Animal cruelty rises and worker safety is ignored with extreme-speed slaughter

Dear Friend, Extreme-speed slaughter increases animal suffering and harm to workers. Stand up to mega meat corporations to protect animals, workers, and the planet: make your $27 contribution today. If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [Donate $27 immediately]( [Donate $5/month immediately]( The USDA has decided to continue allowing DANGEROUS Trump-era extreme-speed slaughter practices at some pork processing plants. Mega meat corporations are focusing on the profits they can gain from slaughtering more pigs -- even when this comes at a disastrous cost to worker safety, animal welfare and the environment. [Stand up to mega meat corporations to protect workers, animals, and the planet with your contribution of $27 or more to Friends of the Earth today.]( Increased speed makes an already dangerous job even more so -- workers can’t keep up and are far more likely to be injured. It can also result in animal welfare protocols being neglected, with some animals being subjected to electric pods, botched stunning, and careless slaughtering. Workers and animals are facing even more abuse -- all for the sake of Big Ag’s profits. The cruel practices of Big Ag’s giant processing plants are just the tip of the iceberg. Mega meat corporations actively hide the true horrors that lie within this system, but animals, workers, and the planet need you to stand up and fight the increasingly devastating impacts of factory farms. Protect worker safety, prevent increased animal cruelty, and protect our planet: Make your contribution of $27 or more to Friends of the Earth today. If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [Donate $27 immediately]( [Donate $5/month immediately]( Increased processing speeds not only harm animals and workers, they can also compromise food safety. Faster speeds make it difficult to properly handle and process animals, leading to increased instances of feces, bile, hair, or dirt contaminating the meat. This contamination can lead to E.coli outbreaks that harm consumers. Factory farms are already havens for disease. From birth to slaughter, factory-farmed animals face filthy, cramped conditions. Calves are taken from their mothers and put into cramped crates, hens are squeezed into tiny cages and pregnant mother pigs are kept in metal cages, unable to move. Cramming genetically similar animals in overcrowded, dirty, inhumane, and stressful conditions make the animals more susceptible to infection -- a dangerously perfect breeding ground for diseases like swine flu and avian flu. We cannot continue to allow factory farming to inflict so much damage on animals, humans, and the planet. That’s why we’re pushing for policies that will ensure a just transition away from factory farming and stop mega meat corporations from abusing animals and people and destroying our environment. Mega meat corporations put profit over health and safety. Protect animals, workers, and our planet with your $27 contribution today! If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [Donate $27 immediately]( [Donate $5/month immediately]( Workers and animals are not the only ones harmed by factory farming. Nearby communities are affected by the byproducts of these heinous practices. Factory farms in the U.S. produce over 885 billion pounds of manure per year. Animal waste from these plants is kept in large open lagoons, which then seeps into the soil and reaches nearby water sources where it can pollute drinking water, kill fish, and render nearby waterways unsafe. The antibiotics in this waste can also foster antibiotic-resistant bacteria that harm human health. These massive farms also produce toxic pollutants that severely degrade the air and quality of life of the communities nearby, many of which are low-income Black and brown communities. The entire business model of mega meat corporations is based on keeping their costs as low as possible through inhumane and unsustainable practices that drive us closer to climate catastrophe. And our current regulations allow them to keep lining their pockets while sacrificing our health and animal welfare. Friends of the Earth is pushing to end these atrocious factory farming practices, but we need your membership support today to help step up our fight for animals, people, and our planet. Make your contribution of $27 or more to Friends of the Earth today and allow us to keep up the fight! This terrible system is subjecting animals to extreme abuse, risking worker safety, and polluting our communities. We must fight to end factory farming and protect our planet: Join us with your gift of $27 or more today! If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: [Donate $27 immediately]( [Donate $5/month immediately]( Standing with you, Lisa Archer, Food and agriculture program director, Friends of the Earth Contact Us: Friends of the Earth U.S. Washington, D.C. | Berkeley, CA 1-877-843-8687 [Contact us]( Email Preferences: [Click here to unsubscribe]( Learn more: www.foe.org/news www.foe.org/about-us www.foeaction.org Connect: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Flickr]( © 2021, Friends of the Earth. All Rights Reserved. [supporter]