MACHINES

Heh. You know a paper thinks a story's big when they give it an address like this:

http://www.charlotte.com/poultry/

And indeed, here the Charlotte Observer has a terrific, nearly epic, investigation of working conditions at their local slaughterhouse chain, House of Raeford. It highlights - while failing to make explicit - the connection between how animal-killing companies treat non-human animals and how they treat human ones. It's all replaceable machine parts to them. Pain and suffering can't exist in a machine. You think I'm exaggerating? It's impossible to.

James Mabe, the complex manager, said he was unsure why his logs showed no musculoskeletal disorders ... He offered another explanation: "Hispanics are very good with their hands and working with a knife. We've gotten less complaints."

Asked to elaborate, Mabe said, "It's more like a natural movement for them."

Tom Armstrong, a University of Michigan professor who has studied the prevalence of MSDs in poultry processing, questioned how Mabe arrived at his conclusion about Hispanics. "I know of absolutely no data to support that," he said.

So weilding a knife is something hispanics are "naturally" good at. This is the type of brain trust we have running this life-and-death, mostly death, industry. Says a lot.

So, kudos to the Observer for taking this on so vigorously. But of course it needs to go further. "This nation should no longer be content to enjoy holiday feasts and turkey sandwiches and fried chicken dinners while poultry plant workers endure crippled hands and ruined limbs," yells one editorial. OK, you first, pal. Let's see "this nation" put its money where its mouth is. Ha. If this nation had any willpower or brake on this nation's compulsion to shovel dead animals into this nation's gaping maw every single day, companies like Raeford wouldn't exist. Conversely, if you care about how workers' suffering is being ignored, is it so hard to care how animals' suffering also is?