Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation

by Sunaura Taylor

A Human Rights Watch report titled Blood, Sweat and Fear: Workers’ Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants concludes, “The single largest factor contributing to worker injuries is the speed at which the animals are killed and processed.”37 Facilities often operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, killing hundreds or even thousands of animals every hour. One worker said, “The line is so fast there is no time to sharpen the knife. The knife gets dull and you have to cut harder. That’s when it really starts to hurt, and that’s when you cut yourself.” It’s not unusual for a worker to make up to forty thousand repetitive cuts during a single shift. Employees experience chronic pain throughout their bodies, in their backs, shoulders, wrists, arms, and hands, but they are “scared silent,” because they know they will lose their jobs if they complain.38