What Killing Animals Does to Your Brain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi, it's Emily from BiteSizeVegan.org, 
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Just go to bitesize.link/WorkerTrauma

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This belief is already a thinly 
veiled dissociation for people who

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

of viewing non-human animals as objects or commodities.

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

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

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

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

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

Slaughterhouse workers typically come 
from poor socio-economic backgrounds,

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

like refugees, people of color, and undocumented immigrants.

Former slaughterhouse worker turned animal activist Virgil Butler

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

slaughtering chickens for the 
multinational corporation Tyson Foods:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

you are the most expendable human beings on earth."

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

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

Studies across countries and cultures 
show clear evidence of psychological trauma

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

but by being an active participant in causing trauma"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

where the repetitive nature of the exposure to the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

showing affection for a pig just prior to killing her.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

of the dissociation experienced by most 
people who consume animals.

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

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

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

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

the dissociation becomes extreme out of necessity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

shouldn't that at least give us pause?

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

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

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

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

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

psychologically damaging conditions year after 
year, asked "Wasn't that what unions were for?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

to stop exploiting sentient beings.

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

experience is a testament to the profound 
impact of non-human animal suffering.

The fact that their deaths can so devastate the 
human psyche must mean that their lives matter.

I wish I had a quick and simple solution to offer
for the immense toll our animal products industries

take upon human and non-human animals alike.

Perhaps you wish I could offer absolution from even having
concern for the humans in these industries at all.

What I can offer is what I always do: the reality of
what you support when you purchase animal products.

I can offer you the facts such that you can decide

whether it's in line with your values to
continue paying others to kill in your name.

My hope is that you'll choose to go vegan.
If not for the animals, then for your fellow humans.

You can get started with my free How to Go Vegan Guide,

available under the Get Started menu at BiteSizeVegan.org.

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