Rob Zombie Urges USDA to Shut Down High-Speed Slaughter Program

Multi-talented musician Rob Zombie—known for directing cult-classic horror films The Devil’s Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses—is the face of a new campaign created by animal-rights group Compassion Over Killing (COK) that urges the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to shut down the dangerous, high-speed slaughter program. The new advertisement, which is geo-targeted to reach thousands of people located near the USDA headquarters in Washington, DC, states: “Let’s keep the screams on-stage and on-screen. USDA: End the high-speed horrors!” Earlier this month, the Trump administration approved to increase the slaughter speed of chickens from 140 birds per minute to 175 birds per minute—a move that creates even more suffering for the animals while putting workers at a higher risk of injury. COK’s new advertisement is meant to stop the USDA from granting waivers to chicken slaughterhouse owners to increase speeds. Additionally, the campaign aims to highlight a similar rule—called the “Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection”—currently under USDA consideration for nationwide implementation that would remove the upper limits of pig slaughter speeds, allowing farmers to kill the animals at dangerous rates. “While the USDA frames high-speed slaughter as ‘modernization’ of the meat industry,” COK Director of Corporate Outreach Laura Cascada said, “you’d have to be a zombie to miss that it’s a horrifying step backward endangering animals, workers, and consumers.”