The largest lamb slaughterhouse in the U.S. is in Denver — but maybe not for long.

Superior Farms processes between 15 and 20 percent of lambs killed for meat in the U.S. each year. Its vast Denver slaughterhouse, located for decades in the Globeville neighborhood — one of the poorest areas in the city, with over 90 percent Latino residents — advertises sustainable, locally sourced, halal-certified meat production and an employee-owned business model.

Now, though, animal rights advocates are trying to upend that carefully constructed image by releasing new disturbing footage, obtained surreptitiously on the slaughterhouse floor.

The investigators behind the exposé hope it will aid efforts to pass a ballot measure in next month’s election that would shutter the facility. Organizers with the grassroots group Pro-Animal Future managed to get the measure, which would ban slaughterhouses within city and county limits, on the city ballot.

Along with pointing to checkered labor and environmental records that have led to over $200,000 in fines for violations in the last decade, animal rights advocates want the revelations about the conditions at the slaughterhouse to encourage votes for the ballot initiative.

The slaughterhouse footage, captured in July and August by secret cameras snuck into the facility by anonymous members of the Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, network, was made public on Wednesday in a report by the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, or AALDP, at the University of Denver.

The videos may show a range of animal abuses, routine cruelties, and instances that legal experts with the AALDP say could violate animal cruelty and humane slaughter laws. (The DxE investigators work anonymously to avoid tangles with law enforcement for entering the slaughterhouse and filming without Superior Farms’ permission.)

Videos shared with The Intercept prior to the report’s public release show, among other scenes, lambs with their throats slit hanging upside down and thrashing on the slaughter line; one animal with an internal organ that has been torn inside-out and left dangling behind it as it heads to slaughter; injured lambs being led to slaughter; workers laughing, spanking animals, and engaging in simulated sex acts with nearby machinery as lambs are having their throats slit; and the apparent use of so-called Judas sheep — adult sheep kept alive at the facility and used to lead the young sheep to slaughter.

“In general, that’s what you can expect to see in a slaughterhouse,” said Eric Davis, a retired veterinarian and professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, who reviewed a video reel provided by the animal rights activists. “This one is on the edge of badness, but it’s not going to be that much better if it’s running well.”

If successful, the Denver ballot initiative, Ordinance 309, would end all these practices by prohibiting the construction or operation of slaughterhouses in the City and County of Denver.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Superior Farms, Bob Mariano, questioned whether The Intercept had verified that the footage was from the Denver location on the dates claimed by DxE. The Intercept was able to verify the dates from the footage’s time stamp. The Animal Activist Legal Defense Project attested to the veracity of the location, and footage taken by the investigators outside the facility aligns with images on Google Maps. The Intercept shared still frames from the obtained footage with Superior Farms and asked the company to confirm whether it showed their Denver facility. At the time of publication, the company had declined to identify the facility.

“Every workday, over 1,000 baby sheep have their throats slit at Superior Farms,” one of the investigators from DxE, who did not give their name, said by email. “This election cycle, Denver has a rare opportunity to put an end to this practice on an industrial scale within our city.”

The Superior Farms slaughterhouse is the only one currently operating in Denver’s city limits, so would be the only plant affected by Ordinance 309’s passing. The decision could, however, have lasting and profound effects on the animal agriculture industry nationwide.

Kenny Rogers, a past president of the Colorado Livestock Association, which has teamed up with Superior and others to opposing the ballot measure, told Denver’s Westword weekly paper, “Essentially, that’s the jugular vein of the sheep industry here in the state.”

The Superior Farms spokesperson said the company opposed the ballot measure in a bid to save its employees’ livelihoods.

“The slaughterhouse ban on the ballot in Denver this November (Initiated Ordinance 309) unfairly targets a single employee-owned business and forces 160 employees out of a company they own,” said Mariano. “Banning a single Denver business won’t improve animal welfare, but it will have devastating consequences for our employee-owners and their families.”

Conditions for Animals

According to a memo from the AALDP, the video clips showing lambs that appear to raise their heads and thrash could be evidence that the animals are not fully unconscious.

Davis, the former UC-Davis veterinarian and former associate veterinarian with the school’s International Animal Welfare Training Institute, said it was difficult to ascertain from the video whether the animals are stunned prior to slaughter. Either way, he said, the thrashing from lambs after having their throats slit may not indicate consciousness — something that would violate standards for humane slaughter.

“I would expect fewer of them moving than are,” he said. “The fact that they’re moving does not allow me to prove that they’re conscious.”

In one case, where a lamb that appeared to have its throat cut lifted its head and opened its mouth, Davis said there were concerns about consciousness.

“That animal looks like it’s vocalizing,” Davis said. “Whatever was done to kill that animal, that animal is still alive, and probably conscious or partially so.”

Guidelines produced by humane livestock treatment expert Temple Grandin for the American Meat Institute — whose successor group, the Meat Institute, is the largest donor to the campaign against the Denver initiative — say that the head and neck of a stunned animal can indicate insensibility.

“The legs may kick, but the head and neck must be loose and floppy like a rag,” Grandin — whom Mariano, the Superior Farms spokesperson, said consulted on upgrades at the Denver facility — writes in the guidelines. “A normal spasm may cause some neck flexing, generally to the side, but the neck should relax and the head should flop within about 20 seconds.”

In another clip, a lamb with a leg injury is seen being moved in a plastic sled and shoved into the slaughter line by workers. It then hobbles up the ramp to slaughter. Davis called the practices into question.

“If you get down to the way the sheep are handled, particularly with the fractured leg,” he said. “The personnel there are certainly rough with them, perhaps more so than they need to be.”

“Better” Jobs?

Animal rights advocates are hoping the facilities closure will set a precedent for other ballot measures around the country, while, owing to the scale of the Denver facility, also directly causing a dent in the animal agribusiness.

The ballot initiative found predictable opposition in the powerful animal agriculture industry. A committee opposing the measure has raised over $1 million from dozens of donors, including the American Sheep Industry Association, the National Pork Producers Council, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Superior Farms, headquartered in California, has donated over $160,000.

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Their message — the committee is called “Stop the Ban Protect Jobs” — has apparently found an audience. Local politicians and community members worried about job loss from the slaughterhouse’s potential closure have raised concerns that cannot be dismissed as mere vested business interests. If passed, the ban would see the loss of around 160 Superior Farms jobs as part of a 14-month closure schedule mandated by the measure.

One Colorado State University study claims there could be an overall loss of up to 2,700 jobs, after accounting for multiplier effects on the broader industry. The study authors acknowledged that their “working relationships with livestock producers, farmers, ranchers, and meat processors are significant, longstanding and valued” in their report’s preface, but added “we believe the conclusions of our analysis are independent, data-based and speak for themselves.” The study, however, has come in for criticism from animal rights advocates at Pro-Animal Future not only for industry ties, but also for its substance.

Meanwhile, the ballot measure itself acknowledges and seeks to counteract the potential job loss. Specific wording requires the city to prioritize residents whose employment is affected for workforce training or employment assistance programs, in part by drawing on the city’s $40 million Climate Protection Fund.

Mariano, the company spokesperson, questioned whether alternative forms of employment will work out. “What we know for sure is that 160 hard-working people will lose their jobs and the benefits their families rely on if the ban passes, and there are no guarantees at all, despite the claims of proponents, that these workers will be able to access any kind of program to help them get another job,” he said. “These workers like their jobs and have employee-ownership.”

In an agriculture trade publication, Council Member Darrell Watson, who represents Denver’s District 9 where Superior Farms is located, accused the ballot measure and its worker-related provision of “cynicism” for placing the burden of the plant’s 160 employees on the city.

Yet proponents of the measure say there is cynicism, too, in suggesting that industrialized meat production, with all its attendant harms, cannot be stopped because slaughterhouse jobs need to be preserved.

“Our vision isn’t about eliminating jobs; it’s about moving in the direction of better ones,” a spokesperson from Pro-Animal Future said by email. “Just as we transitioned from whale oil to electricity or from coal to renewable energy, we’re now recognizing the harms of industrial animal farming, and the need to evolve in a new direction. This type of transition never happens in isolation, but rather in the context of our broader economy where we also see a constant emergence of innovative sectors and new job opportunities.”

Employee Owners

Though opponents of Ordinance 309 have made the job losses a centerpiece of their campaign, the ballot measure’s proponents say it is not so clear that slaughterhouse jobs make for an ethical, community-minded workplace. Slaughter plant workers nationwide experience disproportionately high rates of serious mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder. The jobs are also physically dangerous, with American slaughterhouse workers seeing an average of two amputations per week.

Superior Farms’ Denver facility itself has seen a handful of allegations about labor abuses. In the last decade, the plant has been fined $91,811, much of it an accumulation of small wage violations; some related to safety issues like missing stair railings; and one fine related to a failure to include hazardous chemicals in a regulatory form.  

There have also been other complaints. A Muslim employee at Superior Farms sued the company in 2021 alleging racial and religious discrimination after Black Muslim workers were, according to the suit, subject to racial slurs from co-workers and managers, and faced termination for refusing to fraudulently certify meat as halal. The former employee settled with the company on undisclosed terms in 2022. (“We strongly deny these allegations, and this case was settled and dismissed two years ago,” said Mariano, the Superior Farms spokesperson.)

Nonetheless, some Superior Farms employees are rallying to defend the plant and the industry.

“Superior Farms has opened doors not just for me, but for so many,” said Isabel Bautista, operations manager at the slaughterhouse, at a recent rally opposing the ballot measure. For Bautista, who has worked at the facility since 2000, the business is a family affair: her mother, brother, brother-in-law, and cousins have worked there at various points too.

“This job means financial security to me and my family,” Bautista told a trade publication, “but it’s also a job I love.”

“One in six of our staff have been with Superior for over ten years, and one in four have been here for more than five years,” said Mariano. “People who apply to work at the facility get the full tour so they can understand exactly what these jobs entail and see if they are comfortable doing this kind of work. The meat industry is not unique in facing challenges related to turnover.”

Long Odds

Ordinance 309 supporters face an uphill battle. Their opponents describe the ballot measure as an attack on local jobs, waged by outside special interest groups with dark money — allegations Pro-Animal Future reject as industry propaganda. The Denver Democratic Party announced its opposition to the initiative in late September. And several key unions like the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 have come out against 309 too.

It would be a familiar pattern. Immediate economic concerns tend to win out over the promise of a better future with sacrifices today. The impulse is understandable, especially in the absence of sufficient municipal, state, and federal infrastructure and support for the swift transition of every imperiled worker into more sustainable jobs.

For the animal rights activists, though, failure to pass the Ordinance 309 would perpetuate cruel practices and unsustainable meat production. One of the undercover investigators, a Denver-based activist with DxE who gave their first name but requested anonymity to avoid law enforcement, told me that there are possible legal routes to explore relating to animal cruelty law violations exposed in their footage. Failing to ensure that animals are fully unconscious on a slaughter line, for example, is a violation of humane slaughter and animal cruelty laws.

The animal rights advocates, however, are less concerned with the potential violations of rules of the state or religions than they are with the suffering of the animals, captured in hours and hours of footage. And they hope the same suffering moves public opinion to support the facility’s shuttering.

“Every time the realities of factory farming and slaughterhouses are exposed, people are shocked and horrified by what is happening,” said Chris Carraway, staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, which represents the undercover investigators. “Then, the news cycle moves on. But the horrors continue. It is clear there is no way to make slitting throats humane. We need to do more than expose these practices — we need to start putting an end to them, once and for all.”

The undercover investigator interviewed by The Intercept described themself as “an optimist” about people’s ability to empathize with the animals in their videos.

“I have that fundamental faith that Americans and human beings will be able to see cruelty and understand it as cruelty,” they said. “But I think that people changing their actual behaviors in life, and the reasons why they are slow or resist doing so, is much more complicated.”

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