Compassion Over Killing has fired off a letter to the USDA urging it to reject petitions from four bird slaughterhouses for waivers that would allow them to run slaughter lines at dangerously high speeds. Join us TODAY by tweeting at the USDA!

COK’s letter, sent in support of an earlier request by a coalition of 12 worker and consumer safety groups, explains that raising current slaughter speeds from 140 birds per minute to a staggering 175 per minute would be devastating to animals, as well as worker and consumer safety.

Last fall, the National Chicken Council asked for an elimination of the current 140 birds per minute cap on line speeds--a request the USDA denied, but still left open the opportunity for individual plants to request their own waivers.

However, the law only allows such waivers to be granted for a limited time, and only for what it considers a good reason, like a public health emergency. None of the four plants’ requests meet these requirements.

COK investigations have revealed that even at current slaughter speeds, suffering is rampant: In a 2015 investigation of a Mountaire Farms slaughterhouse, birds were improperly shacked and possibly entered the scalding tank alive. And workers, struggling to keep up with the speed, didn’t have time to correct dangerous errors.

Increasing line speeds by 20%, as requested by these plants, would inevitably lead to even greater animal suffering--as well as workplace hazards and potential risks to consumers.

Join us TODAY in tweeting at the USDA that approving these waivers would be dangerous, unethical, and even unlawful!

P.S. Help us keep the heat on big agriculture and protect chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other farmed animals from the most egregious suffering in factory farms and slaughterhouses. But hurry: Donate in August, and the wingspan of your donation will be doubled!