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So, Grillo organized actions at City
Hall and the public health commissioner’s
office to pressure public health
officials to inspect slaughterhouses and
enforce public health regulations.
Armed with a clipboard full of zoning
and health code violations and 40 people
in tow, Grillo held an action in May
2019 to talk with zoning and licensing
officials about the intel they had gathered
about Chicago’s slaughterhouses.
IT WAS SPRING, BUT A COLD
and rainy day, according to artist
Laleh Motlagh, who heard about
the May event on social media and
decided to check it out. For Motlagh,
the six months leading up to this action
had been transformative. Born
and raised in Iran, Motlagh had not
been around animals much. After she
moved to Chicago, she opened an art
studio and adopted a dog.
“As I started living with this dog
— her name is Honey — we started
creating this relationship that was so
wonderfully strange to me,” Motlagh
says. “It was fascinating to me to realize
how much this animal understands,
how much she senses, how
much she knows me. I am so interested
in the animal world just through
my dog. Which got me thinking about
other animals.”
Specifically, farmed animals. Motlagh
started reading about pigs, chickens
and cows; she discovered how
smart they are and learned about their
abuse in the food industry. She started
transitioning to a plant-based diet
and thinking about what she could do
to help farmed animals.
That’s when one of Grillo’s Facebook
ads popped up. Motlagh watched a
Slaughter Free Chicago video, thought
it was interesting, and decided to show
up to the next planned action. “I didn’t
know anybody, and I just went with
pure faith and pure love of animals and
my own curiosity of seeing what this
is and what the organization does and
what activism looks like,” she says.
As she approached City Hall, Motlagh
saw a few people gathering with
signs, and she recognized Grillo from
the Facebook video. She joined the
group and introduced herself. After
a few minutes, they went inside,
marched up to the ninth floor, and
stood with signs in front of the Department
of Planning and Development
office while Grillo presented
their findings to officials. Then, they
marched down to the Business Affairs
and Consumer Protection office on the
eighth floor, where Grillo spoke with
the commissioner responsible for licensing
slaughterhouses.
After the conversations with public
officials, the group went outside and
walked around the building chanting:
“It’s their bodies, not ours. Their babies,
not ours. Their eggs, not ours,”
according to Motlagh. “That was so
emotional to me,” she says. “I came
back to the studio and wrote them on
the wall. Because it was my first time
being exposed to this type of activity, I
didn’t know the language of it. As people
were chanting, I was crying.”
Being with a group of people, shouting
out to those in power, trying to
translate other beings’ voicelessness
— it was emotional for Motlagh. “Even
just the language is so strong; it’s so
powerful. … I remember in the picture
we took, I stood at the very end because
I did not want my red, puffy eyes
to be visible on the camera,” she says.
AFTER THREE YEARS OF
building Slaughter Free Chicago,
Grillo says he now has
about 7,000 people on an email list
and a couple hundred “die-hard activists”
who want to be more involved and
shape the future of the campaign. Since
launching, the campaign’s efforts have
helped permanently shut down one
live market slaughterhouse — Francisco
Pollo Vivo in May 2019 — and led to
the temporary closure of others.
Among its 2020 highlights, Slaughter
Free Chicago filed a public nuisance
lawsuit against Ciales Poultry, pressured
city and state officials to inspect slaughterhouses
more regularly, and presented
slaughterhouse owners with a proposal
offering assistance transitioning to a
slaughter-free business. In addition,
Ciales Poultry and Chicago Live Poultry
had their licenses suspended after failing
health inspections triggered by the
campaign’s multiple complaints.
According to city data, an inspector
visited Chicago Live Poultry on Jan. 3,
2020, and the slaughterhouse passed
the inspection despite a few violations.
However, another complaint-triggered
inspection at the facility in April resulted
in the inspector finding the business
lacked proper refrigeration: It stored
meat in an 80-degree prep area before
being given to a customer instead of being
properly refrigerated. According to
notes on the report, when the inspector
commented, instead of throwing out
the improperly stored meat, the shop
worker gave it to the customer. The
inspector also noted mice droppings,
a “flying insect problem,” a 2-inch gap
at the bottom of the back door, use of
cutting boards with open seams and
dark stains, a hand-washing sink in the
back room that was leaking, and a sink
in the slaughter area that was leaking
and not draining correctly.
As a result, Chicago Live Poultry had
its license suspended on April 22, 2020.
Grillo posted victoriously on Slaughter
Free Chicago’s Facebook page two days
later. “LICENSE SUSPENDED. These
Slaughter
IT WAS
FASCINATING TO
REALIZE HOW
MUCH SHE KNOWS
ME. I AM SO
INTERESTED IN THE
ANIMAL WORLD
JUST THROUGH
MY DOG. WHICH
GOT ME THINKING
ABOUT OTHER
ANIMALS.”
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