Slaughterhouse Workers are Not Victims

"After a while you become desensitized. And as far as animals go, they're a lower life-form. They're maybe one step above a maggot. When you got a live, conscious hog, you not only kill it, you want to make it hurt. You go in hard, blow the windpipe, make it drown in its own blood. Take out an eyeball, split its nose. A live hog would be running around the pit with me. It would be looking up at me and I would just take my knife and--eerk--take its eye out while it was just sitting there. And this hog would just scream.'' - Slaughterhouse by Gail Eisnitz

The above quote is a reminder to the true colours of the people who's lives and pay checks revolve around killing animals. I see far too much 'slaughterhouse workers are the real victims' discourse in vegan spaces (especially 'intersectional' ones) but until these people are being forced through the same misery incarnate that they inflict on non-human beings, my sympathy will firmly remain with the latter.

The shifting empathy towards animal oppressors is one of the many reasons why the animal liberation movement has gone to complete shit in recent decades, we need to remember who really needs our activism. I shouldn't have to point out that slaughterhouse workers aren't unhappy with their work because they have to kill animals, merely the pay, labour and hygiene (welcome to the club), I've become acquainted with far too many slaughterhouse staff who are more than chuffed that they can 'get away with murder everyday' or 'let off steam on stubborn cattle.' And considering that there are a concerning number of people (i.e. hunters, homesteaders etc) who arguably seek out opportunities to kill animals by themselves and seem more than happy to do so, I'd say that any rhetoric about slaughterhouse workers disliking the harm they cause is mere projection on our part.