Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation

by Sunaura Taylor

Rather than regulate line speeds for the interest of worker safety, line speed is limited only by federal sanitation laws.”44 Both Schlosser and Eisnitz confirm this policy and culture of speed, repeatedly describing how simple things such as bathroom breaks or taking a pause because of a sudden injury or illness cause people to lose their jobs. Workers are fired for taking doctor-prescribed sick leave, reporting their injuries, and complaining about animal cruelty. A 2016 report from Oxfam found that some poultry workers in the United States are resorting to wearing diapers as they are denied bathroom breaks.45 These industries are also notoriously good at leaving injured workers without medical coverage, worker’s comp, or any sort of compensation or livelihood.46 After they are fired, these disabled and often undocumented workers find it difficult if not impossible to find new work or health care. Eisnitz writes, “Drained of their usefulness to the slaughterhouse, [disabled workers] are cast aside, reminders of a system that places nearly as little value on human life as it does on animal life.”47