During a pandemic that has exposed that humans’ treatment of animals leads to dangerous repercussions, there are still inhumane and cruel things being done. The United States Department of Agriculture has been quietly approving line speed waivers. This means that employees who themselves are already in danger must work at an increased pace to inhumanely kill more animals faster.

Line-speed waivers remove restrictions on how fast a meat plant’s line can move. There is already abuse and cruelty involved in killing animals and gutting and packing them as if they were objects, but to speed up the process blatantly proves there is no possibility of humanely handling the animals.

At one pork plant alone in South Dakota, 16 percent of the employees tested positive for COVID-19 — that’s 592 employees. These slaughterhouses don’t have the ability to effectively practice social distancing and provide protective gear to all employees, so they shouldn’t even be working. But Trump signed an executive order sending workers back to meat plants without protection.

Sign this petition telling the USDA to stop approving line-speed waivers which are inhumane and also endanger the workers who are already at risk.

Sign these other relevant petitions as well to demand change:

• Ban Live Animal Markets in the U.S.
• Ban All Wildlife Markets in Light of Coronavirus
• Stop the Wildlife Trade

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