Cruelty
to Animals: Mechanized Madness
The
green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past
are now distant memories. On today’s factory farms,
animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy
windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other
confinement systems. These animals will never raise their
families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything
that is natural to them. They won’t even feel the sun on
their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are
loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.
Animals on today’s factory farms have no legal
protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were
inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic
manipulation, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain
and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and
gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no
less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the
dogs and cats we cherish as companions.
The factory farming system of modern agriculture strives
to maximize output while minimizing costs. Cows, calves,
pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and other animals
are kept in small cages, in jam-packed sheds, or on filthy
feedlots, often with so little space that they can’t
even turn around or lie down comfortably. They are
deprived of exercise so that all their bodies’ energy
goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human
consumption.
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They are fed drugs to fatten them faster and to keep them
alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them, and
they are genetically altered to grow faster or to produce
much more milk or eggs than they would naturally. Many
animals become crippled under their own weight and die
within inches of water and food.
While the suffering of all animals on factory farms is
similar, each type of farmed animal faces different types
of cruelty.
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Chickens
killed for their flesh in the United States
are bred and drugged to grow so quickly that their
hearts, lungs, and limbs often can’t keep up. Read
more about chickens.
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Hens
used for eggs live six or seven to a battery
cage the size of a file drawer, thousands of which are
stacked tier upon tier in huge, filthy warehouses. Read
more about laying hens.
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Cattle
are castrated, their horns are ripped out of their
heads, and third-degree burns (branding) are inflicted
on them, all without any pain relief. Read
more about cows raised for their flesh.
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Cows
used for their milk are drugged and bred to
produce unnatural amounts of milk; they have their
babies stolen from them shortly after birth and sent
to notoriously cruel veal farms so that humans can
drink the calves’ milk. Read
more about dairy cows.
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Mother
pigs on factory farms are confined to crates
so small that they are unable to turn around or even
lie down comfortably. Read
more about pigs.
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Fish
on aquafarms spend their entire lives in
cramped, filthy enclosures, and many suffer from
parasitic infections, diseases, and debilitating
injuries. Conditions on some farms are so horrendous
that 40 percent of the fish may die before farmers can
kill and package them for food. Read
more about fish.
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Turkeys’
beaks and toes are burned off with a hot blade. Many
suffer heart failure or debilitating leg pain, often
becoming crippled under the weight of their
genetically manipulated and drugged bodies. Read
more about turkeys.
When
they have finally grown large enough, animals raised for
food are crowded onto trucks and transported over many
miles through all weather extremes to the slaughterhouse.
Those who survive this nightmarish journey will have their
throats slit, often while they are still fully conscious.
Many are still conscious when they are plunged into the
scalding water of the defeathering or hair-removal tanks
or while their bodies are being skinned or hacked apart.
Take a stand against cruelty to animals by going
vegetarian. Request
a vegetarian starter kit today!
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