This Election Day, voters in Denver will decide whether animal slaughter belongs in their city. Initiated Ordinance 309 would prohibit the construction, maintenance or use of slaughterhouses within Denver city limits starting in January 2026.
Superior Farms, a lamb processing plant, is Denver’s only slaughterhouse, making it the sole facility that would be directly impacted by the ballot measure. If it passes, Superior Farms would be forced to shut down.
It’s hard to picture a shuttered Superior Farms. Inside, the plant is a cacophony of constant noise and movement: blue conveyor belts snake past hard-hatted workers busy cutting, cleaning and packaging cuts of lamb – their only product. Vacuum-sealing machines exhale and pop over the constant whir of refrigeration…