Denver’s Prop 309 Pits Community Activists Against Factory Farms
Denver voters face a landmark ballot measure that would close the city’s last remaining slaughter facility, Superior Farms. The lamb slaughterhouse has found itself in hot water for numerous regulatory violations and faces public scrutiny as Denver residents decide its fate through a vote.
Slaughterhouses are often hidden away in areas where the stench, pollution, and animals’ cries can be kept out of sight and out of mind. But in Denver, the last industrial slaughterhouse located in city limits is facing their worst nightmare — public scrutiny of their facility — as residents vote whether it should be shut down.
Initiated Ordinance 309 is a citizen-led measure that would ban commercial slaughter in the city, and is one of Denver’s top issues on this year’s historically long ballot. In the short term, it would impact just one facility, a lamb slaughterhouse owned by a $250 million per year corporation headquartered in California. Proponents, however, argue the ban isn’t just about this one slaughterhouse. Instead, they say it’s about taking a stand against the animal cruelty, environmental harms, and unsafe working conditions that are standard in the industry. Since slaughterhouses are regulated by the USDA, local municipalities have no authority to increase or enforce regulations. While the opposition campaign has tried to write Proposition 309 off as an emotional appeal that threatens jobs, the reality is far more troubling and urgent.
The presence of the city’s last remaining slaughterhouse, Superior Farms, comes at a steep cost to the surrounding communities. Recent findings have exposed flagrant violations of federal environmental regulations, racial and religious discrimination against workers, and shocking animal cruelty that legal experts have labeled criminal. Denver must now decide if they can ignore the mounting evidence that the facility’s presence conflicts with their city’s values.
Undercover Footage of Denver’s Slaughterhouse Reveals Horrific Animal Abuse
While Superior Farms touts sustainable, locally sourced, humane and halal-certified meat production, recent hidden camera footage has exposed a disturbing reality that contradicts this carefully curated image. An undercover investigation revealed violations of both state law and the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, with legal experts at the University of Denver’s Animal Activist Legal Defense Project (AALDP) urging the District Attorney to file charges for these shocking abuses.
Documented footage shows animals conscious and thrashing as they hang upside down in the slaughter line after their throats are slit, a lamb headed to slaughter with two broken legs while another’s internal organs can be seen dangling outside their body, and disturbing behavior by workers shown laughing as they spank animals and simulate sex acts while lambs nearby have their throats slit. Each year, half a million lambs meet their end in this facility under these conditions. The USDA is responsible for overseeing the industry, but with a lack of proper funding to enforce existing regulations, slaughterhouses such as this one are largely left to their own devices. The investigative findings at Denver’s facility represent systemic issues in an industry where speed and profits will always come before the humane treatment of animals.
Slaughterhouse Pollution Threatens Waterways, Air Quality, and Public Health
Located in Globeville — a primarily Latino neighborhood with nearly double the average poverty rate of Denver — the slaughterhouse contributes to the area’s unwanted title of the most polluted residential zip code in the country. Residents regularly complain of a foul odor from Superior Farms, aptly described as a “killing smell”, and the facility’s environmental negligence is well-documented.
Located just 40 feet from the South Platte river, public EPA records for the slaughterhouse show violations of the Clean Water Act that span over four years, with former employees describing how the feces of the 1500 lambs held there each day would wash into the river. The facility failed to property monitor their discharge, while reports as recent as five days ago reveal current active violations. Just last month, Superior Farms Denver was fined nearly $120,000 by the EPA for Clean Air Act violations, where an inspection revealed unsafe handling of toxic chemicals on site. This blatant environmental injustice represents real health risks for Globeville residents.
In Globeville, people are hospitalized for asthma-related conditions 63 percent more often than the state average. Common complaints include headaches, breathing difficulties, and irritation of the nose, eyes, and throat — all typical symptoms associated with proximity to slaughterhouse operations, which pollute low-income or BIPOC communities at disproportionately high rates.
Although the factory farm lobby claims that it’s bad for the environment to remove a local food source, the science disagrees. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, lamb is one of the worst foods you can eat, whether it’s local or not.
Why Slaughterhouse Workers Need Your Vote
Slaughterhouse work is some of the most exploited labor in the world. They commonly hire undocumented immigrants, who can be paid below minimum wage and fired with impunity. Denver’s slaughterhouse settled a lawsuit alleging racial and religious discrimination by former Muslim workers hired to conduct halal slaughter, who said they were harassed and called racial slurs with no intervention from supervisors, and were denied prayer and even bathroom breaks.
In one of America’s most expensive cities, workers earn just above minimum wage to spend all day killing lambs in the Denver slaughterhouse. Some justify the mentally and physically grueling work with the potential for employee ownership, only to find this promise to be empty. One former worker described how he and a friend worked there for five and six years, respectively, without ever seeing these benefits. A current employee hired through an agency has said she’s uncertain if she will ever qualify.
Slaughterhouse employees face pressure to perform multiple high-risk tasks at once when production lines are short-staffed, creating dangerous conditions that have led to serious injuries. In the past five years alone, over 600 instances of non-compliance with USDA standards have been documented at the Denver slaughterhouse, where the dangers range from amputations to chemical safety violations. Many workers report paying for their own medical treatment, with others developing chronic injuries that permanently affect their ability to earn a living.
The dangers are not just physical. Research has linked slaughterhouse work to substantially higher levels of severe mental health issues, substance abuse disorders, and outsized violent crime rates in surrounding communities. Jose Huizar, a former kill floor worker at Denver’s slaughterhouse, described using drugs to numb out from the horrors he witnessed during his work day. He describes this measure as a chance for workers “to break free of the kill floor and move towards a future that doesn’t cost us our humanity.” Initiated Ordinance 309 directs the city to prioritize affected workers in Denver’s Green Jobs Program, with funding from the city’s $40 million Climate Protection Fund.
Denver’s Slaughterhouse Ban Is a First Step Toward Broader Change
Presented with a rare opportunity to take meaningful action against an industry that has long operated in the shadows, Denver voters find themselves in the midst of a historic decision — one that could spark broader change if passed. From documented animal cruelty and worker exploitation, to environmental violations that disproportionately impact our most vulnerable communities, Superior Farms’ presence in Denver embodies an industry that will always prioritize profits over the wellbeing of workers, animals, and neighbors.
Opponents of Initiative 309 claim this measure will simply push slaughter operations elsewhere or strengthen large meat manufacturers, but these arguments don’t hold up to scrutiny. A spokesperson of Superior Farms has stated they will not relocate if the ban passes, directly contradicting claims about simply moving the problem elsewhere. History and economic research show that when large facilities close, rather than consolidating to major corporations, new, smaller-scale operations may emerge to meet market demands. Denver’s initiative could help spark a transition away from this type of industrial-scale facility.
As one of the first cities to take this bold step, Denver has the opportunity to create a blueprint for other communities to follow. This isn’t just about ending commercial slaughter in the city — it’s about starting a movement toward a more humane, sustainable, and just food system.
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