The Cyberactivist

pattrice wrote me after reading what I had to say about the high rate of domestic violence associated with the people who were involved with violence in their daily/nightly jobs at the plant.

Fist off, I guess I should say that I also was abused as a child. Terribly abused. Worse than I feel comfortable talking about it publicly on this blog for the world to read. I am dealing with that in my psychological treatment, among other problems.

Anyway, she sent me a link to a story that pointed out that

child abuse numbers are "staggering" here on the Eastern Shore, where poultry is the main industry.

In our county, the article says, 11% of children in school -- that's one in ten -- have been abused.

And those are just the ones they know about!!!

Coincidence? I don't think so! As Virgil has been saying, once people stop having empathy for animals, they stop having empathy for children. And vice versa. People who have been trained to hurt helpless creatures without giving it a second thought are going to go home and hurt the children in their care.

I totally agree. I have talked with others who work in this situation that agree that the numbers of people who abuse women and children also abuse companion animals. The worst thing of all is that many of these women stay with their abuser because they are worried about the safety of their companion animal. There is a definite link there.

I also find it more than a coincidence that I have had two different researchers from two different parts of the world contact me and ask about whether I knew of any research showing that slaughterhouse workers were more likely to commit domestic violence. Sadly, I wasn't. But one of those guys was interested enough to start a study on the problem.

Let's just hope that he can come up with some data soon. Many innocents are suffering right now that most people never think about when they think about factory farming. Most AR activists focus solely on the animals. And they are, by far, the worst abused. But, they are not the only ones abused.

Think about that a bit the next time you stop at a KFC for a bucket of chicken. Chances are that not only did the chicken suffer horribly, but so did some human somewhere - maybe even an innocent child.