Denver voters rejected the proposal to shut down the city’s only slaughterhouse.

The results on Tuesday night showed voters resoundingly defeating the measure, which was losing by about 40 points.

Only about 35.6% of Denver voters supported it, compared to the 64.4% who voted against it, according to the latest tally.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am,” said Gustavo Fernandez, the general manager of Superior Farms Denver, who has worked there for over 30 years. “I and the workers at this facility just want to do our jobs and provide for our families. Now we can get back to that without this huge weight on our shoulders. Thank you, Denver!”

“We are eager for the campaign to be over regardless of the results. We feel like we’ve done what we can, learned what we can, and now we have to let go and see what happens,” said Olivia Hammond, a member of Pro Animal Future, the group that pushed both the fur and slaughterhouse bans.

The ban targeted Superior Farms, an employee-owned meat processing plant that provides lamb meat to Denver and the entire country. Superior Farms employs roughly 160 people in a minority-majority neighborhood.

Proponents argued that slaughterhouses are inhumane for the animals and workers, pointing to what they described as documented physical and mental health issues among slaughterhouse employees nationwide. As envisioned, the proposal requires the Denver government to prioritize employees who will lose their jobs because of the shutdown.

Critics, including Superior Farms workers, members of the meat industry and UCFW, the largest union of commercial food workers in the county, said the ban would increase the prices of meat, decimate jobs and negatively affect Colorado’s economy. They pointed to a Colorado State University study saying that the slaughterhouse ban could mean Denver losing up to $800 million in economic benefits and as many as 3,000 jobs.

Pro Animal Future accused the CSU study of bias, saying the university has a longstanding history with the agriculture industry and citing grant funding its researchers have received.

Superior Farms is located in the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods, both of which fall into Denver’s “inverted-L.” Located to the west of Interstate 25 and the north of Interstate 70, they are home to minority communities and exist in the industrial heart of Denver. To the north stands the Cherokee generating station, formerly a coal-burning power plant, and the Suncor oil refinery.

The neighborhoods are also home to a dog food factory.

The proposed ban drew the ire of Denver City Councilman Darrell Watson, who represents the area.

The neighborhoods, Watson said, have been a “test case for so many horrible ideas.”

“These folks are coming in as just another group testing out their thoughts, ideologies and beliefs on a community that, quite frankly, has had enough of that nonsense,” he said. “I think it’s wrongheaded and I could not be more against it.”