At Quality Pork Processors (QPP), a model plant for the USDA’s high-speed slaughter program, one pig is killed every 5 seconds--and this month, the agency plans to allow slaughterhouses nationwide to follow suit. ACT NOW: Tell the USDA to scrap this reckless plan with a quick tweet before it’s too late!
Compassion Over Killing’s 2015 investigation of QPP documented pigs being cruelly shocked, dragged, and improperly stunned, as well as pigs covered in feces or pus-filled abscesses processed for human consumption. And our recent investigation of high-speed chicken slaughter plant Amick Farms revealed birds being punched, shoved, and thrown down the recklessly fast-paced kill line, and other birds slowly drowned in electrified stunning baths during equipment breakdowns.
Yet the USDA has yet to admit the disastrous effects of running kill lines at recklessly fast speeds of up to 175 birds slaughtered every minute and up to 1,300 pigs slaughtered every hour--or one pig every 5 seconds.
The New York Times’ editorial board recently took a formal stance against this catastrophic program, writing that “the government — rather astonishingly — has maintained the pilot program for two decades without proving that it works.”
Pigs, chickens, and other animals killed for food already endure a life of suffering from the moment they are born until their violent deaths at the slaughterhouse. The USDA has a responsibility not to exacerbate this abuse--and put consumer and worker safety on the line--under the guise of “modernization” of slaughter.