Impacts on Society of Slaughterhouses

When we ask people to do jobs that are so disturbing that we would never contemplate doing them ourselves, we create devastating and wide-ranging social impacts.

Research on the psychological impacts of slaughtering animals has shown increases in mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Research also found that people who work in slaughterhouses are more likely to demonstrate “violence-supportive” attitudes.

To cope with the psychologically difficult task of subduing and cutting the throats of animals day after day, slaughterhouse workers often need to find coping strategies. These include numbing their thoughts through alcohol and drug use, and finding violent outlets.⁴ Unsurprisingly, the impacts spill out of the slaughterhouse and into the rest of society, with increases in domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and rape among slaughter workers.⁵