A Violent Industry

Alley Cat Allies, a feral cat rescue group, included a poignant and powerful article in one of their recent newsletters. It addresses the psychological toll that killing healthy animals takes on the shelter and agency personnel who must perform the deed. The article refers to the people whose job it is to euthanize the 5 to 6 million companion animals we don't "have room for" each year in the U.S. Research conducted in 2004 and funded by the Humane Society of the U.S. asserts that "thousands of people charged with performing animal euthanasia are an at-risk population ... at risk for a variety of psychological, emotional, and physical ailments such as high blood pressure, ulcers, unresolved grief, depression, substance abuse, and suicide."

As I read the article and felt deeply for these people and animals, I couldn't help thinking about the emotional toll killing animals in a slaughterhouse takes on those workers. Investigative journalist Gail Eisnitz writes about such accounts in Slaughterhouse, the book that led me to become vegan. Not surprisingly, in an industry whose workers spend all day every day killing, the atmosphere is one of immense violence and anger. Most of you would not read on if I quoted some of the stories here; they're so upsetting, I still can't get them out of my mind after all these years. I do, however, encourage you to read the book or at least excerpts, but please know at least this much. All of the workers she interviewed attested to the pain they inflict upon the animals beyond the actual killing; they would simply torment and torture the animals out of frustration, apathy, anger, or drunkenness. One slaughterhouse worker said, "Animal abuse is so common that workers who've been in the industry for years get into a state of apathy about it. After a while, it doesn't seem unusual anymore. Animal abuse is so commonplace nobody even thinks about it."

Nobody even thinks about it. That's what they bank on. It's why 10.2 billion animals will be killed by the end of this year - in the U.S. alone. 10.2 billion animals. When I have this dialogue with people - about the ethics of eating animals, someone always says, "Let's say you were on a deserted island and had no choice. If you were going to starve, would you eat animals then?" We grasp for such hypothetical scenarios because we consider ourselves compassionate people and don't want to confront the horrors our dollars pay for. But if we support non-violence, we absolutely cannot support eating meat, dairy, and eggs - as all the animals wind up in the same horrific, violent place. If we support worker's rights, we cannot justify eating meat, dairy, and eggs. If we support environmental integrity, animal welfare, animal rights, compassion, and healthful living, we cannot support these industries.

Avoiding looking at the problem doesn't make it go away. Only when we confront the truth of what we most desperately want to avoid can we find peace. It's only then that we discover that we can become part of the solution - with our dollars, with our personal choices, with our behavior-aligned values. If we say we support non-violence, then we have to match that with our actions. Otherwise, we're a nation of people with empty values, bloody hands, and a lot of good hypothetical stories to keep us from feeling guilty.

For now, I'm just glad my options aren't between starving on a deserted island and keeping alive an industry that makes apathetic automatons out of human beings and cutlets out of animals. Until that day comes, I have many, many choices.