Slaughterhouse Keeps Disabled Workers in Squalor and Financial Exploitation for 30 Years
Published February 09, 2009 @ 03:00AM PT
Perhaps you recall the late November post that discussed the ways in which slaughterhouse workers--particularly undocumented immigrants--are exploited and endangered in their jobs ("Slaughter: Deadly for the Animals, But Dangerous for Workers Too"). Mass killing and the cutting up of dead bodies is dangerous, dirty, traumatizing work, and few people want to do the killing demanded by people who consume animal flesh, dairy, and eggs, even if they're consuming all of these themselves (see also the post "Inside the Chicken Slaughterhouse: One Worker's Firsthand Accounts"). So the ones who end up in these low-paying, undesirable jobs are often the most vulnerable and the most desperate.
And animal agriculture as a whole is a system predicated on the exploitation (and killing) of those more vulnerable than those doing and supporting the exploitation; it is an industry predicated on oppression and the use, for our own benefit, of beings whom we deem lesser than us. So a part of me isn't even surprised at the news that came out of Iowa this weekend--furious and saddened, yes, but shocked, no--about one company's shameless exploitation of an especially vulnerable set of workers for the last three decades.
-Continue reading after the jump-
Following is the first section of a long article. Read the whole exposé. But don't take the government's intervention now as some sort of reassurance that the system is working as it should--this very same operation and this very same "housing" have, apparently, received state and federal seals of approval (or at least blind eyes) following other investigations. But the article notes that the Des Moines Register started making some phone calls just days before new inspections were suddenly undertaken and violations and despicable conditions were "suddenly" uncovered. This is one of the reasons I roll my eyes when people insist that animals raised, confined, and killed by humans are protected by state and federal laws; state and federal laws don't and can't even protect the fellow humans we supposedly care so much about--not when there's profit involved, not when humans want their meat and want it cheap, and not as long as we accept this way of living (and eating) that's based on the very idea that the more powerful should be allowed to exploit the more vulnerable for the supposed greater good of the more powerful.
Federal police, state health inspectors and county prosecutors descended on this eastern Iowa town over the weekend, launching a major investigation into the care and treatment of a group of mentally retarded men and ordering an emergency evacuation of the men's living quarters.
The investigation focuses on Henry's Turkey Service, a Texas-based company that for 34 years has employed dozens of mentally retarded men who work at the West Liberty Foods meat-processing plant in Muscatine County.
Late Saturday, the state fire marshal shut down the deteriorating building — known locally as "the bunkhouse" — that for decades has served as housing for Henry's workers. State social workers moved the 21 occupants of the bunkhouse to a hotel where they were expected to spend the night.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, which investigates allegations of civil rights violations against the disabled, were on the scene Saturday night, as were agents of the FBI.
J. Bennett, an Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals administrator, was in the bunkhouse Saturday and described conditions as "deplorable." Department spokesman David Werning said it appeared that the building, which is owned by the city of Atalissa, was heated solely by space heaters.
Since the late 1970s, Henry's Turkey Service has been shipping mentally retarded men from Texas to Iowa to work in the West Liberty plant. Henry's has acted as the workers' employer, landlord and caregiver — paying the men a reduced wage for their work at the plant and then deducting from their pay the cost of room, board and care. Payroll records indicate the men are left with as little as $65 per month in salary.
"My God, this is an embarrassment to the state of Iowa," said Sylvia Piper of Iowa Protection and Advocacy, a federally funded group that oversees services for the disabled. "This should not be happening in our state."
Kenneth J. Henry, who runs Henry's Turkey Service, declined to comment. "I'm not going to answer any of your questions," he told The Des Moines Register on Friday.
Last Tuesday, The Register asked mental health advocates and state officials about Henry's and the workers' living conditions in Atalissa. On Friday, state health inspectors, abuse investigators, county prosecutors and police were at the bunkhouse. The investigation intensified on Saturday with additional involvement by federal agents.
Their investigation is focused primarily on the potential financial exploitation of the workers, all of whom are expected to lose their jobs in the next few weeks.
State officials say the 21 men who were at the bunkhouse Saturday have worked for Henry's for at least 20 years. Keith Brown, 57, has lived there since 1979. His sister, Sherri Brown, said her brother has $80 in the bank after working 30 years for Henry's.
Payroll records obtained by the Register show that in January Henry's Turkey Service deducted $487 from Brown's earnings to pay for his room and board. The company also deducted $572 for "kind care," although the bunkhouse is an unregulated group home, not a facility that provides medical care or assistance.
I interrupt here to point out that later in the article, rent for the whole building is reported to be only $600--and the company was withholding pay from nearly two dozen men for purposes of "rent."
Sherri Brown said she recently asked company officials where her brother's wages and Social Security payments have gone and received only vague assurances that nothing was amiss.
"I'm angry," she said. "I want to get some answers."
Please continue reading this article for further details. Incredibly, there's so much more, including tales such as this:
On the tape, a woman who describes herself as a supervisor for Henry's asks dozens of residents at the bunkhouse a series of scripted questions [with apparently scripted answers] . . .
Throughout the tape, the residents sound jovial and talkative. The supervisor sounds bored, and at one point she cuts off a resident, saying, "Billy, shut up."
She later tells Billy he is a "pain in the (expletive)." At another point on the tape, she uses a racial epithet to describe someone.
-----
Photo: Harry Baumert, Des Moines Register
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Comments (33)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
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Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.
"people insist that animals raised, confined, and killed by humans are protected by state and federal laws; state and federal laws don't and can't even protect the fellow humans we supposedly care so much about--not when there's profit involved, not when humans want their meat and want it cheap, and not as long as we accept this way of living (and eating) that's based on the very idea that the more powerful should be allowed to exploit the more vulnerable for the supposed greater good of the more powerful."
I can't really add anything of value; that says it all.
Posted by Mary Martin on 02/09/2009 @ 06:37AM PT
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I can't add anything either, I believe this drives home the point.
Posted by Linda Bryant on 02/12/2009 @ 12:11PM PT
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I just noticed that we call the humans involved "workers" and the animals just animals, despite the fact that the animals are exploited for their very bodies and lives... It makes sense if it amounts to the difference between a "sex worker" and a "sex slave." My brother was arguing with me last night that exploitative human labor is different from (more important than?) animal exploitation because humans have "jobs/trade" whereas animals do not. This is an argument that, I believe, is upheld by the lack of consideration that animals are having their bodies and lives and livelihoods stolen from them.
Great article. I am sharing this with my Intro to Cultural Anthropology class.
Posted by Luella - on 02/09/2009 @ 06:54AM PT
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" it is an industry predicated on oppression and the use, for our own benefit, of beings whom we deem lesser than us."
I get tired of people telling me I don't care about people because I happen to care about animals. More people need to read this article. REALLY read it and see that the slaughter industry is about exploiting those humans deemed lesser beings. Those who eat meat, though they may proclaim at the top of their lungs that they care about people, need to take a good hard look at the system to understand that they are perpetuating the exploitation of other humans - even if they don't give a damn about the animals, at least spare a thought for the men & women who do this job.
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 02/09/2009 @ 07:49AM PT
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I applaud the subject matter- but am disappointed with the articulation and framework where what happened to animals is mentioned in the first paragraph and people aren't mentioned until the fourth- and even then they are spoken about in an outdated and offensive manner.
I see that Ms. Ernst has not heard of people- first language? It's "people with cognitive disabilities"- NOT "mentally retarded people"- I expect an author associated with change.org not to devalue marginalized people by using outdated language and burying them in the recesses of the article.
Posted by AJ Walter on 02/09/2009 @ 10:06AM PT
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AJ, in Stephanie's defense, she did not write the article quoted, that was from the Des Moines Register. If you have a problem with the language used, email the reporter who wrote it.
Otherwise, please note that Stephanie refers to slaughterhouse workers and their job description in the first paragraph. Continuing through the blog, she refers to workers, humans, people, and men.
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 02/09/2009 @ 10:48AM PT
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Agree with Lisa.
Posted by Sommo Pokkonin on 02/11/2009 @ 09:11AM PT
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I agree with Lisa and Sommo, the author was never disrespectful to people and even if she had waited until the fourth paragraph to mention 'what happened to people', there wouldn't be anything wrong with that. It's a feature article, not a news piece. AJ seems to imply that people should always come before animals, just for the sake of a speciesist protocol.
Posted by Antonio Pasolini on 02/13/2009 @ 06:52AM PT
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Aj, The point of the story is that this is a very common situation in which people and animals are victims!!! This industry is a dispicable grotesque organization that the federal government not only allows but also subsidizes in which everyone concerned is a victim!!
It is ok to correct the writers description of their disabilities
but there is a point to the story in which this goes hand in hand and is a very typical issue that needs to be addressed.
Try commending her for sharing this sad story!!!
Posted by Debra Libby on 02/13/2009 @ 11:52AM PT
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Sick sick sick. It's neverending. There is just so much wrong.
Posted by Haley O on 02/13/2009 @ 01:26PM PT
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I heard that workers in slaugtherhouses have the highest rate of suicide and violence of all other jobs. How could we subject anyone to this? If we cannot kill an animal, then, we probably have no business eating it.
This is exactly why, all caring and compassionate beings should abstain from eating and consuming animal products. It has gone wrong for so long that it will take a massive change of heart and of lifestyle for many to end this hideous, barbaric practice we have allowed for so long.
Once we make this decision, we free not only the animals, but the workers, the resources that would have been used (grain, water etc), the pollution that it would have created, the guilt that we unconsciously feel when handling parts of dead animals. We end the cycle of exploitation (mostly female animals), suffering, evil and death.
So, take a moment everyday and hold a vision, that all the slautherhouses in the US (responsible for the death of 10 billion animals every year) and accross the world (50 billion killed) are now closed and abandoned. And in their place, maybe an animal sanctuary, something to make up for all the needless torture, despair and pain, so that healing for us and our animal friends can take place.
Posted by Sophie Lapaire on 02/13/2009 @ 03:33PM PT
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I don't feel sorry for anyone who works at a slaughterhouse. What next, we start making excuses for "poor muggers"? Screw that.
"Traumatizing work"? More like further-desensitizing. You have to be pretty depraved already, to work in such a business (and that's what it is). Anybody who works there is already either impaired, amoral, or utterly already-densitized. I'm sick of sympathy for the triggermen.
Slaughterhouse workers and the owners/management are fit for one thing: biodiesel for a new generation of cars. ;-)
Posted by Pat Fish on 02/13/2009 @ 03:37PM PT
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Pat, as a fellow animal rights advocate, I find these remarks offensive and far too generalizing. Are there people who went into slaughterhouse work already violent and already indifferent to animal suffering? Absolutely. But the blanket statement that everyone who ends up employed at a slaughterhouse has to be "pretty depraved already" takes it too far. I do believe some sadistic creeps go gladly into slaughterhouse jbos, but I also know that there are people who end up in these jobs because they are desperate, because--for whatever reasons--they have few prospects and must somehow pay the bills and feed their children. I don't think demonizing every person who has ever worked in a slaughterhouse or suggesting slyly that we'd be better off with them dead helps anyone.
There are Virgil Butlers out there. They deserve more consideration, compassion, and respect than that, especially from people in a movement based on compassion, peacefulness, and respect.
Posted by Stephanie Ernst on 02/13/2009 @ 04:26PM PT
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I don't know about you, but I have never stepped into a slaugtherhouse. Honestly, I know that I couldn't handle it. I did see a documentary about the life of workers in a slaughterhouse in Southern California (can't recall the name) and most of them were illegal latino emmigrants, working for pennies, with no recourse in case of injury (and many of them did injure themselves) and of course no protection of any kind. The documentary goes on to show that the meat was tainted with feces because of the way it was handled! Yikes!
So it doesn't make me an expert or anything, but I tdo hink that you would have to be pretty desperate to put yourself in that situation and have no other choices. That's for sure.
No one is desensitized or depraved at birth, it takes a lot of abuse and neglect to become numb to one's pain and that of others. But we are all on a journey and remembering that if everyone is given a chance to step up into something greater, they will most likely take it. It takes courage to venture beyond the familiar even if we know that we are in a dead end.
The truth as I experienced it, it that the whole universe conspires to our evolution and awakening. And that goes for the workers too! Especially them, since they need more light and healing than others.
So Pat, unless you were vegan your whole life, you and your parents (just like I did), supported workers in slaughterhouses every time you ate a burger or some other dead animal! So we have been part of the problem! So we shouldn't judge others since we can never know what brought them to where they are. We barely can understand our own journey, let alone others. Kindness is ALWAYS the better way.
Posted by Sophie Lapaire on 02/13/2009 @ 07:00PM PT
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Hey Phil.
Have you ever heard of vegetables? I hear they grow even in Alaska! You may want to give them a try! Seriously, as the economy will continue to collapse, food prices will increase with everything else. If you are worried about being able to feed your family, the good news is that you can feed a lot more people with all the varieties of vegetables, beans etc than you can with meat.
There is no question than animals have the softest and warmest coats. My theory is because they don't have the option of buying clothes! My question to you is "how would you like to have someone else wear your skin?"
As to the "superiority" of humans over animals which the comment of animals being used as food, clothing and entertainment... well, that's a belief that reflects a great lack of connexion with the magnificience of natural world around you.
If you do kill for your food, make sure to thank the animal for giving its life to you. We are not just a physical body. If so, we wouldn't have to leave it behind to rot in the ground when it is time for us to leave. So maybe, there is something else inside all of us, something that we came to discover and that is beyond this world. I know you have it too. We are SO much more than what we think and have been told we are! And we are all on a journey of self discovery and remembering. Be kind to yourself and others, if only because what goes around comes around. Sleep on it.
Posted by Sophie Lapaire on 02/14/2009 @ 12:54AM PT
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I think your comment here is well-said, Sophie. However the one thing I disagree with you on is when animals are killed for food; we TAKE animals' lives from them for food and/or clothing--the animal does not "give" his/her life to us.
It is taken from them against their will. They have the same desire to live as we do, so NO being willingly "gives" their life so we can take something from them that is not ours.
Also, I strongly believe for all we don't know and will NEVER know about all the animals of the world, that there are abilities within them that would put us humans to SHAME if we knew of everything they are capable of.
Therefore, again, that is why I think it really is very chauvanistic and ignorant of our race/species to say that animals are inferior to us, just because maybe they don't speak a language that WE can understand, although EVERY living thing on this Earth does have a language; I just think they are some things that perhaps we're not MEANT to understand, so we can keep a sense of mystery and wonder in the world, and therefore can come to respect and protect it just that much more, you know?
Posted by Lisamarie Dean on 02/14/2009 @ 07:27AM PT
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Phil, you share about as much compassion for humans as you do for animals: http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/action_needed_sexual_violence_destroying_womens_lives_in_africa Is there anyone or anything you do care enough about to stand up for?
Until then, it's important that you understand the passion we feel for fellow beings of this earth - be them human or non-human. Compassion & peacefulness begins when we decide to be part of the solution and not the problem.
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 02/14/2009 @ 08:35AM PT
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I don't give a damn about the humans. I need to say that just to juxtapose the stuck-up "humans only" club. They are disgusting for taking on this job and killing animals for hire. You very well know they could get hired as a janitor instead! Humans are not the victims here, it is the animals, get that straight! Humans are not getting their throats cut and bowels removed, warm urine spilling out of their freshly cut open bladders all so some fat as can stuff their face and clog their arteries. Next time you take a pee, think about what it would be like to have your warm pee spill out on a slaughterhouse floor because you were disemboweled whilst still conscious.
GO VEGAN NOW and you will be responsible for none of this abomination.
Posted by S I on 02/14/2009 @ 12:05PM PT
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Hey let's have a pity party for the Nazi soldiers that were "forced" to slaughter the Jews.
Posted by S I on 02/14/2009 @ 12:16PM PT
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This blog will not be a place for people to advocate hatefulness and lack of concern and compassion for the plight of fellow beings, whether nonhuman animal or human animal.
No one needs to declare they don't care about humans in order to balance out the humans who say they don't care about animals. Who does that help? Declaring concern for one oppressed group while dismissing the plight of another possibly oppressed group isn't taking some moral high ground. That's just a different version of the same mindset that we as AR advocates are working to change.
If people can read the article linked to in this blog post and still insist that humans can't be exploited by animal ag as well, we have a problem. And unless you've personally interviewed every former or current slaughterhouse worker and heard their personal stories, you have no evidence that we "very well know they could get hired as a janitor instead." How can any of us possibly know what jobs are available in specific rural communities for specific people with specific skill sets and background at any given moment? I'll say it again: blanket statements like this are without basis, and they help no one.
We are all well aware that animals are the ultimate, most exploited, most abused, most oppressed victims in this system--this is an animal rights blog, so the oppression and killing of animals is naturally the usual focus here. But I don't care about animals to the exclusion of caring about humans.
And the vast majority of animal rights advocates *do* care about oppression of their fellow humans as well, and people who take an "anti-human" stance or who refuse to acknowledge the very complicated nature of matters such as this don't help the cause. Callousness toward possibly less privileged or oppressed humans doesn't help the animals, and it doesn't change people's minds.
Posted by Stephanie Ernst on 02/14/2009 @ 12:50PM PT
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Everything on planet Earth deserves respect. We could live in a balanced way. When you harvest the living plants, the corn, squash, carrots, beans, wheat, barley and such you vegans are killing a living spirit. At least say thanks.
Posted by Bruce Eggum on 02/14/2009 @ 03:24PM PT
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I have yet to meet a vegan that isn't respectful of the life forces present on this earth.
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 02/14/2009 @ 03:54PM PT
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I am so appreciative of the thoughful, rational, and downright kind responses to McCleary by most of you. He is not even in your league, intellectually or spiritually. How sad that he simply does not understand what he blithely destroys. Lisamarie, Stephanie, Sophie, Lisa...you make the world a better place. Thank you.
Posted by J T on 02/14/2009 @ 05:23PM PT
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Hi Lisa,
About my comment about animals giving their lives for us. I wasn't talking about wild animals. They usually (and rightfully so) are scared and run away from of us (especially if they face someone with a gun!). But if you takes cows, chickens and pigs that are raised whether in feedlots or even in the open air, they could try to escape their fate when they are transfered to the slaughterhouse. Some have tried and even succeeded but most don't. They know they are going to die, they know no one ever comes back when they leave.
So if some of the kindest and gentlest animals don't fight, try to escape when they could, my guess is that they are giving us a chance to grow and be compassionate. It is a sacrifice they are making, not to feed us but to wakes us up. The earth can't sustain this way of living so we better wake up quickly!
Also, since we are born naked and die empty ended, everything we take, we have to pay for it one way or the other. So it can be our health or that of other loved ones that is affected. Some experience of pain and suffering is necessary to soften our heart and sensitize us to the sacredness of life. As a specie we often tend to need a prod in the behind to jump. There is no free lunch on this planet!
Human and animal fates cannot be separated.
Posted by Sophie Lapaire on 02/14/2009 @ 05:23PM PT
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Sophie, you explained karma quite well - what goes around comes around.
A fellow yogi once told me we ingest the fear "chemicals" that animals produce during slaughter and his question was "do we really want to have that in our bodies?"
My answer is always no. I want no part of it.
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 02/14/2009 @ 08:31PM PT
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Dear Lisa, What about the live plants? Pulled out by the roots or severed from the plant than cut and sometimes boiled? What about their fear?
Posted by Bruce Eggum on 02/14/2009 @ 08:40PM PT
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Bruce - refer back to my post earlier today: "I have yet to meet a vegan that isn't respectful of the life forces present on this earth."
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 02/14/2009 @ 09:23PM PT
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Yes I certainly saw that. Respect is good although who practices it is a loaded question. From your other posting, apparently you are against using animals for food but are for murdering and scarring plant life. My point is they are both from earth, both live, both can be used in the same respectful way. They have a purpose and die, we have a purpose and die. Durring draught, plant life withers, than we can utilize animals who have survived from eating the plants and even wasted plants. All part of the circle of life. If you choose vegan fine. But it is not a sacred thing nor should be imposed on others. Grass and "weeds" grows where no other vegan grows, sandy soil for instance. Animals can walk the steep hills, cliffs and valleys humans can not. They utilize this forage. The comming climate change will severly alter our water resources and our ability to raise vegitables. Transportation will be affected. Everything has it's place and it's purpose. When I speak of the circle of life, I mean all life.
Posted by Bruce Eggum on 02/14/2009 @ 09:47PM PT
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Bruce, this kind of comment comes up frequently on the blog, and it's not fully relevant to this post, so I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about it again here, but as has been mentioned elsewhere many times, "using animals for food" and "murdering and scarring plant life" are not in the same ballpark. Plants do not have a central nervous system. If they do have the capacity to experience pain and to suffer in some way, we know it's not nearly at the same level as animals. Both live, but both do not live and experience the world--and feelings and suffering--in the same way.
Humans are animals, and we are classified as animals for a reason. Nonhuman animals have a lot more in common with us than they have in common with plants or than we have in common with plants. I'd appreciate it if we could let this aspect of the conversation die out. I don't want to see it take over yet another thread when the post itself is about something else.
Posted by Stephanie Ernst on 02/14/2009 @ 10:34PM PT
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Sophie, I know you mean well, but I'm really uncomfortable with promoting the idea, in any form, that any animals consciously, willingly go to their deaths. We have no proof of that. The fact that few animals escape is not proof that they're going to slaughter willingly. There are a number of reasons that few escape, including very little opportunity to escape, given how confined and controlled they are at every step of the process, and in many cases broken bodies and spirits both.
Posted by Stephanie Ernst on 02/14/2009 @ 10:41PM PT
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Stephanie, it is true that we have no proof. What I meant to say was that most animals (domesticated and others) are by nature pure love and generousity. Walk out of your house 5 times and your dog will greet you as if every time was the frst time! Cows, pigs, chickens, when you get to know them personnally will blow your mind! They really have a personality, they get attached to you, communicate very clearly when you take time to listen.
I agree with you, they are not given any chance to do anything in the concentration camps that feedlots are. But given their intelligence and sensitivity it is very possible that they somehow know that they are sacrificing themselves to a lesser evolved specie in order to awaken their compassion. Since we are all on an evolutionary journey, if meat eaters knew that animals were capable of making such a sacrifice for us, maybe they would stop looking at them as mere commodity to dispose without any concern for their well being. That's all I was trying to suggest.
Posted by Sophie Lapaire on 02/15/2009 @ 09:40AM PT
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Sophie, I like what you are suggesting - it certainly implies an amount of sentience that we need to be aware of.
The sheer numbers of "domesticated" animals raised for food is proportional to the amount of profit they bring to their "owners". If there is no longer a demand for meat, they won't be bred. These aren't naturally occurring species, either - they have been bred to be docile enough to live in confinement and fat enough to be "tasty". Again, another common argument that continues to pop up around here.
Posted by Lisa Smolen on 02/15/2009 @ 10:14AM PT
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Thank you for publishing this.
Posted by Jason Harris on 02/19/2009 @ 01:10PM PT
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