PETA Asks AL Governor to Implement Empathy Training for Meat Industry Workers Following Shootings

[arcadian]

http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=12786

Group Cites Studies Linking Slaughterhouse Jobs to Other Community Violence

For Immediate Release:
March 16, 2009

Contact:
Lindsay Rajt 757-622-7382

Montgomery, Ala. -- In the wake of a shooting rampage in Samson that was allegedly perpetrated by former slaughterhouse worker Michael McLendon, PETA has dispatched a letter to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley offering to help the state protect the public's safety by providing assistance in developing and implementing empathy training programs and animal-abuse prevention systems -- such as video monitoring -- to catch violent employees on factory farms and in slaughterhouses. Recent studies have found psychological damage among workers who slaughter animals as well as higher rates of violent crime in communities with slaughterhouses.

"As long as people continue to demand meat, Governor Riley can at least help prevent violence from spilling out into the community by teaching workers self-respect and empathy and installing video monitoring to root out the bad apples," says PETA Vice President Bruce Friedrich.

PETA's letter to Gov. Riley follows. For more information, please visit PETA's blog.

[flvegan]

1. Awesome!

:popcorn:

[arcadian]

8. I feel a bit like Jim Cramer moving the market.

:rofl:

[flvegan]

10. Can't believe this was moved to the Alabama forum.

[jobycom]

14. The mods are hoping to minimize damage.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. What does PETA know about empathy?

Given this story: nothing.

[Critters2]

9. What do you mean? nt

[PVnRT]

3. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go

[ogneopasno]

4. "Recent studies."

Alrighty then!

[TZ]

5. Warning: PUI flamewar about to commence!

:rofl:

[Incitatus]

6. oh

GD is going all out today.

[cobalt1999]

7. All this time I thought it was Postal workers who went insane

Upton Sinclair missed that slaughterhouse psycho worker angle.

On edit: fixed the name and need coffee

[Critters2]

11. Having served in a town with a slaughterhouse,

I can tell you the workers know that the work makes them less empathetic toward their fellow creatures. I knew several who worried about this, and one who quit and took a job as a restaurant bus boy. The pay was less, but he felt less likely to harm others than after spending the whole day killing animals.

[cobalt1999]

15. I don't doubt it for a subset of the workers.

I can see where a few people doing that hour after hour; day after day, could get numb to all types of things.

However, I don't think the phrase "Going Slaughterhouse" will replace "Going Postal" in our lexicon unless there are many more of these incidents.

[Critters2]

16. The workers I knew, who were undocumented,

lived largely below the radar, and were most concerned about violence toward their spouses and children. When such incidents did occur, they too often only supported stereotypes of these workers as inherently violent, inreliable, not a part of the community.

[Ikonoklast]

12. Pantsload of pure crap.

Once again, PETA shows that reality and their skewed worldview are mutually exclusive.

Why not complain about underwear? It would be just as valid an argument.

I would be willing to bet many a deranged murderer was wearing some when they committed their crimes.

[Critters2]

13. You don't think killing animals for a living might make one

less empathetic toward living creatures? Seriously?

[Ikonoklast]

17. Answer me this:

How many employees on a a kill floor are actually engaged in the killing of the animal?

[Critters2]

18. It only takes one who is sufficiently desensitized to the suffering.

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/virgil-butler.asp

[Syrinx]

19. why was this dumped into the Alabama forum?

I don't know where it was originally posted, but this isn't even remotely an "Alabama" post, conceptually speaking.