Workers’ Rights Groups Join Lawsuit Challenging Inhumane Slaughter of Birds

[Guest guest]

Workers’ Rights Groups Join Lawsuit Challenging Inhumane Slaughter of

Birds

 

Groups Representing Poultry Workers Cite Slaughterhouse Heath and Safety

Concerns

 

SAN FRANCISCO (March 9, 2006) —Today, the Equal Justice Center and

Western North Carolina Workers’ Center—two organizations dedicated to

improving agricultural worker safety and rights—joined The Humane

Society of the United States’ lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department

of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) exclusion of chickens, turkeys, and other

birds killed for human consumption from the federal Humane Methods of

Slaughter Act of 1958.

 

The groups have joined the lawsuit because current poultry slaughter

practices are not only inhumane, but also cause unhealthy and unsafe

working conditions, raising the risk of worker injury in

slaughterhouses.

 

“Slaughterhouse workers must struggle to hang terrified birds upside

down at incredible speeds. As a result, they suffer serious injuries

such as lacerations, broken bones, repetitive motion injuries, and

respiratory problems from inhaling dust, dirt, and feces,” explains

Anita Grabowski, Coordinator of EJC’s Poultry Worker Project. “These

incredibly abusive and undignified workplace practices could be

eliminated if more humane slaughter methods were adopted.”

 

Last fall, the USDA issued a public notice informing poultry slaughter

facilities that they need not comply with the federal Humane Methods of

Slaughter Act, which requires that animals be “rendered insensible to

pain” before being processed for slaughter. 7 U.S.C. § 1902. This

policy allows processors to slaughter more than 9 billion birds each

year using such inhumane and dangerous methods as shackling them upside

down, electrically stunning them into paralysis, and sometimes even

drowning them in tanks of scalding water—all while they are fully

conscious.

 

As a result of inhumane slaughter practices, more than 200,000 employees

nationwide are endangered in filthy, bloody, and dark working

conditions. If the USDA required facilities to humanely slaughter

birds, the animals would be stunned and immobilized before the workers

processed them under regular lighting conditions, decreasing

contamination, injuries, and stress. One plant in Nebraska humanely

slaughtering poultry has seen turnover among hangers drop by at least

75 percent since the new system was installed.

 

“Current slaughter methods are inherently dangerous and take a

devastating emotional toll on the workers who must witness and

participate in these cruelties,” says Francisco Risso, director of the

Western North Carolina Workers’ Center. “The USDA’s refusal to apply

the federal humane slaughter law to poultry significantly and

negatively impacts the day-to-day lives of thousands of workers who are

doing some of the most difficult and thankless work in our society.”

 

A copy of the amended complaint, which also includes East Bay Animal

Advocates and several individuals as co-plaintiffs, is available upon

request by calling 301-721-6446.

 

Equal Justice Center is a Southern employment justice and civil rights

organization which provides the critical support and infrastructure

that enables low-income working people to organize and achieve fair

treatment in the workplace, in the justice system, and in the larger

civil society. EJC’s Poultry Worker Project is a regional initiative

across the South which builds the capacity of poultry workers to

improve their working conditions, to organize to stop exploitation, and

to play a direct role in ensuring that poultry companies maintain

responsible relationships with their employees and with the communities

in which they are located. On the web at www.equaljusticecenter.org.

 

Western North Carolina Workers’ Center is a non-profit organization

based in Morganton, North Carolina, that works to improve the wages,

benefits, and working conditions of low-wage workers in the western

part of the state.

 

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest animal

protection organization with 9.5 million members and constituents. The

HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in

companion animals and equine protection, disaster preparedness and

response, wildlife and habitat protection, animals in research and farm

animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education,

investigation, litigation, legislation, advocacy, and field work. The

non-profit organization is based in Washington and has field

representatives and offices across the country. On the web at hsus.org.

 

 

Christine Morrissey

East Bay Animal Advocates

P.O. Box 1406

Martinez, CA 94553

(925) 487-4419

info

http://www.eastbayanimaladvocates.org