Animal Agriculture Workers
Animal agriculture employs several hundred thousand workers in the United States.[1] The industry is largely defined by the factory farm model in which billions of land animals are raised and slaughtered for human consumption each year; however, even small farms use many of the same factory-like methods. Animal agriculture workers are consistently exposed to a variety of harmful gases and particulate matter and also suffer from repetitive stress injuries. The resulting health effects are well documented and include chronic aches and pains, respiratory disorders, cardiovascular complications, and premature death.[2] Approximately 7% of all “animal production” workers in the U.S. report an injury or illness, and in 2018, at least 161 workers died as a result of the hazardous working conditions.[3] Driven by rigid contracts set forth by their corporate partners, animal farms knowingly jeopardize workers’ health in order to maximize profits.
About the Workers
A large percentage of animal agriculture workers are Black and Brown people, including migrant workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. The majority of workers are full-time laborers who have relocated to the rural towns dominated by animal agriculture. In addition, several thousand temporary workers are brought in annually through the government’s H-2A guest worker visa program.[4]
An unknown percentage of full-time and part-time workers are undocumented. Employers find undocumented workers to be ideal recruits because they are less likely to complain about low wages and hazardous working conditions.
Workers are largely unaware of the inherent health hazards and social struggles they will encounter in this industry. Differences in language and culture often leave workers feeling like outcasts in their new community.
Nature of the Work
The work performed on animal farms varies greatly depending on the animal being raised, the phase of “production,” and the employee’s job title. While some maintenance duties such as administering food and water are accomplished by automated machinery, manual laborers are needed to perform a variety of critical tasks.
“Breeding farms” and “hatcheries” are facilities that focus exclusively on breeding animals in mass quantities. Workers at pig “breeding farms” are responsible for administering antibiotics, clipping the pigs’ teeth, notching their ears, cutting off a part of the tail and castrating the males,* all without anesthesia.[5, 6] “Hatcheries” breed the chickens who will go on to be used for egg production. Workers’ duties include determining the chicks’ sexes and killing all males, cutting off the tip of the females’ beaks, and crating the female chicks for transport to the “growing farm.”
“Nurseries” are intermediate sheds where the animals are held before being transported to the “growing” or “finishing” facilities.
“Growing” or “finishing” facilities are where animals raised for “meat” spend the bulk of their brief lives. Depending on the animal being raised and the worker’s title, responsibilities include monitoring the automated feed and water systems; identifying, treating, and/or killing sick, injured, or weak animals; removing dead and dying animals from their cages or pens; rounding up animals and putting them into vehicles for transport to the slaughterhouse; cleaning the sheds; and placing the next group of animals in the sheds.
While most day-to-day tasks are performed by full-time employees, periods of peak activity require the use of temporary workers who are brought in by labor contractors. Because company profits are predicated on extreme efficiency at every stage of “production,” workers are expected to perform their duties at a rate that often compromises their mental and physical health as well as causes great suffering for the non-human animals.
Health and Safety Hazards
Animal agriculture workers routinely inhale hazardous levels of particulate matter as well as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide gases.[7] Individually, each of these components is capable of causing severe health complications; however, it is their collective effect that is most harmful.[1, 8]
Inhalable particulate matter is generally defined as airborne particles capable of reaching the lungs during normal breathing. In animal farms, these particles can come from many sources, including dry fecal matter, feed, animal dander and skin cells, feathers, fungi, dry soil, and bacterial endotoxins.[2, 7] The prevalence of these conditions is evident by the fact that between 50–70% of all workers in pig confinement operations experience one or more symptoms of respiratory irritation or illness.[1, 9]
Levels of inhalable particulate matter increase significantly during periods of peak activity, such as moving large numbers of animals from one area to another, rounding up and cramming animals into slaughterhouse transportation vehicles, and cleaning the sheds. As a result, workers suffer chronic respiratory disorders, exacerbation of asthma, cardiovascular complications, and premature death.[2]
A study found that about half of all pig farm workers may carry dangerous bacteria in their noses when they go home from work. The drug-resistant bacteria can stay with a worker for up to four days and can potentially spread to other people, like the workers’ families.[10, 11]
Ammonia is a gas that is released from the large volumes of urine and manure that accumulate on factory farms. One study found that two chicken houses in Kentucky emitted 10 tons of ammonia in one year.[7] The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) consistently allows industry profits to take precedence over workers’ interests. OSHA permits ammonia levels in the workplace up to 50 parts per million (ppm), a level that produces a rapid onset of eye, nose, and throat irritation, as well as coughing and the narrowing of the bronchi.[12, 13] Regular exposure to ammonia also damages the cilia of the throat, allowing inhaled particulate matter to travel deep into the respiratory tract.[2]
Hydrogen sulfide gas is emitted primarily from liquid manure. Repeat exposure to low volumes of hydrogen sulfide can cause symptoms such as dry skin, eye irritation, nausea, low blood pressure, headaches, and chronic coughs.[14]
Large volumes of liquid manure are stored below grated floors or outside the sheds in pits euphemistically called “manure lagoons.” Many workers who have entered these manure pits to perform maintenance tasks have been instantaneously asphyxiated by the release of hydrogen sulfide gas. Once unconscious, workers quickly drown in the liquid manure. These deadly incidents usually involve multiple co-workers attempting to rescue one another, as was the case at Aguiar-Faria & Sons Dairy in Merced County, California. One afternoon, Enrique Araiza was trying to clear a blockage in a “manure lagoon” pump when he was overcome by the gases and collapsed facedown in the manure. Attempting to rescue his co-worker, Jose Alatorre entered the pit but was also asphyxiated by the gases. Tragically, both men died. Enrique Araiza was 29 and Jose Alatorre was 24.[15]
In 2016, two other workers died in manure pits on “dairy” farms in Idaho. Alberto Navarro Munoz had been working at a farm for only two weeks when his tractor tipped over into a manure pit. Earlier that year, Ruperto Vazquez-Carrera drove a truck into a manure pit after snowmelt flooded the pit and made it challenging to distinguish from the road. OSHA only imposed fines of about $5,000 on the farms involved in the deaths.[16]
In 2018, there were 46 deaths on “dairy” farms with more than 11 employees.[17] Most farms with fewer than 11 employees are not required to report such incidents.[16, 18]
Many workers also experience chronic muscle aches due to the repetitive nature of their work. Workers, such as those who pull chickens from battery cages, repeat the same motions for hours on end, commonly working 12-hour shifts.
In 2012, a group of immigrant factory farm workers filed a series of complaints against their employer, Anogla Pork, LLC. With the assistance of Iowa Citizens for Community Involvement (Iowa CCI), the workers filed complaints about racism, xenophobia, safety hazards, and animal cruelty within their workplace.[19]
The immigrant workers, who were primarily from Mexico and Honduras, described their experiences of discrimination at the factory farm. The immigrant workers’ supervisors regularly yelled at them and treated them with hostility for speaking Spanish. Unlike their white, U.S.-born co-workers, the immigrant workers were not allowed lunch breaks, water breaks, or vacation time.[20]
Melissa Marquez, a worker at Anogla Pork and a member of Iowa CCI, stated, “ snapped their fingers at me and yelled obscenities at me if I asked to take a water break in 110 degree heat.”[19]
Another worker and Iowa CCI member, Henry Reyes, recounted, “Sometimes we saw pigs that were very sick, with maggots on the legs and in the feeding areas.” Other workers recalled seeing pigs abused and mistreated by supervisors.[19]
Quality of Life
Like most agricultural employees, animal agriculture workers struggle to avoid hazards in the workplace and to earn a living wage. Their work is plagued by a variety of chronic health conditions that persist long after their workday is over. Physicians often encourage workers to leave their jobs, but most feel they are unqualified for other lines of work.[1]
Motivated by the need to support their family, most workers choose to continue working in conditions that pose serious short-term and long-term health risks. The fact that these workers must compromise their physical health in order to achieve financial security is an indictment of both the industry’s ethics and the priorities of state and federal labor agencies.
Our Responsibility
Animal agriculture is an inherently hazardous industry that exploits both workers and non-human animals.
Most consumers do not realize that approximately 99% of all farmed animals in the U.S. are raised in factory farms.[21] The animal agriculture industry operates on the belief that higher production levels and greater efficiency are always optimal, regardless of how they affect working conditions and animal suffering. On a daily basis, workers at both large and small farms are exposed to a variety of known hazards and are required to routinely mutilate animals by performing castrations, teeth clipping, tail cutting, ear notching, and debeaking as well as killing animals who are weak and dying.
The ineffectiveness and outright complacency of state and federal regulatory agencies have allowed the industry to exploit workers with little or no threat of punishment and there is no sign of significant change on the horizon.
What You Can Do
- Go vegan: If you have access to healthy foods, choose a vegan lifestyle. Since we don’t need to consume animal products to be healthy, adopting a vegan lifestyle is an effective way to avoid contributing to the suffering endured by both animal agriculture workers and non-human animals. F.E.P. recognizes that workers experience abuse in the produce industry, too. You can learn more about that here.
- Speak out: Use your voice to call on animal organizations that conduct investigations of animal farms to not support the arrest or convictions of animal agriculture workers or slaughterhouse workers. Undercover videos most often tell only one part of the story: the suffering of non-human animals. The «meat» industry needs to be called out for what it truly is: greedy for profits and exploitative in every way toward both humans and non-human animals.
*Note: We are using the terminology “male” and “female” because it is the language we have available at this time to describe how the industry exploits non-human animals based on their assigned sex. We recognize that humans and non-human animals do not fall into a binary of only two biological sexes.
Page last updated: January 2022