Denver Voters Reject Slaughterhouse Ban

Ballot measure 309, which aimed to ban slaughterhouses in the city and county of Denver, failed on Nov. 5, 2024. The measure would have closed Superior Farms in the Globeville neighborhood north of Denver.

I’m an associate professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University. My research explores solutions for meat and food system challenges such as food safety, market resiliency and sustainability. I’m part of a research team that examined the potential effects of ballot measure 309 on the local, state, national and global meat supply chain.

Denver’s only slaughterhouse

The Superior Farms lamb processing facility employs approximately 160 people and represents 15% to 20% of the total lamb slaughter capacity in the U.S. Our study reports that the sheep harvested at the Denver facility are primarily from Colorado and the Mountain West region.

Colorado has rugged rangeland that is well suited for sheep ranching. It is currently the third-largest sheep-producing state in the nation, after Texas and California.

Colorado houses another large lamb-processing facility in the Northeastern plains and 21 substantially smaller facilities around the state.

The ability of these processors to market meat to consumers is far less than that of Superior Farms, due to capacity or inspection limitations. Our report found that a closure of the Denver facility would require most of the sheep harvested there to instead be harvested in other states.

More likely though, sheep producers who historically sent their lambs to Denver for harvest would instead not be able, or willing, to ship them to other states due to increased costs and concerns for animal welfare effects.