If you buy beef, pork, or chicken anywhere in the United States—whether from a grocery store, fast-food chain, or restaurant—you are likely buying it from a company included in the scope of this report.

Nearly 15 years ago, Human Rights Watch’s Blood, Sweat, and Fear report documented government policies and widespread business practices that fueled abuses of workers’ rights in the United States meat and poultry industry.

Since then, consumers have increasingly grown aware of a range of concerns with industrial animal agriculture in the United States, from the conditions and treatment of animals, to widespread antibiotic use and its environmental impact. However, even conscientious consumers who try to buy meat from humanely raised animals may not realize that these labels do not require companies to treat humanely the people who do the industry’s dirty, demanding, and dangerous work.

Despite advances in technology, this work still depends on the strength of human hands. Hundreds of thousands of women and men do the killing, cutting, deboning, and packaging of American-grown meat, most of whom spend their entire shift operating as components of a continually moving dissection machine, fulfilling one need in the complex process of disassembling animals.

Report by the Human Rights Watch