Superior Farms’ Denver Slaughterhouse: A Bloody Legacy

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Initiated Ordinance 309 would ban industrial slaughterhouses in Denver. While the measure is intended to target the factory farming and industrial slaughterhouse industry as a whole, it would shutter one facility. Owned by Superior Farms, Inc., it is the largest industrial lamb slaughterhouse in the United States. The company has a record of lawlessness, with years of pollution violations, nearly $100,000s of labor fines, and an animal cruelty lawsuit from the USDA.

This fact sheet details the numerous detrimental impacts that the Superior Farms slaughterhouse has on Denver and the surrounding communities. It also refutes misleading or outright false claims that the company has made to the press and to voters. Highlights include:

Water pollution: According to the EPA, Superior Farms has been blatantly violating the Clean Water Act for over four years. Their Denver slaughterhouse is located just 40 feet from the Platte river, and the feces of 1500 lambs each day are washed into the river.
Racial & religious discrimination: Superior Farms claims that all of their meat is halal. However, in 2021, a Muslim former employee sued the facility after he was fired for refusing to falsely certify meat as halal. He described a workplace rife with slurs where he was denied breaks for prayers or even to go to the bathroom.
Worker trauma: Other former employees describe being haunted by nightmares for years even after leaving the company. Nationwide, slaughterhouse workers face 400% increased rates of anxiety, depression, and PTSD due to the unique psychological stress of killing animals all day. Claims of “employee ownership” are misleading, as only a minority of employees qualify. The Denver plant alone has been fined $91,811 for labor violations in the last decade.
Community impact: The unbearable stench of the slaughterhouse keeps other businesses out of Globeville. Residents describe keeping their windows shut year-round to escape the smell.
Environmental racism: The slaughterhouse is located in Globeville, a majority Latino neighborhood in 80216, America’s most polluted residential zip code. Nobody would tolerate an industrial slaughterhouse in Cherry Creek, yet Globeville is just as densely populated. Many neighbors unaffiliated with the slaughterhouse say they would love to see it gone.
Backed by corporate money: Superior Farms bizarrely accuses the proponents of 309 of relying on out-of-state money. In reality, the “no on 309” campaign is outspending proponents 4:1 relying almost entirely on corporate money from outside of Colorado. The largest donors are Superior Farms (a $250 Million/year corporation headquartered in California) and the largest factory farm lobbying groups in the country: the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Pork Producers Council, and the American Sheep Industry Association.
Animal cruelty: Again despite Superior Farms’ claims to the contrary, they have been caught engaging in gross animal welfare violations. In fact, they were the subject of a first-of-its-kind lawsuit by the US DOJ and USDA for fraudulent marketing pertaining to their “humane treatment” claims.

SUPERIOR FARMS DENVER SLAUGHTERHOUSE, AT A GLANCE

Superior Farms is not a small or local business. It is the largest lamb slaughter corporation in the United States. With revenue over $250 Million annually, it operates slaughterhouses in Dixon, California; Blue Island, Illinois; Boston, Massachusetts; and Denver, Colorado. However, the Denver operation is its largest, and is the single largest industrial lamb slaughterhouse in the country.

This facility

kills 1,500 six-month-old lambs each day;
contaminates the Platte River in Globeville; and
pays just above minimum wage for most roles, with a record of labor violations.

WATER POLLUTION

Denver’s segment of the South Platte river is currently so polluted that the city considers it unsafe for swimming. The main pollutants at issue are nitrogen, phosphorus, and E. Coli. Nationwide, industrial slaughterhouses are the second top source of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution into waterways, and may be the top source of E. Coli, according to the EPA.

Superior Farms’ Denver slaughterhouse is separated from the South Platte River by just a 40-foot slope. Under the Clean Water Act, they are required to submit regular reports about pollutants they discharge into the river. However, the EPA’s ECHO portal for this facility shows that they have been in continuous violation of the CWA for over 4 years, failing to submit the required reports. The slaughterhouse has claimed that this is a “paperwork issue,” but they have known about this campaign for more than a year and still have failed to correct it. Now, on the eve of the election, with the EPA portal identifying several serious new violations, CEO Rick Stott has falsely claimed that the plant is not subject to the CWA.

Meanwhile, dozens of neighbors and former workers say that feces from 1,500 lambs daily washes from the holding pens into the river, especially during heavy rainfall, a guaranteed vector for E. Coli into the river. Feces may not be the only contaminant– the slaughterhouse was fined $5,000 in 2021 for improper handling of “suspended solids.” Blood, offal, and toxic industrial cleaning chemicals are all handled (or mishandled) at the facility.

Record of epa violations

Superior Farms Three-Year Compliance History by quarter

Superior Farms Three-Year Compliance History by month

DDPHE Water quality report

See proanimal.org for additional analysis.

IMPACT ON WORKERS AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD

The slaughterhouse industry is exceptionally precarious for workers, both physically and psychologically. OSHA considers slaughterhouse work to be among the most dangerous jobs in America, but even they only focus on physical and chemical injuries. Even more workers are plagued by psychological scars: research literature shows that the unique psychological pressure of killing animals all day leads to 400% increased rates of anxiety, depression, and PTSD, often resorting to maladaptive coping methods such as substance abuse and even increased rates of domestic violence.

Once again, Denver’s facility is no exception. Former workers describe a harrowing experience forcing hundreds of terrified animals a day onto the kill floor:

“You come home and you’re fucked up, whether from drugs or just from killing animals all day, slitting their throats, spilling their guts, hearing them scream… It disrupts your family dynamic, how you’re supposed to relate to your wife and kids.”
– Jose Huizar, lifelong Globeville resident and former Superior Farms employee

According to Jose, workers at Superior Farms often resorted to cocaine to push through 10- or 12-hour shifts: “I had never used drugs before but I started using cocaine to be able to make it through the shift, and marijuana to numb out afterward.”

In 2021, the Denver slaughterhouse (which claims to sell 100% halal meat) was sued for racial discrimination and harassment of its Muslim employees. Specifically, the imams employed to certify the facility as halal alleged that they were pressured to sign off on meat that had not been slaughtered according to halal customs, and were fired when they refused to do so. They also described supervisors denying them bathroom breaks and even going as far as calling them racial slurs over the intercom.

Employee reviews of Superior Farms’ Denver facility on Indeed describe long hours, low pay, and unsafe working conditions. This anecdotal evidence is confirmed by the fact that Superior Farms has been fined $91,811 for wage and hours violations and workplace safety and health violations over the past 13 years. In one gruesome instance in 2019, a worker had a finger sliced off.

ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE

Industrial animal agriculture operations make terrible neighbors. In addition to toxic water and air pollution, they emit an unbearable stench. So it is no surprise that these facilities are disproportionately located in economically marginalized communities, especially communities of color.

Denver is no exception. Superior Farms’ Denver slaughterhouse is located in 80216, the most polluted residential zip code in the country. Residents in the surrounding low-income Hispanic neighborhood of Globeville say that the pungent odor of the slaughterhouse is difficult to endure and ‘smells like rotten flesh,’ forcing them to keep their windows shut year-round. The odor depresses local property values and drives businesses away, ensuring that Globeville doesn’t benefit from the economic prosperity that has visited the rest of Denver in recent years.

As civil rights attorney Tyrone Glover said on a recent PBS appearance, “This is a densely populated area that has not seen some of the economic growth [that the rest of Denver has seen] because of all the industry, all of the pollution, and they’ve been yelling from the mountaintop about wanting some kind of fix.” If an industrial slaughterhouse wanted to start polluting the air and water in Cherry Creek, there would be an enormous uproar. Yet Globeville is just as densely populated.

Fact Check

Claim: Superior Farms is employee-owned.

Truth: Employees are only eligible for ownership benefits after 3 continuous years. Superior Farms refuses to disclose their employee turnover rate, but concedes that lasting for 3 years makes someone “an outlier”. Nationwide, turnover rates at slaughterhouses average 100% annually.

Claim: Initiative 309 will cost thousands of jobs

Truth: The slaughterhouse industry only creates 160 jobs in Denver, many paying barely over minimum wage. An industry-funded economic analysis published by CSU unjustifiably assumed that every company that contracts with Superior Farms would go out of business to arrive at an inflated estimate.

Claim: EPA violations are a “paperwork issue”.

Truth: The EPA has repeatedly cited the Denver plant for mishandling toxic pollutants, and has repeatedly notified Superior Farms that they are violating reporting requirements.

ANIMAL CRUELTY

Animals at Superior Farms’ facilities suffer extreme cruelty. Undercover footage reveals lambs being repeatedly shocked with electric prods, bitten by dogs, and violently grabbed by their wool, while others thrash in agony, fully conscious, even after having their throats slit multiple times. In 2017, Superior Farms’ Dixon, California facility was fined $200K by the Department of Justice for failing to comply with the Humane Slaughter Act, which requires rendering animals unconscious prior to slaughter.

Initiative 309: JOBS & the ECONOMY

Superior Farms alleges that initiative 309 would cost 160 employee-owner jobs. The reality is far less glamorous.

Employee turnover in the slaughterhouse industry is exceptionally high, often exceeding 100% annually, especially for workers on the kill floor. When pressed by a journalist at their press conference on September 11, a representative of Superior Farms refused to disclose what the turnover rate is at their Denver facility, but acknowledged that one employee who had stayed at the plant for 3 years was “an outlier.”

This is crucial, because workers at Superior Farms only become eligible for employee ownership benefits after 3 years of continuous employment. In practice, this allows the company to claim to be “employee-owned” while quickly burning through vulnerable workers in the most dangerous and psychologically punishing jobs, most of which pay barely over Denver’s minimum wage.

In the 14 months between when Initiative 309 passes and when Superior Farms will be forced to close, most of the employees are likely to have moved on anyway. During those 14 months and after, workers will be prioritized in workforce retraining programs financed by Denver’s $40M annual Climate Protection Fund. This program transitions workers to careers in green industries, offering training and apprenticeships serving underrepresented communities.

The slaughterhouse industry provides only 160 jobs in Denver. The slaughterhouse industry paid for an economic analysis earlier this year, authored by individuals with extensive personal and professional ties to the very businesses affected by this measure. The study, published by CSU, claims that Initiative 309 would cost twenty times more jobs than the entire industry employs in Denver. Economists at CU Denver found this analysis to be deeply flawed.

THE PEOPLE VS. CORPORATE MONEY

Superior Farms and other corporate lobbying groups are on track to spend over $1 million opposing Initiative 309, all in order to protect their profits. The corporation has hired expensive lobbying and PR firms to cover up their decades of history disregarding federal labor, animal welfare, and environmental laws. The top funders bankrolling this campaign are:

Superior Farms, a $250 million/year company headquartered in California.
Three top factory farm lobbying groups: the American Sheep Industry Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the National Pork Producers Council.

This contrasts sharply with the Yes campaign, which is powered by a coalition of over 150 volunteers in Denver who are motivated by concern for animals and the environment. Initiative 309 qualified for the ballot entirely through volunteers– no paid circulators were used. The campaign is funded by a mix of small donors and grants from charitable foundations focused on farmed animal welfare, such as the Craigslist Foundation. Nobody involved in the campaign stands to benefit economically from passing 309.

Superior Farms has bizarrely accused Initiative 309 of being a secret plot by out-of-state interest groups. In reality, they are outspending the volunteer-powered Yes campaign 4:1 with corporate money almost entirely from outside Colorado.

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