A new proposal from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allowing poultry plants to increase their line processing speeds by 25 percent will put animals, workers, and consumers in increased danger.
Plants are allowed to process up to 140 birds per minute under existing regulations — a rate that is already “insanely fast,” according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).
The organization notes that the current rate allows one employee to slaughter 35 to 45 birds in a single minute, up to 2,000 each hour, or about 14,000 each day.
But now the USDA wants to allow poultry plants to increase their line speeds to 175 birds per minute — a proposal denounced by both animal rights groups and worker safety agencies.
The National Employment Law Project (NELP) called the proposal “irresponsible and reckless,” noting that the change would increase the risk of severe injury, illness, and death to poultry workers.
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) said the proposed change would be especially “bad public policy” during the COVID-19 pandemic, given that the speeds won’t allow workers to socially distance in the poultry plants, several of which have been cited for coronavirus outbreaks.
“This last-minute push for an ill-advised rule change could be deadly for essential workers in slaughterhouses,” said Jessica Martinez, the national COSH’s co-executive director, in an agency statement.
Just how fast is 175 beats (or birds) per minute? Listen to the metronome counter below, but picture each beat as a chicken’s throat getting sliced.
Even the National Chicken Council — the voice of the poultry industry and a known advocate for unrestricted line speeds — notes that moving too fast is dangerous.
“Line speeds are one of several factors that must be appropriately balanced if consistent production of uniform and high-quality poultry products is to be achieved,” the Council states on its website. “If line speeds are set too fast, then tasks will not be performed properly.”
The National Chicken Council is trying to minimize people’s concerns about worker safety, saying the increased line speeds will only apply to the evisceration line, or an automated process that disembowels chickens and is overseen by only two percent of a plant’s workers.
But the dangers of increasing line speed specific to the evisceration line have been noted as far back as 2017, when they were denounced by Phyllis McKelvey, a retired USDA food inspector who now works for the Government Accountability Project.
“These machines will pull the viscera, which is the guts of the chicken,” she told NPR, “and a lot of times the guts hang on their prongs and those machines just get covered up in guts, which is slinging manure all over the product.”
The agency tasked with ensuring food safety is the USDA. But increasing line speeds would give those same inspectors less time to spot birds on the processing lines that may have diseases, abscesses, or other contamination that makes the meat unsafe for consumers, the UFCW noted.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would also need 160 years to investigate all the plants under its oversight just once, according to calculations from the National Employment Law Project.
Where the humane treatment or oversight of animals sent to slaughter is concerned, the USDA’s track record is terrible, according to documents obtained through public record requests.
In the United States, poultry workers slaughter about 9.6 billion birds each year for meat. Currently, there is no regulation requiring that the birds sent to slaughter be handled humanely.
But multiple agencies, including the USDA itself, acknowledge that the safety of animal products can be compromised when animals die for reasons other than slaughter — such as the hundreds of chickens who come to facilities dead on arrival each year from suffocating or having been exposed to extreme weather.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, and the Farm Sanctuary, a New York-based nonprofit, sued the USDA in August for failing to require humane handling of poultry at slaughter. The lawsuit is pending.
Meanwhile, inspection reports obtained by AWI through Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests showed USDA officials took action to stop the abuse of birds at poultry plants in only 14 percent of documented violations from 2017 to 2019.
The most common violations included birds drowning in scald tanks, getting buried alive under piles of other dead birds, and suffocating on live hang belts, according to AWI records.
Only two plants received “letters of concern” from the USDA for their egregious and repeat handling problems. More than a dozen others, some of which had dozens of logged violations, received “no real consequences,” according to AWI.
“It is clear that the USDA is not serious about preventing mistreatment of birds at slaughter,” said Dena Jones, AWI’s farm animal program director. “Absent real accountability, industry leaders have no incentive to alter their behavior and treat birds more humanely.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, plants with the highest numbers of records related to humane handling issues also ranked among the worst in terms of the number of reported worker injuries and safety concerns. Of the 15 plants already approved by the USDA through waivers to increase their line speeds to 175 bpm, all have records of severe injuries, violations, or COVID-19 outbreaks, according to NELP.
The proposal is now in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which looks at the economic impact of proposed changes. After the OMB review, the USDA will need to publish the changes in the Federal Register. A period of public comment will follow, and the USDA is supposed to take those comments into consideration before determining the final rule, which can be challenged in federal court.
Lady Freethinker applauds the actions of the National Employment Law Project, The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the Animal Welfare Institute, and all others raising awareness against this dangerous proposed change that unnecessarily puts animals, workers, and consumers in danger.

The only way to stop all of this is to go vegan, time to look after human health, save the planet and stop the cruelty involved in the production of all meat. No excuse these days, supermarkets are full of healthier alternatives.
Please realize that we are capable of being thoughtful in our deeds and actions, let’s try to be more humane and compassionate to safeguard our souls.
If anything MORE time should be taken to show these poor animals that are slaughtered for your needlessly consumption, Kindness compassion and empathy.
Please realize that we are capable of being thoughtful in our deeds and actions, let’s try to be more humane and compassionate to safeguard our souls.
USDA = United States Department of Assholes, and, WE, THE PEOPLE, ARE FORCED TO SUPPORT THIS DEPT. WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS!! All so psychopathic profiteers can PROFIT!
Pertaining to the higher speed slaughter of chickens. It’s appalling to me that Covid is the main concern for not speeding up the slaughter lines. What about the horrific abuse that the birds go thru. ! What if Covid didn’t exist right now. What would be the excuse then ? And what really baffles me is that more people are turning away from meat and dairy so why the need to push for faster slaughter ??? People are getting educated on the life and death of animals and they are disgusted and going vegetarian or vegan. The USDA ” has to consider our opinions ” before their new report comes out !?? They don’t care now and they won’t care then. Especially during the still current administration who doesn’t care about animal welfare. ! Don jr. is a Trophy Hunter and proud of it. Most of that family have no morals. Animal feel love, compassion, pain, abandonment. They feel emotions and they deserve respect. !!!!!!
This is a Madness. What is wrong with these FDA brain damaged bunch who comes up with brain dead ideas? I HOPE KAMALA HARRIS will stand against this violence pretty soon. These violent FDA people must be changed ASAP.
A plant based diet is much healthier and better for animals us and the planet. I am a vegan and plant based farmer I am so saddened by the ideology of killing poor animals to eat. I hooe as a vegan and plant based farmer I can make a huge difference in the world and show people how to eat the pure and proper way for their health and the planet. Stop the slaughter! Praying for animals!
This is insane. Stop it 🐔🐓🐣🐥🐥.
I want the killing . To stop om this earth. All, I mean it is so hidoes.
STOP THIS BULLSHIT AREADY
STOP THIS BULLSHIT AREADY
Factory farming is disrespectful to the life. When something is hunted and killed in it’s natural habitat , it is presumed that someone could sneak up in it’s natural habitat, hopefully minimizing the scare and fear. For me personally I could never do it, but I understand it and if the animal is respected and used fully, then to each his own. However mass slaughtering is for profit. It is heinous and the more meat people eat the more heinuous it becomes. Why would they feel that this is something that should be done faster? When even the National Poultry Council who is pro-factory farming is against it, there is something that needs to be reconsidered. This is just sad on so many levels.
Maybe under the Biden administration this will not happen????
Crazy idea
Right, the Biden family doesn’t eat chicken……
Sarcasm
Kosher is the only humane way, besides outdoor hunting which kills them outright.
put the usda in the slaughter line
I do not care at all whether these mass murderers are infected or not.
I only care about the animals that are murdered for human consumption.
It keeps on killing innocent animals in horrific ways!
Human beings are totally rotten to the bone!
THE USDA AND THE SUB-HUMANS WHO ARE INVOLVED IN TAKING INNOCENT LIVES SHOULD SIMPLY BE BURNED TO THE GROUND.
CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT AN AMAZING WORLD WE WOULD HAVE WITHOUT ALL THESE DEMONS DECIDING THE FATE OF INNOCENT ANIMALS?
Agree, totally. Very well stated.
I work at a plant that already runs at a line speed of 175 bpm, they have done so for over 20yrs. There has not been an increase in accidents or contaminated birds getting passed by plant workers or FSIS inspectors. If anything, there has been a decrease. My establishment is very diligent when it comes to producing a safe product for the consumer. Humane handling is also not an issue here. The company supervisors and our PHV monitor this closely. If all plants work like the one I’m at, there shouldn’t be an issue with production or workers’ safety.
I’m sorry but we only have your word for this and we all know the old saying…..no-body knows what actually goes on behimd the closed doors.
I know that anyone that works in any type of slaughterhouse for a certain length of time become desensitized to the pain and horror happening all around them. You’re on of them that think that chicken are meant to suffer for people’s pallet and they’re not worth our empathy and pity. I bet you never look at the terror and fear in the eyes of those poor birds, but I believe from your comment that you wouldn’t care anyway. But hey, a job is a job even if that mean that your soul as died a long time ago.
Yep, KS, you said it all with that one line: “Humane handling is not an issue here.”
Nor has it ever been. The issue is money. And how to make even more of it, irregardless of the suffering of sentient beings.
MAYBE YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES SHOULD BE PUT ON THAT SLAUGHTER LINE… MAYBE THEN YOU WILL FINALLY WAKE THE HELL UP.
You said it!!!!
Humane handling is not an issue here????? Sorry, only humans are welcome on this site.
All forms of animal abuse,Cruelty and violence must be stopped from happening now. We must bring justice to the people who are responsible for their crimes and sentenced them to prison for life for multiple crimes against animals now. PLEASE don’t just turn a blind eye on this issue act now and STAND UNITED against animal abuse,Cruelty and violence, sincerely Brian.
Yes Brian I could not agree more with you. This is why I’m a vegan. Animals don’t belong to us. You are so right, they need justice. I believe they are sentient beings just as humans are. Thank you for your post
The USDA is nothing but a bunch of seriously ill thugs with no conscience and no brain to evaluate true human values.