A Friend of McHenry County Blog pointed me to this Change.org petition to Marengo resident and McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks:
Would you want to live next to a slaughterhouse? Most people agree that this is the wrong kind of business for their community. Please urge county officials put the breaks on the proposed slaughterhouse in Marengo!
The City of Marengo passed a Resolution in 2018 opposing a proposed bird, sheep and lamb slaughterhouse at 21804 W. Grant Highway, arguing the a “poultry processing” facility was not permitted according to zoning laws and, even if it was, such a business would be “highly offensive” to the community.
But McHenry County officials pushed the proposal forward despite public outcry, and with no meaningful public input.
We say: Not So Fast! Please sign the petition urging Officials to hold a public hearing and let the people most impacted by a new slaughterhouse have their say!
TAKE ONE MORE ACTION!
After you sign this petition, please call Franks at (815) 334-4224 and follow up with an email to jdfranks@co.mchenry.il.us
Why Oppose this Slaughterhouse?
There is well-documented evidence that slaughterhouses have numerous negative impacts on communities which include:
- The fact that Coronavirus and other recent zoonotic pandemics originate in live animal markets,
- Risk of infectious disease outbreaks, like bird flu, swine flu, salmonella and E. coli, due to unsanitary conditions and diseased animals,
- Decreasing property values,
- Increasing crime rates, especially violent crimes, wherever and whenever they open,
- Emitting offensive odors from dead and decaying animals,
- Making noisy, late night deliveries of animals,
- Providing hazardous working conditions (workers suffer some of the highest rates of disease infection, physical injury, PTSD, substance abuse and domestic violence),
- Increasing rodent infestation,
- Polluting the environment with wastewater, toxic cleaning agents, and dead animal disposal which can lead to contamination of groundwater, soil and air,
- Keeping animals in filthy and miserable conditions which breeds disease and suffering (see our video to get a glimpse of what the typical slaughterhouse is like at https://slaughterfreechicago.com/slaughterhouses-conditions/
Is this an operation that had closed some time ago due to runoff/contamination?
I seem to recall such an operation, possibly in Marengo.
Do you have the name of the Petitioner? owner? Curious that this is being fast tracked.
Nimby pimbys.
Put it back on the south side of Chicago.
The politicians there said that Chicagoans need jobs.
This could be the Stockyards V2.0.
Turning it into Tejuana gots to have that goat meat … and cock fights … or its not like home… 3rd world
You could something way worse on I2 zoning, such as:
2.16 acres of I-2 in the County, the highest Industrial zoning in the book. Some allowable uses are: Asphalt plant/Concrete plant, Slaughter plant, Collection and storage of Hazardous, Toxic, or Radioactive waste, Truck and heavy equipment sales and service, Storage of Heavy vehicles of any kind. Indoor shooting range, Composting facility, Recycling facility, Sales and storage of farm chemicals. 219 feet of frontage on US Hwy 20. property has a small office building(as-is) and paved parking. NO CITY TAXES, Reasonably priced for the potential offered. Very RARE zoning in unincorporated McHenry Co. Vacant and ready for your Heavy equipment, Garbage trucks, RVs, Grain bins, Asphalt plant or what ever you have.
Isn’t it a laugh that increased crime rate and decreasing property values is a laugh
We are in Illinois and decreasing property values is normal.
So if you have a slaughter house violent crime will go up because why? Especially in Marengo?
The way the ventilation systems have to work you don’t smell any so called decaying animals.
The standards that the County has in place there will not be run off.
Nothing but scare tactics and will bring jobs to the area when businesses are pulling out of Illinois!
Leave these poor innocent voiceless animals alone.
Nothing but horrific abuse & murder.
If people didn’t want it they wouldn’t buy meat so clearly they want it.
My family runs a small farm.
We raise multi species of poultry as well as sheep and goats.
We have had dealings with 9 processing plants in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin.
We have NEVER seen anything like the video posted.
Big city slsughterhouses are nothing like country ones.
Pregnant animals are not allowed.
Animals are always dropped off by 5 or 6 the night before slaughter and are butchered the next day.
Birds are dropped off the morning of and picked up in the afternoon.
A lot of these places are on the edges of towns or right inside of them.
Take a ride to Clinton WI and check out Country Pride Meats for one, or Lake Geneva Meats.
Unless you are a vegetarian, slaughter is necessary to provide meat.
A small facility in a county where the whole process can be monitored seems a more humane solution than trucking animals hundreds of miles to a huge commercial house.
It’s all too easy to pretend all that meat in the grocery store grows on trees.
If processors are far away and invisible there is no need to think about it.
Get the real facts before you oppose.
Note there were no sources for the data stated.