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I once visited a very small slaughterhouse in 
Virginia. This particular slaughterhouse rotated

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the animals they killed by day. I happened 
to be there on a pig day. Before entering

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the slaughterhouse to observe the kill floor, I 
peered over the wall of the holding pen outside.

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There was a group of pigs milling about and two 
slaughterhouse workers talking in the middle.

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One pig approached a worker wearing 
a blood-stained smock and nuzzled his side.

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The worker glanced down and started petting the pig,
who readily laid down for a hearty belly rub.

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The slaughterhouse worker rubbed her belly as the pig closed her eyes

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in a look of bliss every person with a dog is more than accustomed to.

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After a minute or so, he patted her head, saying 
"okay, I've gotta go," and headed back into the kill floor,

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where he would later stab that very same pig in her carotid artery.

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As far as slaughterhouses go, the one I visited 
was a far cry from the industrial,

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mechanized kill lines run at staggering speed 
with haphazard results. But in many ways,

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I found it almost more disturbing to see 
the very same man shower a living being with affection

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only to moments later take her life. 
This apparent emotional disconnect is hard for

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even meat-eaters to reconcile. There's a reason 
most people don't kill the animals they consume.

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But as much distance as we may like to place 
between ourselves and the animals on our plates,

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there' no avoiding the reality that purchasing 
animal products is simply a way of having others

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kill in our name. And just as we dare not think 
of what the animals have experienced to make it to

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our grocery store, we equally resist considering 
the experience of those who took their lives.

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Hi, it's Emily from BiteSizeVegan.org, 
where you can find free resources, eCourses,

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kids' content, and a Guided Search 
to help you find just what you need,

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even if you don't know what to ask! 
And where you'll find all the sources

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and additional resources for this video! 
Just go to bitesize.link/WorkerTrauma

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Some people may wonder why I, a vegan 
animal liberation activist and educator,

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would take the time to address the mental 
health of slaughterhouse workers.

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The most basic reason why their mental health 
matters is that the psychological anguish

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of any sentient being matters. And when an 
occupation routinely causes psychological

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harm to workers across all countries 
and cultures, it’s worth asking why.

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Slaughterhouse workers are essentially canaries 
in the coal mine for our collective humanity.

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If killing animals results in profound 
psychological trauma for workers, it would

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certainly call into question our societal belief 
that slaughtering animals is perfectly acceptable.

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This belief is already a thinly 
veiled dissociation for people who

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consume animals. Ask the average person 
to watch footage from a slaughterhouse,

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and you'll likely be met with resistance. 
If nothing is wrong with the way that we raise,

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confine, and kill animals, why are we so resistant to watching?

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Perhaps even more telling is the animal products 
industry's own resistance to transparency.

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Starting with my own state of Iowa, many states 
have criminalized the exposure of what takes

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place within their facilities. These so-called 
"ag-gag" laws place severe penalties of jail

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time and fees upon anyone who shows the inner 
workings of our animal agriculture system.

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Again, if there's nothing to hide, why take 
such extreme steps to prevent exposure?

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For some animal rights activists, it may 
seem that focusing at all on the health of

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slaughterhouse workers pulls attention from 
the real victims: the animals themselves.

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It's a common misconception that being vegan 
means one has no concern for human rights.

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However, even if our primary focus is non-human animals,

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the psychological damage workers experience 
from killing them is a powerful testament

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to the true impact of the animals’ suffering. 
The harm to workers flies in the face

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of viewing non-human animals as objects or commodities.

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Were that true, slaughterhouse workers would not
be so gravely affected by taking their lives.

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You may wonder what kind of person would work 
at a slaughterhouse in the first place?

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Perhaps people who take sadistic pleasure in harming animals? 
While there are people who willingly gravitate

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towards slaughtering animals because they enjoy it,
they are by far a minority.

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In reality, most slaughterhouse workers take 
the job as a last—or only—resort for income.

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Slaughterhouse workers typically come 
from poor socio-economic backgrounds,

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often with little to no education. 
Many, if not most, are members of vulnerable populations,

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like refugees, people of color, and undocumented immigrants.

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Former slaughterhouse worker turned animal activist Virgil Butler

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shared about the makeup of his coworkers
in a speech about his nine years

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slaughtering chickens for the 
multinational corporation Tyson Foods:

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"Most...are very uneducated. Some of them 
can't even read a comic book without some help.

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Tyson actually employs somebody to assist with
job applications because most people can't fill them out.

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They also have a lot of Hispanic people that
can't speak English so naturally they can't write it.

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You've got a bunch of people here that really couldn't 
possibly hope to get a really good job,

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so they're stuck working for Tyson, and Tyson knows it. 
They pick on rural communities for that reason."

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This makeup of the workforce is echoed across 
countries, from South Africa, to Denmark,

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to Turkey, to Australia, to...really anywhere. 
The lack of options workers face also explains

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why they stay, despite facing one of the highest 
illness and injury rates of any profession,

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and having to carry out horrific brutalities 
most people can't even imagine.

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Virgil Butler describes this desperate position, 
recounting how workers were expected

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to remove improperly hung chickens 
from the line "any way you can:"

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"You get it off the line any way you can. 
If that means ripping that chicken in half,

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that means rippin' its leg off, if that 
means rippin' its foot off—you do it.

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If you don't do it, you're fired. Flat out. 
There's no choice. They'll tell you straight up:

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you are the most expendable human beings on earth."

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It's rather telling that—at least at the time of 
my research for this video—

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when typing "slaughterhouse workers" into Google, the 
very first auto-suggestion is "slaughterhouse workers ptsd."

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Studies across countries and cultures 
show clear evidence of psychological trauma

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from working in slaughterhouses, though this 
is still a largely under-examined population.

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Workers studied have exhibited and 
reported a range of symptoms including:

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anxiety, depression, recurrent violent 
dreams, paranoia, dissociation, panic,

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a sense of disintegration, an increase 
in aggression in and outside of work,

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substance abuse, amnesia,suicidal 
ideation, and even psychoticism.

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Slaughterhouse workers are particularly 
prone to a form of Post-Traumatic Stress

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Disorder (PTSD) called Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress (PITS).

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The concept of PITS was first introduced by sociologist 
and psychologist Rachel M. Macnair

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MacNair describes PITS as "a form of PTSD symptoms 
caused not by being a victim or rescuer in trauma,

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but by being an active participant in causing trauma"

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—meaning the psychological harm results from
having caused the traumatic event.

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McNair argues that this resulting trauma suggests that 
"the human mind is not well suited for killing."

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This assessment is echoed in a study in 
South Africa that created a timeline of the

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emotional breakdown of slaughterhouse workers, 
starting with the trauma of their first kill:

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"During their first kill, slaughter workers 
remember feeling upset and experiencing

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physical shock manifested by shaking and 
shivering. [... They] were also emotionally

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disturbed by their first-time kill and noted 
feeling pained, saddened, and shameful."

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The study relays one worker's recounting of 
his first kill, noting how "the traumatic

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experience of the first kill is evident as 
well as how this emotive experience fades

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into detachment," a later phase of the 
emotional timeline that we'll address next.

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He recalls: "The first time when I killed it was 
not easy for me. I feel pity for it.

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I felt I just wanted to close my eyes, turn 
around, and run away. It was really sad

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but the more you do it the easier it gets. Like yesterday 
I had to shoot cows in the kraal [an enclosure for livestock].

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I climbed over the fence, walked to the cow, and just shot it.

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I feel nothing anymore. In the beginning it was very bad."

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This eventual dissociation and emotional numbing 
is described time and again by slaughterhouse

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workers, and is part of what the South African 
study refers to as the "(mal)adjustment phase."

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In an interview with journalist Ashitha Nagesh, 
Dr Chi-Chi Obuaya, a consultant psychiatrist at

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Nightingale mental health hospital in London, 
spoke to the "repetitive trauma" experienced

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by slaughterhouse workers. With this kind 
of "complex PTSD," Dr. Obuaya told Nagesh:

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"there’s a sort of self-loathing that tends 
to emerge – a very strong dislike of oneself,

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and loss of one’s identity. That’s what 
one would see in this particular group,

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where the repetitive nature of the exposure to the

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trauma as a perpetrator then leads to this 
breakdown in the individual’s identity."

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In his book The Nazi Doctors, psychiatrist Robert 
Jay Lifton coined the term "doubling" to refer to the

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"formation of a second, relatively autonomous 
self, which enables one to participate in evil."

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Doubling is essentially the act of dividing 
oneself into separate "selves"—one self to kill,

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the other self to maintain one's sense 
of humanity and identity.

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It's the mind's survival mechanism for carrying out acts 
that are contrary to one's moral compass.

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Doubling could explain the disturbing duality 
I observed in the slaughterhouse worker in Virginia,

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showing affection for a pig just prior to killing her.

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This dissociation is echoed in a striking account from 
Ed Van Winkle, a long-time slaughterhouse worker:

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"The worst thing, worse than the physical 
danger, is the emotional toll.

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You develop an attitude that lets you 
kill things but doesn't let you care.

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You may look a hog in the eye that's walking 
around down in the blood pit with you

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[and] you may want to pet it. Pigs down on the kill floor
have come up and nuzzled me like a puppy.

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Two minutes later I had to kill them-beat 
them to death with a pipe. I can't care.”

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Activist Virgil Butler writes in his moving post 
"Inside the mind of a killer":

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"The sheer amount of killing and blood can really 
get to you after awhile [sic],

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especially if you can't just shut down all emotion completely 
and turn into a robot zombie of death.

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You feel like part of a big death machine. 
Pretty much treated that way as well.

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Out of desperation you send your mind elsewhere 
so that you don't end up like those guys that lose it.

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Like the guy that fell on his knees 
praying to God for forgiveness.

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Or the guy they hauled off to the mental hospital that kept 
having nightmares that chickens were after him."

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In many ways, the dissociation experienced by 
slaughterhouse workers is an extreme version

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of the dissociation experienced by most 
people who consume animals.

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No one wants to think they have a hand in overt cruelty 
towards animals. So we as a society distance

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ourselves as much as possible from the actions 
we pay others to do to animals in our names.

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This dissociation is easier when you don't have 
to see what the animals go through.

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When you don't have to literally have their blood on your 
hands. For those doing the killing for consumers,

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the dissociation becomes extreme out of necessity.

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There's no arguing that the work of a 
slaughterhouse employee is violent.

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But are slaughterhouse workers more prone to violence as a whole?

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As a society, we have long acknowledged cruelty towards animals
as an indicator of budding psychopathy.

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Yet slaughterhouse workers are paid and expected 
to carry out what amounts to torture upon

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thousands of sentient beings, day in and day out. 
How could that not have an effect?

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Studies have found links between slaughterhouse 
work and increased crime rates, including:

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domestic violence, sex offenses, murder, assault, 
burglary, arson, rape, theft, and larceny.

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So, is it their work that makes them violent, 
or are violent people more drawn to that kind of work?

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While the latter may be true in some 
cases, studies and stories from slaughterhouse

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workers illustrate severe changes in personality, 
deadening of empathy, and increased aggression.

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For her harrowing book Slaughterhouse, 
Gail A. Eisnitz spoke with Donny Tice,

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a hog "sticker" (meaning the worker who 
cuts the pig's throat). Tice recounted:

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"Down in the blood pit, they say that the smell of 
blood makes you aggressive [...] And it does [...]

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Another thing that happens is that you don't 
care about people's pain anymore. I used to be

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very sensitive about people's problems-willing to 
listen. After a while, you become desensitized."

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Slaughterhouse workers often turn to substance 
abuse and other maladaptive ways of coping with

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the trauma of their work. Ed Van Winkle, 
whom we heard from earlier, told Eisnitz:

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"Every sticker I know carries a gun, and every 
one of them would shoot you. Most stickers I know

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have been arrested for assault. A lot of them 
have problems with alcohol. They have to drink,

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they have no other way of dealing with killing live, 
kicking animals all day long."

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Activist Virgil Butler and many other former 
and current slaughterhouse workers recount

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horrifying "games" workers would play with 
the living beings they were employed to kill

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Whether ripping the head off of a chicken 
and placing it on their finger like a puppet,

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or purposefully not stunning a pig just to make 
it harder for the next worker to shackle them,

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or a number of other atrocities I'll spare you from, 
but about which you can read for yourself

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in the works I've cited throughout the article for this video

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For many workers, this sadistic behavior 
developed from the severe emotional

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detachment and stress of the job. 
While we like to think that abuse and cruelty

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within the animal industries are isolated 
events—a result of a few aberrant workers,

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this is simply not the case. I have multiple 
videos, articles, and even full-length speeches

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showing the reality of humane regulations 
and what the "highest standards" really mean

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for the animals themselves, all of 
which are linked in this video's article.

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The line that we draw between abuse and 
standard industry practice is arbitrary at best.

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Tossing live, conscious baby chicks 
into a meat grinder? Completely legal.

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In fact, it's the standard method dictated in the 
European Union's landmark humane regulations.

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Slamming piglets into the concrete floor then tossing
them into piles while many are still alive and twitching?

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Completely legal. 
Tearing off the testicles of piglets and calves,

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cutting their teeth, notching their 
ears, searing brands into flesh,

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chopping off their tails—all without 
any pain relief—completely legal.

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As you heard from Virgil Butler, 
even clear violations of the limited regulations

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or standards that may exist are not only allowed, 
but actually required for employees to keep their job.

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Nothing can slow the speed of the line. 
I've personally spoken with slaughterhouse workers

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—as well as read numerous accounts
—about cows regularly still being conscious

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as their skin is removed and they are dismembered. 
Nothing can slow down the line.

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When undercover videos come out documenting 
the inner workers of a slaughterhouse,

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the public is outraged and appalled. But what is 
never made clear in such exposes is which horrific

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acts captured are abuse, and which are standard legal practice.

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When the line between cruel, psychopathic sadism and an 
everyday job task is so profoundly indistinguishable,

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shouldn't that at least give us pause?

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So what, you may ask, is the solution? 
Some animal rights activists distribute

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flyers directly to slaughterhouse workers with 
information about finding alternative employment,

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crisis lines, addiction support, and legal 
help. Labor rights advocates propose things

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like stronger union representation and legal 
reform. In her book Slaughterhouse, Gail Eisnitz,

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in wondering why workers continued to 
put up with psychically dangerous and

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00:14:41,602 --> 00:14:46,895
psychologically damaging conditions year after 
year, asked "Wasn't that what unions were for?”

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So she asked a union official, who informed 
her he'd raised many complaints about the

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extreme conditions and overt violations 
over the years, all to no avail.

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The local union president wrote to the state, saying 
"These are human beings and they need help!

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It's inhumane to subject man or beast to these conditions." 
Inspectors came, but took no action, saying they

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"observed slaughter procedures and have seen 
no problems with sticking hogs at this speed.”

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However, even if officials were to listen and 
take action, even if we were to implement better

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worker safety—the fundamental reality 
of the job does not change.

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The psychological toll of taking hundreds to 
thousands of lives every day does not change.

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And the reality for the non-human 
animals certainly does not change.

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The solution for humans, non-humans, our planet, 
and our society as a whole is the same:

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to stop exploiting sentient beings.

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If nothing else, the deep and lasting 
psychological damage slaughterhouse workers

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00:15:51,544 --> 00:15:57,209
experience is a testament to the profound 
impact of non-human animal suffering.

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00:15:57,209 --> 00:16:07,495
The fact that their deaths can so devastate the 
human psyche must mean that their lives matter.

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00:16:07,495 --> 00:16:12,027
I wish I had a quick and simple solution to offer
for the immense toll our animal products industries

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00:16:12,027 --> 00:16:14,246
take upon human and non-human animals alike.

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00:16:14,246 --> 00:16:19,412
Perhaps you wish I could offer absolution from even having
concern for the humans in these industries at all.

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00:16:19,412 --> 00:16:24,826
What I can offer is what I always do: the reality of 
what you support when you purchase animal products.

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00:16:24,826 --> 00:16:27,541
I can offer you the facts such that you can decide

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00:16:27,541 --> 00:16:32,356
whether it's in line with your values to 
continue paying others to kill in your name.

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00:16:32,356 --> 00:16:37,738
My hope is that you'll choose to go vegan. 
If not for the animals, then for your fellow humans.

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00:16:37,738 --> 00:16:40,437
You can get started with my free How to Go Vegan Guide,

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00:16:40,437 --> 00:16:43,762
available under the Get Started menu at BiteSizeVegan.org.

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00:16:43,762 --> 00:16:49,413
To support educational content like this, please consider 
making a donation by clicking "Support" at BiteSizeVegan.org.

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00:16:49,413 --> 00:16:53,051
To stay in the loop about new Bite Size Vegan content 
and updates, please sign up for the newsletter

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00:16:53,051 --> 00:16:55,895
or follow the Telegram channel 
for the most reliable notifications.

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00:16:55,895 --> 00:16:58,150
Now go live vegan, and I'll see you soon.