We have long acknowledged cruelty towards animals as an indicator of psychopathy. Yet slaughterhouse workers are paid and expected to carry out what amounts to torture upon thousands of sentient beings, day in and day out. How could that not have an effect?
I once visited a very small slaughterhouse in Virginia. This particular slaughterhouse rotated the animals they killed by day. I happened to be there on a pig day. Before entering the slaughterhouse to observe the kill floor, I peered over the wall of the holding pen outside. There was a group of pigs milling about and two slaughterhouse workers talking in the middle.
One pig approached a worker wearing a blood-stained smock and nuzzled his side. The worker glanced down and started petting the pig, who readily laid down for a hearty belly rub. The slaughterhouse worker rubbed her belly as the pig closed her eyes in a look of bliss every person with a dog is more than accustomed to.
After a minute or so, he patted her head, saying “okay, I’ve gotta go,” and headed back into the kill floor, where he would later stab that very same pig in her carotid artery.
As far as slaughterhouses go, the one I visited was a far cry from the industrial, mechanized kill lines that run at staggering speed with haphazard results.
But in many ways, I found it almost more disturbing to see the very same man shower a living being with affection only to moments later take her life. This apparent emotional disconnect is hard for even meat-eaters to reconcile. There’s a reason most people don’t kill the animals they consume.
But as much distance as we may like to place between ourselves and the animals on our plates, there’s no avoiding the reality that purchasing animal products is simply a way of having others kill in our name.
And just as we dare not think of what the animals have experienced to make it to our grocery store, we equally resist considering the experience of those who took their lives.
Why the Mental Health of Slaughterhouse Workers Matters
Some people may wonder why I, a vegan animal liberation activist and educator, would take the time to address the mental health of slaughterhouse workers. The most basic reason why their mental health matters is that the psychological anguish of any sentient being matters. And when an occupation routinely causes psychological harm to workers across all countries and cultures, it’s worth asking why.
Slaughterhouse workers are essentially canaries in the coal mine for our collective humanity. If killing animals results in profound psychological trauma for workers, it would certainly call into question our societal belief that slaughtering animals is perfectly acceptable.
This belief is already a thinly veiled dissociation for people who consume animals. Ask the average person to watch footage from a slaughterhouse, and you’ll likely be met with resistance. If nothing is wrong with the way that we raise, confine, and kill animals, why are we so resistant to watching?
Perhaps even more telling is the animal products industry’s own resistance to transparency. Starting with my own state of Iowa,1 many states have criminalized the exposure of what takes place within their facilities. These so-called “ag-gag” laws place severe penalties of jail time and fees upon anyone who shows the inner workings of our animal agriculture system.2 Again, if there’s nothing to hide, why take such extreme steps to prevent exposure?
For some animal rights activists, it may seem that focusing at all on the health of slaughterhouse workers pulls attention from the real victims: the animals themselves. It’s a common misconception that being vegan means one has no concern for human rights.
However, even if our primary focus is non-human animals, the psychological damage workers experience from killing them is a powerful testament to the true impact of the animals’ suffering. The harm to workers flies in the face of viewing non-human animals as objects or commodities. Were that true, slaughterhouse workers would not be so gravely affected by taking their lives.
Why Would Anyone Work at a Slaughterhouse?
You may wonder what kind of person would work at a slaughterhouse in the first place? Perhaps people who take sadistic pleasure in harming animals?
While there are people who willingly gravitate towards slaughtering animals because they enjoy it, they are by far a minority.3
In reality, most slaughterhouse workers take the job as a last—or only—resort for income. Slaughterhouse workers typically come from poor socio-economic backgrounds, often with little to no education. Many, if not most, are members of vulnerable populations, like refugees, people of color, and undocumented immigrants.4
Former slaughterhouse worker turned animal activist Virgil Butler shared about the makeup of his coworkers in a speech about his nine years slaughtering chickens for the multinational corporation Tyson Foods:
“[M]ost…are very uneducated. Some of them can’t even read a comic book without some help. Tyson actually employs somebody to assist with job applications because most people can’t fill them out.
They also have a lot of Hispanic people that can’t speak English so naturally they can’t write it. […]
You’ve got a bunch of people here that really couldn’t possibly hope to get a really good job, so they’re stuck working for Tyson, and Tyson knows it. They pick on rural communities for that reason.”5
— Virgil Butler, former slaughterhouse worker turned animal activist
(note: you can see this excerpt of Virgil’s speech in the video above at 04:25)
This makeup of the workforce is echoed across countries, from South Africa,6 to Denmark,7 to Turkey,8 to Australia,9 to…really anywhere. The lack of options workers face also explains why they stay, despite facing one of the highest illness and injury rates of any profession,10 and having to carry out horrific brutalities most people can’t even imagine.
Virgil Butler describes this desperate position, recounting how workers were expected to remove improperly hung chickens from the line “any way you can:”
“If that means ripping that chicken in half, that means rippin’ its leg off, if that means rippin’ its foot off—you do it.
If you don’t do it, you’re fired. There’s no choice.
They’ll tell you straight up: you are the most expendable human beings on earth.“11
— Virgil Butler, former slaughterhouse worker turned animal activist (emphasis added)
(note: you can see this excerpt of Virgil’s speech in the video above at 05:30)
The Prevalence of PTSD in Slaughterhouse Workers
It’s rather telling that—at least at the time of my research for this article and video—when typing “slaughterhouse workers” into Google, the very first auto-suggestion is “slaughterhouse workers ptsd.”
Studies across countries and cultures show clear evidence of psychological trauma from working in slaughterhouses, though this is still a largely under-examined population.12
Workers studied have exhibited and reported a range of symptoms including:
- anxiety,
- depression,
- recurrent violent dreams,
- paranoia,
- dissociation,
- panic,
- a sense of disintegration,
- an increase in aggression in and outside of work,
- substance abuse,
- amnesia,
- suicidal ideation,
- and even psychoticism.13
Slaughterhouse workers are particularly prone to a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) called Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress (PITS).14 The concept of PITS was first introduced by sociologist and psychologist Rachel M. Macnair in her 2002 book Perpetration-induced Traumatic Stress: The Psychological Consequences of Killing.
MacNair describes PITS as “a form of PTSD symptoms caused not by being a victim or rescuer in trauma, but by being an active participant in causing trauma”—meaning the psychological harm results from having caused the traumatic event.15 McNair argues that this resulting trauma suggests that “the human mind […] is not well suited for killing.”16
This assessment is echoed in a study in South Africa that created a timeline of the emotional breakdown of slaughterhouse workers, starting with the trauma of their first kill:
“During their first kill, slaughter workers remember feeling upset and experiencing physical shock manifested by shaking and shivering. [… They] were also emotionally disturbed by their first-time kill and noted feeling pained, saddened, and shameful.”17
— From the study “Slaughtering for a living: A hermeneutic phenomenological perspective on the well-being of slaughterhouse employees”
The study relays one worker’s recounting of his first kill, noting how “the traumatic experience of the first kill is evident as well as how this emotive experience fades into detachment,”18 a later phase of the emotional timeline that we’ll address next. He recalls:
“The first time when I killed it was not easy for me. I feel pity for it. I felt I just wanted to close my eyes, turn around, and run away. It was really sad but the more you do it the easier it gets.
Like yesterday I had to shoot cows in the kraal [an enclosure for livestock]. I climbed over the fence, walked to the cow, and just shot it.
I feel nothing anymore. In the beginning it was very bad.”19
— Slaughterhouse worker recounting his first kill
This eventual dissociation and emotional numbing is described time and again by slaughterhouse workers, and is part of what the South African study refers to as the “(mal)adjustment phase.”20
The Need to Dissociate – A Fracturing of Self
In an interview with journalist Ashitha Nagesh, Dr Chi-Chi Obuaya, a consultant psychiatrist at Nightingale mental health hospital in London, spoke to the “repetitive trauma” experienced by slaughterhouse workers.21 With this kind of “complex PTSD,” Dr. Obuaya told Nagesh:
“there’s a sort of self-loathing that tends to emerge – a very strong dislike of oneself, and loss of one’s identity. That’s what one would see in this particular group, where the repetitive nature of the exposure to the trauma as a perpetrator then leads to this breakdown in the individual’s identity.”22
— Dr Chi-Chi Obuaya, speaking to the “repetitive trauma” experienced by slaughterhouse workers
In his book The Nazi Doctors, psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton coined the term “doubling” to refer to the “formation of a second, relatively autonomous self, which enables one to participate in evil.”23
Doubling is essentially the act of dividing oneself into separate “selves”—one self to kill, the other self to maintain one’s sense of humanity and identity. It’s the mind’s survival mechanism for carrying out acts that are contrary to one’s moral compass.
Doubling could explain the disturbing duality I observed in the slaughterhouse worker in Virginia, showing affection for a pig just prior to killing her. This dissociation is echoed in a striking account from Ed Van Winkle, a long-time slaughterhouse worker:
“The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll. [… Y]ou develop an attitude that lets you kill things but doesn’t let you care.
You may look a hog in the eye that’s walking around down in the blood pit with you [and] you may want to pet it.
Pigs down on the kill floor have come up and nuzzled me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them-beat them to death with a pipe.
I can’t care.”24
— Ed Van Winkle, a long-time slaughterhouse worker
Activist Virgil Butler writes in his moving post “Inside the mind of a killer”:
“The sheer amount of killing and blood can really get to you after awhile [sic], especially if you can’t just shut down all emotion completely and turn into a robot zombie of death. You feel like part of a big death machine. Pretty much treated that way as well. […]
— Virgil Butler, former slaughterhouse worker turned animal activist
Out of desperation you send your mind elsewhere so that you don’t end up like those guys that lose it. Like the guy that fell on his knees praying to God for forgiveness. Or the guy they hauled off to the mental hospital that kept having nightmares that chickens were after him.”25
In many ways, the dissociation experienced by slaughterhouse workers is an extreme version of the dissociation experienced by most people who consume animals. No one wants to think they have a hand in overt cruelty towards animals. So we as a society distance ourselves as much as possible from the actions we pay others to do to animals in our names.
This dissociation is easier when you don’t have to see what the animals go through. When you don’t have to literally have their blood on your hands. For those doing the killing for consumers, the dissociation becomes extreme out of necessity.
Are Slaughterhouse Workers More Prone to Violence?
There’s no arguing that the work of a slaughterhouse employee is violent. But are slaughterhouse workers more prone to violence as a whole?
As a society, we have long acknowledged cruelty towards animals as an indicator of budding psychopathy. Yet slaughterhouse workers are paid and expected to carry out what amounts to torture upon thousands of sentient beings, day in and day out. How could that not have an effect?
Studies have found links between slaughterhouse work and increased crime rates, including domestic violence, sex offenses, murder, assault, burglary, arson, rape, theft, and larceny.26
One may argue that perhaps the communities surrounding slaughterhouses are overall more prone to crime. However, this possibility was accounted for in a well-known study by criminology professor Amy Fitzgerald.27
So, is it their work that makes them violent, or are violent people more drawn to that kind of work? While the latter may be true in some cases, studies and stories from slaughterhouse workers illustrate severe changes in personality, deadening of empathy, and increased aggression.28
For her harrowing book Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry, Gail A. Eisnitz spoke with Donny Tice, a hog “sticker” (the worker who cuts the pig’s throat). Tice recounted:
“Down in the blood pit, they say that the smell of blood makes you aggressive […] And it does […]
Another thing that happens is that you don’t care about people’s pain anymore. I used to be very sensitive about people’s problems-willing to listen. After a while, you become desensitized.”29
— Donny Tice, a hog “sticker” (the worker who cuts the pig’s throat)
Slaughterhouse workers often turn to substance abuse and other maladaptive ways of coping with the trauma of their work. Ed Van Winkle, whom we heard from earlier, told Eisnitz:
“Every sticker I know carries a gun, and every one of them would shoot you. Most stickers I know have been arrested for assault.
A lot of them have problems with alcohol. They have to drink, they have no other way of dealing with killing live, kicking animals all day long.”30
— Ed Van Winkle, a long-time slaughterhouse worker
Animal Abuse vs Standard Practice
Activist Virgil Butler and many other former and current slaughterhouse workers recount horrifying “games” workers would play with the living beings they were employed to kill.
Whether ripping the head off of a chicken and placing it on their finger like a puppet,31 or purposefully not stunning a pig just to make it harder for the next worker to shackle them,32 or a number of other atrocities I’ll spare you from, but about which you can read for yourself in the works I’ve cited throughout this article.
For many workers, this sadistic behavior developed from the severe emotional detachment and stress of the job. While we like to think that abuse and cruelty within the animal industries are isolated events—a result of a few aberrant workers, this is simply not the case.
I have multiple videos, articles, and even full-length speeches showing the reality of humane regulations and what the “highest standards” really mean for the animals themselves.
The line that we draw between abuse and standard industry practice is arbitrary at best. Tossing live, conscious baby chicks into a meat grinder? Completely legal. In fact, it’s the standard method dictated in the European Union’s landmark humane regulations.33 Globally we kill approximately 3.2 billion male baby chicks every year.34
Slamming piglets into the concrete floor then tossing them into piles while many are still alive and twitching? Completely legal.35 Tearing off the testicles of piglets and calves, cutting their teeth, notching their ears, searing brands into flesh, chopping off their tails—all without any pain relief—completely legal.36
Content on the reality of the “highest standards”
- How Smart People Think Their Way Out of Veganism
- Are You Advocating Cruelty? | Truth in Vegan Outreach (Speech)
- What Does Cage-Free Eggs Mean?
- How to Speak Non-Vegan | Effective Activism Through Mindful Language
- Why Dairy Is Never Humane
- Why I’m A Vegan Against Animal Welfare
- The Best We Have To Offer? | How Ireland Exposes “Humane” Farming
- LIVE At A UK Slaughterhouse & Gas Chamber
- Are Halal And Kosher Slaughter Humane?
- Why EGGS Are Never Humane | Babies In A Blender
As you heard from Virgil Butler, even clear violations of the limited regulations or standards that may exist are not only allowed, but actually required for employees to keep their job. Nothing can slow the speed of the line.
I’ve personally spoken with slaughterhouse workers—as well as read numerous accounts—about cows regularly still being conscious as their skin is removed and they are dismembered.37 Nothing can slow down the line.
When undercover videos come out documenting the inner workers of a slaughterhouse, the public is outraged and appalled. But what is never made clear in such exposés is which horrific acts captured are abuse, and which are standard legal practice.
When the line between cruel, psychopathic sadism and an everyday job task is so profoundly indistinguishable, shouldn’t that at least give us pause?
What’s the Solution?
So what, you may ask, is the solution? Some animal rights activists distribute flyers directly to slaughterhouse workers with information about finding alternative employment, crisis lines, addiction support, and legal help.38
Labor rights advocates propose things like stronger union representation and legal reform.
In her book Slaughterhouse, Gail Eisnitz, in wondering why workers continued to put up with psychically dangerous and psychologically damaging conditions year after year, asked “Wasn’t that what unions were for?”
So she asked a union official, who informed her he’d raised many complaints about the extreme conditions and overt violations over the years, all to no avail.
The local union president wrote to the state, saying, “These are human beings and they need help! It’s inhumane to subject man or beast to these conditions.” Inspectors came, but took no action, saying they “observed slaughter procedures and have seen no problems with sticking hogs at this speed.”
However, even if officials were to listen and take action, even if we were to implement better worker safety—the fundamental reality of the job does not change. The psychological toll of taking hundreds to thousands of lives every day does not change. And the reality for the non-human animals certainly does not change.
The solution for humans, non-humans, our planet, and our society as a whole is the same: to stop exploiting sentient beings.
If nothing else, the deep and lasting psychological damage slaughterhouse workers experience is a testament to the profound impact of non-human animal suffering. The fact that their deaths can so devastate the human psyche must mean that their lives matter.
In Closing…
I wish I had a quick and simple solution to offer for the immense toll our animal products industries take upon human and non-human animals alike. Perhaps you wish I could offer absolution from even having concern for the humans in these industries at all.
What I can offer is what I always do: the reality of what you support when you purchase animal products. I can offer you the facts such that you can decide whether it’s in line with your values to continue paying others to kill in your name.
My hope is that you’ll choose to go vegan. If not for the animals, then for your fellow humans. You can get started with my free How to Go Vegan Guide. To support educational content like this, please consider making a donation.
To stay in the loop about new Bite Size Vegan content and updates, please sign up for the newsletter or follow the Telegram channel for the most reliable notifications. Now go live vegan, and I’ll see you soon.
— Emily Moran Barwick
Anesh Patel says
Emily, this is such a challenging topic and one I have conflicted feelings about. As always, though, you have presented it with such care, solid research, and a focus on the animals. This must have been a difficult topic to research and read about. Thank you for how hard you work on each topic you take on. Thank you for the forethought of your presentation.
I’m touched especially by Virgil Butler’s activism. I’m glad to have learned about his testimony. And thank you for your continued activism, advocacy, and tireless work for the animals!
Emily Moran Barwick says
Anesh Patel, as always I am honored by your thoughtful feedback. It means a great deal to me that you take in my content with such thought yourself! I can identify with your conflicted feelings. I’m very, very glad that my approach to this came across as effective for you. It WAS indeed a challenge! Many thanks always for your insights, AND for commenting on the website! That really warms my nerdy heart.
Friends Not Food (via YouTube) says
My husband I discovered your channel when we 1st went vegan almost 7 years ago and binge watched & shared all of your content. We’ve been so happy that you’ve been back making content! Imo, It’s some of the best educational content out there! Much love to you and we appreciate your love and activism for the animals!
Emily Moran Barwick says
Wow! Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m honored to hear I’ve been a part of your journey. And it means more to me that I can POSSIBLY say that you appreciate the educational effectiveness of my content. That’s my goal. Integrity and solid info over “flash in the pan” social media content.
tenebrae says
Agreed: Emily produces some of the best educational content available!
I have explored many vegan websites and Bitesizevegan remains one of my go-to and most highly recommended sites. :)
Emily Moran Barwick says
Thank you so much, tenebrae! That means the world to me that you find my educational content to be of “recommendable” quality. It’s an honor and what I’m certainly striving for. I hope to provide useful resources for the public to “make the connection.” Many, many thanks!
Pjvenom1985 (via YouTube) says
Solid point after solid point very well spoken & explained video as always Emily, genuinely one of the most educational channels in the YouTube realm and beyond. Go raibh maith agat for all you do towards a more benevolent future.
Emily Moran Barwick says
Thank you so much for your kind words, Pjvenom1985 ! I’m honored. This means more to me than I can possibly say…my content being viewed as effectively educational is my entire goal :) Many thanks for taking the time to share this with me!
earFront (via YouTube) says
I must thank you for bringing this topic of learned psychopathy into the light. For years I have been trying to share the idea that the humans murdering of our animal friends creates a deep disassociation of the suffering being done. The disassociation is brought home and taught to the children and on it goes.
Emily Moran Barwick says
You’re so very welcome earFront! I’m glad I could address it and hope it is effective. Very happy to hear this hits an area you’ve been wanting addressed.
XeL (via YouTube) says
Very good format with the readable visual keep it up. I love it, tons of content well condensed. Direct to the main course no 20 minute video playing around topic.
Emily Moran Barwick says
Wow thank you! I work VERY hard to put these together in a thoughtful, condensed, yet not overly-abbreviated manner and to make them visually helpful as well. I SO appreciate your feedback. It means the world to me!
rodrigo ms says
Thank you for your work and for sharing to enlighten people of the truth behind the meat industry.
Emily Moran Barwick says
You are so very welcome, Rodrigo! Thank you for taking the time to comment. I really hope that this video and article help people realize the gravity of their choices, and what they pay others to do in their name.
Kristina says
This is an important topic for many reasons as we should really ask ourselves whether it’s right to pay people to do this kind of work for our palate choices. Meat eaters who don’t care about animals should care about this issue. Having said this, not all slaughterhouse workers feel shame. The truth is many like their “career”. How do I know? I looked up “What is it like working for Farmer John”? I was curious as the LA slaughterhouse is shutting down. People put things down like “fast paced”, “friendly”, “good benefits”, “feel a sense of accomplishment”. One driver said “I am sad to see my friends leave. I don’t get upset with the smell. The smell means money to me”. I don’t know the percentages but many really just see it as a job and some stay for decades (like with Farmer John).
Emily Moran Barwick says
Kristina, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this. I agree that some individuals do enjoy work at slaughterhouses. I’d still content they are a vast minority. As for the comments you found, I’m not surprised. I’m not sure what platform you were viewing the comments on, but depending on what it was, Farmer John cold have moderation abilities. And also it may be a matter of only those with “positive” feelings would comment at all…workers have very little power in these systems, and can lose a lot by any public dissent. Perhaps those with negative experiences aren’t even aware of the post/have access to internet/are literate in English. Who knows if the ones posted are even real? Again, I DO agree that some people enjoy this kind of work. I’m just hesitant to take public reviews on a platform as a majority of experience. I hope that makes sense? It’s certainly not meant to condone ANYTHING about these industries.
ranatlas (via YouTube) says
Ugh. Thank you, Emily, for taking on this subject. I’ve been an animal advocate /animal rights activist for a long time and although I’ve known about the horrors in slaughterhouses for years, I hadn’t been aware of many of the issues you addressed in this video. It’s more than sad.
“Emotional numbing” — great way of describing what slaughterhouse workers (and people who experiment on animals, hunt animals, etc.) go through.
I never thought about the Post Traumatic Stress and the trauma that many of these workers experience.
Thank you for everything you do, for animals and for the people you educate. (And I’ll bet you do much more great work!)
Emily Moran Barwick says
Thank you so much for your kind words about my work, ranatlas ! I’m honored. This means so much to me to hear that this video brought new insights for you. I too was struck deeply by my research in a way I didn’t expect.. I mean, I knew it was bad in slaughterhouses, it’s not that. It’s hard to qualify what I mean. But this was just a very moving and complex topic to explore. Thank you again so much for your feedback!
Kathy Keane says
Dear Emily, I give you so much credit for your incredibly well-researched information and educating us with what you’ve learned. I know it’s an endless job for you that you do with all the passion in your heart. You’re so smart and such an excellent writer! The world is lucky to have you – especially the animals! As you’ve said previously, the animals cry out and scream in pain and no one listens. Well this article/video proves that they do listen, and get nightmares and PTSD from hearing their cries. It’s so heart-wrenching. On the more positive side, I’m glad to see more and more products that are plant-based substitutes for animal products just in the last few years, especially. And that’s thanks to you!!
Emily Moran Barwick says
Wow, Kathy…this comment truly touched me. I’m honored by your words of encouragement about my work. And yes, I totally agree that the animals DO speak and you’re SPOT ON that their voices ARE heard as evidenced by the damage to those taking their lives. Also, thank you for the positive side, as always—much needed with topics like this! Again, thank you SO much for taking the time to write this. Much love!
Sally Anne Hubbard says
So very powerful. This is information not many people know of or even think of me included. I ignorantly though slaughterhouse workers were just cold-blooded killers, but your article made me realize how they suffer too. The majority of humans in the world do have emotions and are affected by violence especially people who work i slaughterhouses. They don’t choose this occupation; they have no other financial means.
If we all stop eating animals, we not only help the animals but the workers who will suffer all their lives from what they do.
If people would only realize how the animal on their plate or in their grocery store came but no, they prefer to dismiss it from their minds. They don’t want to know.
Paul McCartney said “if slaughterhouses had glass walls all people would become vegetarians”
Emily Moran Barwick says
Sally, thank you again so much for your thoughtful feedback. I too was surprised by the nature of the topic the deeper I looked into it. I mean I knew it was bad for workers, but I still found myself impacted in a way I can’t really put into words.
I so appreciate your insights and you taking the time to share your reflections. The McCartney quote remains as accurate as ever!
cc chow says
In Buddhism, there is a thing called karma, everything we do or we say, even our thought has consequence. Killing so many lives, the karma will be so scary. A butcher cannot even die peacefully, he will die painfully, after many years of torture. It’s not worth it, change the job at once, be an animal saver instead of killer, a wise person pursues good karma in his limited time on earth.
Emily Moran Barwick says
cc, the psychological devastation of the job must feel like a form of karma…like Virgil Butler said, he even saw a man sent to a mental institution because of dreams that the chickens were coming after him for revenge. It truly breaks people.
cc chow says
You are so right!!! Back in the 1990s, there was a Hong Kong bird flu outbreak, those killing the birds felt the birds were watching them after the killing. The feeling itself is painful.
Courtney says
Outstanding and harrowing information! I recall Melanie Joy’s book ‘Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows’ touching on this subject and expanding on the psychological damage this line of work does to employees. One either has to be a sadist or risk being irrevocably traumatized by their deeds. I live in Croatia, where veganism is creeping in, but also where the old mindset of ‘meat is necessary and has cultural significance’ prevails.
I say this because I’m aware of a friend’s relative who worked in slaughterhouses here (I can’t recall if it was for the distributor PIK d.o.o., but no matter). The point is, he hasn’t enjoyed anything close to a comfortable retirement — his wages were abysmal, and he’s now a full-blown alcoholic who’s admitted to suffering trauma at work. I’d probably be a boozehound too, if I’d had his job. There’s so much *blissful* ignorance surrounding the true costs of our habits. Thanks, Emily <3
Emily Moran Barwick says
Courtney, thank you so much for taking the time to share your insights and reflections on this topic. The suffering of the humans is a testament to the suffering of the animals. It sounds like your friend’s relative was truly impacted for life by the “work” he did. It does stay with people, like all trauma does. And while it’s easier to condemn those who do the work, the truth is anyone purchasing animal products is just paying others to kill for them, and at the cost of their own sanity. It’s heartbreaking all around.
David - The 40 Year Old Vegan says
I unfortunately worked in this industry for a number of years (15 years)as an inspector and since investigator. The extent that most suffer is in this unimaginable. PTSD and other disorders workplace injuries, disease and what the animals go through its something that sits with me everyday. I found out 8.5 years ago that I didn’t have to participate. What a sham, the myth that we need to do this in order to sustain ourselves. It’s all a big lie.
I have been diagnosed with a few conditions because of what I witnessed and participated in. I now dedicate much of my life trying to bring awareness advocating for them. Sadly this is such a systemic issue but grateful its being discussed as it should. We are all earthlings and we should be treated with empathy and dignity.
Emily Moran Barwick says
David, thank you SO much for sharing your experience. Your story from being on the inside of this industry has such power to reach people. As a whole, we humans love to excuse away what the animals are put through…because we don’t see it, we can assume it’s “humane”. But the testimony of those of you who HAVE seen it is of such value. Though I recognize it comes at quite a cost. Thank you for being open to seeing the “lie” and making the change. That’s more than many people do. It’s hard enough for those who consume animals but don’t kill them directly to confront their part…much less for someone who has directly killed. It takes quite a lot to look at that without blinders on. Thank you for dedicating yourself to advocating for these beings. Sending you much love.
jacquie astemborski says
Thank you for a very well-done piece on an extremely important topic. You are so clear and concise but still cover the important components. I appreciated the fact that you brought in that the individuals who work in this industry have little if no choice in taking the jobs. I think people often look down on people in this profession – and yes, it is a profession just like anything else – and feel if only they were better XXXX – fill in educated, harder worker etc. – they wouldn’t have to work there so to some extent the resultant impact is their fault. It is often easy to forget the voices that of those who are thought less of regardless of whether the being has 2 or 4 or 0 legs.
Emily Moran Barwick says
jacquie, you’re so very welcome! I’m honored to hear that my approach to this topic came across well. I really do strive to distill topics down to a thoughtfully-structured presentation, but balancing being concise without overly-simplifying. It can be quite an endeavor, especially with more challenging topics like this one! Many thanks for taking the time to share your feedback!
Martin Peterson says
Youre videos realy speak to me on an personal level…and keep me motivated /AS Im still working on Opening a totaly veganbakery/konditori/shop ..
Cant vait for the next video❤️☮️…OF Course no Rush.
.just take youre time…and we Are here 🙂 to support you in financial way…
Emily Moran Barwick says
Martin, I am honored by your continued encouragement and support of my work. Means the world to me. And I’m excited to hear what you are working towards! Sending you all my thanks, always.