't let you care. You may look a hog in the eye that's walking around in the blood pit with you and think 'God, that really isn't a bad looking animal.' You may want to pet it. Pigs down on the kill floor have come up to nuzzle me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them - beat them to death with a pipe. I can't tell."

Another slaughterhouse worker told about having to rip into a conscious cow's throat with a metal hook, to help increase the speed of the bleeding. Cows tend to remain fully awake for as long as two minutes after their throats have been split open. Workers have also admitted to mutilating cow's ears to remove identification tags, while the animals are still alive.

On a different note, while it is illegal for slaughterhouses, restaurants, and stores to sell dog and cat meat, it is legal for someone to kill their pet, and eat or sell it to neighbors. In other countries, slaughterhouses have been exposed for stealing pets from people's houses and selling them for meat. Over 1,000 dogs are put to death in only one slaughterhouse.

There are currently more than 800 slaughterhouses in America alone. Over 150 million animals are killed every single day in the world. More than half of those are beat, starved, dissembled, and abused while they are still fully conscious. Each day more and more of slaughterhouses get exposed, but it hasn't been enough to help put a rest to these inhumane ways of slaughter. It isn't just negligent workers, but also our own government condoning this. We recognize that at this point in time it would be close to impossible to put an end to all animal slaughter, but we don't have to sit by while these animals spend their entire lives in fear and pain. Every aspect of this industry is corrupt and unjust. There is no humane way to slaughter an animal, due to the very nature of the word 'slaughter.' After looking into this and watching videos on how these animals suffer, I am ready to seriously consider making the switch away from eating meat and I encourage you to do the same.

If you would like to help make a step towards change, you can by donating to 'Mercy For Animals' (link below). Mercy For Animals is a vegan, nonprofit organization that has gone undercover and exposed multiple slaughterhouses and helped get the animals better lives.
A few other ways to help include:
- Choosing a vegan lifestyle
- Better informing yourself on this topic
- Informing your friends and family on this topic
- Demanding change straight from slaughterhouses/government systems
- Finishing your plate of food and not wasting any
- Only buying what you need

Mercy For Animals:
https://give.mercyforanimals.org/page/7324/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=19WA01DA