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As of a couple of years ago, the average job tenure of an employee working in a slaughterhouse was 6 months. Many people lasted half a day to three days. The
by lprubin 14y ago
As of a couple of years ago, the average job tenure of an employee working in a slaughterhouse was 6 months. Many people lasted half a day to three days. The emotional stress and trauma of witnessing living animals being put through the kind of things factory farming does to them is emotionally overwhelming to even the most hardened people.
The people who have to witness that day in and day out frequently end up with extreme emotional turmoil/psychological trauma similar to PTSD and it is these traumatized employees who end enacting much of the crueler practices talked about in these videos.
It's very challenging for a person to witness what goes on in a slaughterhouse and to maintain their sanity. Trying to keep the idea that these are living creatures with rights but also that it is perfectly fine for them to suffer the horrible treatment they are subjected to requires a tenuous mental gymnastics that apparently seems to break down after only a couple of months of exposure.
- pyre 14y ago| factory farming Slaughterhouses aren't just for 'factory farming.' It's mandated by law that only licensed/register abattoir can kill animals used for meat, so even the animals coming from 'humane' farms go through the same process. Also, I remember reading some statistics about how domestic violence is higher among slaughterhouse workers. Too lazy to look it up, but IIRC it was after they started working there (not necessarily that violent people were attracted to the trade).
- ethomson 14y agoThis depends on the animal. My recollection was that one must process cattle through a USDA approved facility, but there were no such restrictions on pork or poultry. (The lack of a poultry restriction is obvious to anyone who's bought an organic bird from a local farm.) Further, as the local eating movement grows, there's an increase in the number of "boutique" (if you will) slaughterhouses. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/04/153511889/small-scale-slaughterhouses-aim-to-put-the-local-back-in-local-meat http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/06/04/153511889/small-...
- sophistroll 14y agoSeems backwards. Why are we justifying the cruelty that results from a mindset necessary to witness cruelty? Perhaps the workers won't strike; let's ask the animals.
- lprubin 14y agoI'm not justifying the cruelty. At least that wasn't my intent. My intent was to outline how horrifying that cruelty is that human beings cannot even witness it for a 6 month time frame without suffering strong emotional trauma.