Possible messages

As your constituent concerned about farm animal welfare, I am writing to ask you to direct the USDA to issue a moratorium on high-speed slaughter. This is precisely the wrong moment to allow plants to move to dangerous high-speed slaughter systems known as “HIMP”: coronavirus is spreading through slaughterhouses like wildfire, workers are sick and stressed, and animals are even more vulnerable. Please ensure federal coronavirus relief funds are used to support the ongoing work to build a more humane food system. Factory farms prioritize production and efficiency at the expense of animal welfare, as well as at the expense of the environment, food workers, consumers, communities and farmers. We must move away from this destructive system by protecting farm animals and supporting higher-welfare and animal welfare-certified farmers. I encourage you to: 1) Direct the USDA to immediately stop allowing slaughterhouses to convert to even higher-speed slaughter. 2) Ensure that future coronavirus relief funds are provided to animal welfare-certified producers and farmers who are transitioning to higher-welfare systems, with a focus on small and mid-sized farmers and other historically disenfranchised farmers who supply local food systems. Vertically integrated agribusinesses operating Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and farms raising animals in cruel confinement systems—including battery cages, veal crates and gestation crates—should not be the recipients of relief funding so desperately needed by smaller, higher-welfare producers. Thank you for your consideration.