SLAUGHTERHOUSE BLOG

If you've read Gail Eisnitz' Slaughterhouse, you know there's no shortage of disturbing stories coming out of these killing factories. Now Virgil Butler, an ex-Tyson employee, has launched The Cyberactivist, a blog chronicling some of the things he saw on the job. These are some eye-opening tales, if true, of mismanagement, discrimination, secrecy, working drunk, etc., and always at the expense of the chickens - and Americans' food safety. Check it out. Butler's story just got covered in the LA Times, but unfortunately you have to register to read their stuff. (No wait, here it is at CommonDreams.)
UPDATE 12/9: Fascinating stuff, if occasionally way-over-the-top-nightmarish/nauseating, and occasionally a little grandiose. But the entry they're "just" chickens says what I've been trying to get across for a while about how one form of inhumanity dovetails with the other: "I have heard management say, 'They are just line workers. They are a dime a dozen.' Obviously they care even less about the chickens processed every night. They don't strike a single chord on the heartstrings of this type of person. Before very long, there are no strings left to strike a chord on. This is inhumanity. This is also what happens when a person discounts the suffering of anything by saying, 'it is just' anything." Read the rest of it.