Updated at 9:52 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024
Slaughterhouses have a future in Denver.
Proponents of a proposal to ban meatpacking facilities from the city conceded defeat just after 9:30 p.m.
As of 8:50 p.m., Initiated Ordinance 309 had the support of only about 36 percent of the ballots that had been counted. The measure must get at least 50 percent support to pass. Roughly half of the city's votes had been counted, based on previous election trends.
If the initiative had passed, it would have shut down Denver’s only slaughterhouse, Superior Farms, in an industrial part of Globeville. Workers at the plant slaughter about 1,500 sheep each day. If the plant had closed, about 164 workers would have lost their jobs. Most are Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Just after 8:30 p.m., the opponents of the ban declared victory.
"They are losers. They're losers. And we're winners," said Superior Farms CEO Rick Stott, pointing out that so far, the animal rights advocates had failed to garner even 40 percent support.
"This was in a campaign that had to do with right and not wrong," he said. "This has to do with the reality of what we do for a living is more valuable than some esoteric billionaire belief in elitist values. This is about real people."
Pro-Animal Future, the proponents of the ban, conceded losing the campaign just after 9:30 p.m.
"This was a bold campaign, and no one said changing the status quo was going to be easy," said Pro-Animal Future spokesperson Olivia Hammond, in a statement. "Over a hundred thousand meat eaters voted for a world without slaughterhouses, and that's a foundation we'll continue building on. Voters aren't used to seeing animal rights on the ballot, and we are paving the way with this campaign."
The question posed a conundrum for Denver voters who were asked to weigh animal rights against local jobs.
First-time voter Serena Romero said she favored banning slaughterhouses because “there’s no need to be gruesome.”
Arath Dominguez wants to see the slaughterhouse gone. “It breaks my heart for what's going on with those animals," he said.
Meanwhile, Amanda Beehler and her wife opposed the ban.
“If [meatpacking] is not going to happen here, it’s going to happen somewhere where we don’t have as much control over the conditions,” she said.
A companion proposal to limit fur sales in Denver, Initiated Ordinance 308, was also losing in the early results. It had about 42 percent support as of 8:50 p.m., and the opposition campaign declared victory and the proponents declared defeat.
A multi-million dollar battle:
The campaign for the ban included grisly undercover video from inside the plant, lamb-themed props and groups of activists doing outreach at farmers markets and community events.
The measure had support from animal rights organizations, including national funders who fronted much of the money and had spent more than $600,000 on the campaign as of Nov. 4.
“This is about declaring war on the factory farming industry,” Pro-Animal Future co-founder Aidan Kankyoku told Denverite. He and others hoped the Denver campaign would be the beginning of a national political campaign against the meat industry.
On the other side, the meat industry spent mightily on a campaign to stop the measure. Opponents viewed the Denver slaughterhouse ban as an existential threat to animal agriculture and a danger to the state’s economy. In total, groups including the Meat Institute, various livestock associations and Superior Farms itself have spent more than $3.8 million to fight the initiative, as of Nov. 4.
"We were not alone. The pork guys, the dairy guys, the cow guys all were behind us across the entire nation," Stott said.
Workers at the plant also joined the campaign, saying that their livelihoods and their families' wellbeing were at stake.
The slaughterhouse "has given me everything,” said Paulina Herrera, who has worked there for 30 years. “A house, food, benefits, health insurance. I own this very place. I have shares, and when I leave, I’m going to cash them in. I’m very happy to have come here.”
Activists produced undercover video
But they also claim Superior Farms is particularly bad, pointing to a video showing workers kicking a sheep to push it toward the chute to slaughter, lambs moving after having their throats slit, and a worker humping factory equipment.
The activists turned the video over to the Denver District Attorney, saying the company should be charged as criminals.
“If an individual treated an animal the way Superior Farms treats lambs, they would be prosecuted,” wrote Chris Carraway, an attorney with the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver. “A slaughterhouse should not get impunity simply because it is a corporation.”
Animal agriculture expert Temple Grandin says the footage mostly shows quality animal handling, though she was troubled by one worker’s rough treatment of a sheep.
Superior Farms defends its practices and says the company treats animals humanely. CEO Stott told Denverite the rough handling was not up to Superior Farms' standards and the workers involved were disciplined.
Animal-rights activists say this ballot initiative is the first step in a national campaign to shut down the meat industry. They hope to convince voters everywhere that factory farming and industrial-scale meat are inherently immoral.
"Look at the history of social change in America," said Aidan Kankyoku, an organizer with Pro-Animal Future, in a statement. "Legalizing cannabis took 30 years from the first time it appeared on the ballot. We're prepared for a long fight, and we've already accomplished something remarkable – we've established animal rights as a mainstream political issue in Denver."
For now, Superior Farms will stay in Globeville.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
