Chicago Group Shuts Down Slaughterhouse With Aim to Make the City Slaughter-Free

Chicago-based activist group Slaughter Free Chicago was recently successful in shutting down one of the city’s slaughterhouses. Aden Poultry was closed after a city inspection revealed  numerous code violations. The inspection was triggered by complaints submitted by members of Slaughter Free Chicago and those who were concerned about the conditions of the slaughterhouse. “We want to thank every person who filed a complaint because every single one is making a difference,” the group posted to its Facebook page. Slaughter Free Chicago members say they will be meeting with Chicago’s top government officials, who have already pledged to inspect the city’s remaining 16 slaughterhouses and cite violations where appropriate. “We have good reason to believe that what they found at Aden is going to be typical of all of the other slaughterhouses,” the group said. Slaughter Free Chicago is a campaign to end slaughter in the city that once promoted itself as the slaughter capital of the world. They believe the current system for regulating existing slaughterhouses is broken and their strategy is to rally communities, activists, local media, and city officials to demand that existing laws be enforced—which they believe would effectively shut down all slaughterhouses, as demonstrated by Aden’s closure.