On Abuse of Immigrants at Slaughterhouses

You may have heard about the 389 illegal immigrants and two supervisors arrested at a kosher meatpacking plant (AgriProcessors) on May 12. AgriProcessors was made infamous by the videos of kosher slaughter. Temple Grandin visited the plant in Iowa and said she was pleased with what she found back in 2006, shortly before the videos were filmed.

The supervisors arrested also worked in places called "Beef Kill" and "Poultry Kill." I didn't know beef could be killed.

Today's New York Times' "An Interpreter Speaking Up for Migrants" taught me a couple things about our justice system, mainly that interpreters aren't supposed to comment. The interpreter in question, Professor Erik Camayd-Freixas, broke the code and is speaking up about the events prior to the arrests of the illegal immigrants. You can see what he has to say here. It's all reminiscent of Fast Food Nation, and is just one more reason to avoid animal products.

The lack of respect for human and nonhuman life at AgriProcessors isn't all that surprising given the general atmosphere of disrespect for life that is a premise of a slaughterhouse, but that doesn't make the story any easier to take. If you're not familiar with the kosher slaughter, check out Jonathan Safran Foer's "If this is Kosher" (and also his Everything is Illuminated--the book as well as the film).

Comments

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for getting the information out there about this video on the NYTimes website. Today I rode my bike (new favorite mode of transportation) by one of the local chicken "processing" plants. They had chickens sitting on the trucks waiting for processing and I suppose because it is summer, there were huge fans blowing. The smell (stench) was awful and I thought of what it must be like for the people who work there. That was a very touching video and his sincerity came through.

[Bea Elliott]

Also an interesting side note about Agriprocessor - After the initial raid - they sent scouts to Amarillo, Texas to hire homeless workers....
http://stlouis.ujcfedweb.org/page.aspx?id=178290
More desperate people handling helpless animals - what an absolute corrupt system. By the way, the most recent HSUS undercover video filmed abuses at a livestock auction in..... you guessed it - Amarillo, Texas. Hummmm.

And if you can stand more dirt getting under your nails in regards to the sordid practices of Agriprocessor:
http://projectusa.org/2008/05/18/biggest-immig-raid-ever-much-worse-than-you-think/

The story goes back to 2004 when they secured labor from China and manipulated the "Labor Certification Process". "Hundreds of Chinese immigrants come to Postville to work at the slaughterhouse for a couple of weeks in order to fulfill their visa requirement, then disappear." Each laborer is worth a $30,000 "fee"....

Ah yes, Kosher Meat..... excuse me now while I go wash my hands.