Rights group calls for review of meatpacking plants

DES MOINES — A U-S Department of Labor investigation this spring found the number of minors employed in livestock slaughterhouses nearly quadrupled between 2015 and 2022.

An animal rights group says the conditions in these plants are dangerous for workers, and inhumane for the animals killed there. Iowa slaughters more pigs than any other state.

Sean Thomas, with the group Animal Equality, says there have been cutbacks in the number of inspectors at pork processing plants, where more than a thousand hogs are slaughtered in an hour, meaning workers are at greater risk and the hogs face inhumane conditions. “To think that even one inspector could verify the safety and the health of the product that was produced, and also the humane treatment of any animal entering a slaughterhouse, is kind of ridiculous.”

Livestock producers say they are constantly looking for more environmentally friendly ways to keep up with consumer demand. They offer as evidence federally funded programs they use to reduce the impacts of large livestock operations.

Thomas argues that increased consumer demand and the commercialization of livestock production means producers are moving the industry in the wrong direction. “We’re heading not towards a system that would improve the welfare of animals, but we are heading towards a system that will completely disregard it.”

Processing facilities reportedly have an effect on their communities, too. A university study has shown a correlation between domestic and sexual violence in places that are home to meatpacking facilities, a link that doesn’t exist in manufacturing sectors that don’t involve killing animals.