In Memoriam: Virgil Butler

Virgil Butler, the former slaughterhouse worker from Arkansas who dedicated his life to educating others about the horrors of factory farming, died last night in his sleep at the age of 41. Virgil spent 9 years working in Tyson slaughterhouses, killing as many as 80,000 birds a shift in extremely dangerous working conditions and for very little pay. But in 2002, Virgil contacted PETA to say that he had had enough of the human and animal suffering that he witnessed every day, and asked what he could do to help.