Myth # 38 : " But the meat & dairy industry provides jobs ."
Myth # 38 : " But the meat & dairy industry provides jobs ."
If you accept the official figures *, about 40,000 meatpacking workers are killed or injured on the job every year in the United States alone . And yet those figures are probably significantly low – primarily due to the meat industry ’ s welldocumented history of discouraging injury reports , falsifying injury data , and putting injured workers back on the job to minimize the reporting of lost workdays .
And just as disconcerting as the horrific physical injuries sustained by slaughterhouse workers is the immense psychological damage suffered by all of them . While the meat & dairy consumer is conveniently disconnected from the immense pain & suffering that takes place in the production of meat and eggs and dairy products , workers in the world ' s slaughterhouses , chicken processing plants and dairy farms are continually immersed in that violence – repeatedly engaged in acts of terrible cruelty committed over & over & over again by their own hands . The drastic psychological & emotional consequences that ensue cannot come as much of a surprise … Consider the following evidence thereof :
* A study performed at the University of Windsor showed that slaughterhouse workers are increasingly reporting symptoms of PTSD – including extreme anxiety , domestic violence , drug & alcohol abuse , and social withdrawal .
* In 2007 , Amy Fitzgerald ( a University of Windsor criminology professor ) released a study that proved a strong correlation between the presence of large slaughterhouses and high crime rates in U . S . communities . She controlled for an abattoir town ’ s typically disproportionate population of poor , working-class males , and yet still found that the presence of the slaughterhouse stood out as the single factor most likely to spike a community ' s violent crime statistics .
* An Australian study released in 2013 ( and published in the Society & Animals
Journal ) also noted that slaughterhouse workers are more prone to violence ; finding that people who work in abattoirs are far more likely to be desensitized to the massive suffering they inflict on animals , and thus are far more likely to be violent towards their fellow humans as well .
* Flinders University senior sociology lecturer Dr Nik Taylor also found that the more positive a person ' s attitude towards animals , the lower his or her general aggression levels , and that the reverse is also true as well – namely , that if one is cruel towards animals , he or she is more likely to be violent towards other humans . In her particular study , Taylor found that slaughterhouse workers ’ aggression levels were so high that they actually mirrored those exhibited by the long-term incarcerated .
So yes , the meat & dairy industry does provide a lot of jobs … and then again , so did Nazi concentration camps during World War II … Think about it .
Current status of this Myth : Unveiled Justification it provides for eating animals : NONE
64