Aleksandar Markovic
English 101
Essay 3 First Draft:
Aleksandar Markovic
70-19 65th PL, 3L, Glendale
Queens , NY , 11385
5/20/2011
McDonald’s Corporation
2111 McDonald's
Dr Oak Brook ,IL, 60523
Dear Jim Skinner, I am writing to you and all of the executive's of the McDonalds
corporation in a desperate plea to help fix all the wrongs with the way McDonalds
conducts all there meat purchasing through dirty and dilapidated slaughterhouses.
McDonalds is supporting dirty slaughterhouses who mistreat not only the poor animals
who they slaughter inhumanely but the individuals who work there. Not only are a great
amount of those workers immigrants with no papers and no way to complain to proper
authority without risking deportation but more importantly they are human beings with
rights. Just as they have rights the animals that are being slaughtered inhumanely have
rights as well. Not as many rights as we have granted but they should at least have the
right to live there short life in better conditions.
For example in the movie Food Inc written by Kim Roberts , Elise Pearlstein and Robert
Kenner and directed by Robert Kenner "The chickens that are engineered to have bigger
breasts because of our appeal for breast meat are so much heavier that they can’t even
support their weight beneath their feet. What we end up seeing is chickens that can
stand for a moment and then plop back down". It’s sad to see that these chickens are living
there short and miserable lives not only in a dark and stuffy chicken house but they cant
even walk around and end up spending their short miserable lives sitting in their own
feces. Now that’s only the chickens what about the pigs and the cows? While I was
researching this I came across an interesting article of pig slaughterhouses. "Did you know
that 76% of local slaughterhouses kill pigs inhumanely?" In the article three quarters of the
slaughterhouses were killing pigs in a merciless fashion. Rather than stunning the pig
with electroshock so they would feel no pain a simple procedure these slaughterhouses
are suspending the pig in mid air by hanging them upside down by one of their legs and
then beaten unconscious with a stick before being slaughtered. "Several of the woman
lawmakers were even brought to tears after watching the cruel treatment of animals in the
slaughterhouses". The same could be said for all those poor cows that are killed
improperly. Just try to compare the situation to that of the blood diamond if it makes
it easier for the top tier executives from the McDonalds corporation. Does
McDonalds really want to be supporting such cruel practices?
This brings me to the next issue at hand diseases. We all know about E.coli. In Food Inc
Michael Pollan begins to explain about how we feed our cows corn instead of grass
because its cheaper. That struck a chord with me because he stated "If we fed our
cows grass instead of corn they could remove 80% of that E.coli virus from there
stomachs." I understand it’s a lot cheaper to feed cows corn but McDonalds is the largest
Fast Food chain in the world. I mean if anyone can start their own clean and humane
slaughterhouses its McDonalds. In terms of profit it wouldn’t pay itself off for at least a
decade or so but think of all the good the McDonalds corporation could do. Not only that
but the fact that you can police your own slaughterhouses and make sure everything is up
to McDonalds standards is beyond doing good in the public’s eye. I took an article from
Business world that provides us with the information that "more than 80% of our
slaughterhouses are dirty". "83% to be exact do not comply with government sanitary
standards." "The problems range from unsafe working conditions to , inhumane killing of
pigs and cattle to unsanitary working conditions and lack of cleanliness on the bloody
killing floor." It’s just a shock to me with such a high rate of problems in slaughterhouses
how they manage to stay up. Mind you if McDonalds is purchasing from these dirty
slaughterhouses not only can it effect the McDonalds corporation in case of someone
getting sick but McDonalds is supporting these cruel slaughterhouses by purchasing meat
from them just as people were supporting the blood diamonds in Africa by purchasing
them. Not only that but McDonalds is supporting the cruel treatment of these workers that
get injured every day in these assembly line food factories. These poor workers get
injured and killed every day while trying to keep up with the pace of the production line.
"The old meatpacking plants in Chicago slaughtered about 50 cattle an hour. Twenty
years ago , new plants in the High Plains slaughtered about 175 cattle an hour. Today
some plants slaughter up to 400 cattle an hour"(173). As you can see these plants try to
work at their own pace and have the workers follow which is extremely dangerous. These
poor workers try to keep up with the production line and often proves to be disastrous for
the worker. Ranging from serious injury to death it’s pretty common to find that in a
slaughterhouse. Most of these injuries also go unreported because the supervisors and
nurses get bonuses for the less amount of injuries reported. It’s just a sad and vicious cycle
for worker and animal alike.
I urge you Jim Skinner and any executives who may have also read my letter to consider
opening up a chain of McDonalds slaughterhouses with emphasis on having the cleanest
and safest working conditions for the worker. Also of course take care of the animals with
great care and respect in terms of living conditions starting from birth all the way down to
their killing which should be done in the most humane way possible. Thank you for
taking the time to read my letter.
Sincerly , Aleksandar Markovic
Aleksandar Markovic
English 101
Essay 3 Citations:
Food , Inc . Director Robert Kenner , Writers Robert Kenner , Elise Pearlstein and Kim Roberts .
Schlosser Eric "Fast Food Nation" , 2005 , Pg 173
"Most Slaughterhouses Are Dirty." Business World. 28 August. 1998.LexisNexis.Web.20 May 2011
http://140.234.0.9:8080/EPSessionID=15545fec152be75bcbff99db5e1b325/EPHost=www.lexisnexis.com/EPPath/lnacui2api/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T12007489068&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T12007489071&cisb=22_T12007489070&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=173384&docNo=3
"76% Of Slaughterhouses Kill Pigs Inhumanely". China post. 20 April. 2007.LexisNexis.Web.20 May 2011
http://140.234.0.9:8080/EPSessionID=6a7b0c1c43e4e634b22ebd8b4ba8450/EPHost=www.lexisnexis.com/EPPath/lnacui2api/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T12006902382&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T12006902385&cisb=22_T12006902384&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=227171&docNo=16
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