People generally express three different types of attitudes towards animals.
a) Reverence or love, especially towards those called “pets.”
b) Indifference, tolerance, or just plain curiosity. This applies to animals in the wild as well as those “grown” for food.
c) Disassociation. Most people do not realize that their consumption of meat for food comes from animals that live and breathe just like their pets, nor can they associate their consumption of meat with animal cruelty.
Each cow requires, but rarely is given, one to two acres of land. There are on our planet more than one billion cattle, weighing more than the entire human population combined. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that with all the animals in the world, few are able to have the luxury of their own space. So what happens to all these animals raised for food?
“Factory farms” are specialized, mechanized businesses that usually accommodate one species, housing hundreds or thousands at a time. They are often owned by corporations whose sole purpose is to make a profit. This means the smallest space possible with the cheapest facilities, the least expensive foods, and the fewest human handlers. Every year, in the United States alone, over 8 billion animals (excluding fish and seafood) are slaughtered for food: 38 million cows and calves, 95 million hogs, 5 million sheep and goats, 278 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, and over 7 billion chickens. The sheer numbers dictate that humane treatment cannot be a priority or even possible.
The longevity of an average milk cow is six to eight years, but left free to roam, the life expectancy jumps to twenty years. A male calf is raised solely for food, but a female calf is taken from its mother twenty-four hours after birth and reared until her first pregnancy. Her life will continue the cycle of four pregnancies before death, with at least three of those the result of artificial insemination. The rest of her life will be on the milk machine and rarely, if ever, will she taste sunshine. Mastitis is one of the most frequent and costly afflictions of dairy cows. It is the second leading cause of death, but is often labelled as a “production disease.” The increase in incidents of mastitis is the direct result of intense farming practises that limit cows to two milkings per day instead of the five to seven normally allowed by her calf in a “natural” environment. Simply put, mastitis produces pus, which goes into the product along with the antibiotics used to correct the problem. This treatment involves numerous injections, and is only one of the many conditions brought on by over crowding and subjecting an animal to something that is out of character for them.
In factory farming, there exist such other common conditions as ketosis, a serious metabolic disorder and laminitis, a painful inflammation of the hoof as well as the numerous injections of hormones and antibiotics, an over-rich diet coupled with a lack of exercise, extended periods of cramped housing, and little sunshine or fresh air. Treating animals as a business in order to meet insatiable demands has developed personalities that are not only indifferent to animal suffering but have a total disregard for life in any form.
Nor can vegetarians remain smug to these problems. They too, have disassociated themselves from meat production, while still consuming dairy products, eggs, cheese, poultry, and fish. Eating “free range” items does not eliminate the problem. “Free range” animals are not usually from the picturesque farms one so often dreams about. Egg layers are kept in tiny cages with sloping floors that allow for the eggs to roll out. Feed and water are supplied automatically, as are the lights to simulate day and night. Conditions are crowded and intense. There are two other types of housing equally as crowded. One has nesting perches in barns or sheds, and the other houses birds together on a common floor. Both are allowed to have the label “free range.” These overcrowded conditions allow the birds to have access to each other. This encourages pecking at one another, causing loss of feathers and eventual death from bleeding. It also encourages bacteria and disease. Unless one personally knows the source of the meat and eggs, it is not safe to assume that these products come from the legendary “free range farm setting.”
Intensive egg production causes hens to use more than thirty times the calcium its skeleton requires, causing bones to shatter. A bird in distress is an open target for other birds. That period of time between daily collections of carcasses can be a long time in the short life of a bird. Stress from overcrowding invites reactions similar to those displayed in humans. Birds begin to peck at their neighbors, especially those who are sick and cannot fend off attacks.
Broiler chickens are housed in barns holding 20 thousand to over 100,000 for approximately six weeks, until they are roughly 2½ to 3 pounds. A single house produces eight crops per year, or about ½ million broilers minus about 5% or so (some 25,000 birds) that have died from such various causes as disease or being pecked to death by their very close neighbors. The birds are grown for meat and not for bone strength or vigorous heart and blood vessels. Therefore, their legs usually are not able to support their weight, and some just collapse and die. The only human contact they ever receive is from the daily handlers that collect any carcasses to be delivered to a food processor.
In order to reduce the number of days for moulting, the hens are shocked into a forced schedule that involves restricting water for about two weeks. This practice proved to be too barbaric for Britain, who banned it in 1987. However, it remains legal in the US. The natural lifespan for a hen can be close to fifteen years, but drops to twelve to eighteen months in an intensive rearing setting. By the way, male chicks are gassed, and their remains go to the rendering plants. Only the females are kept.
Debeaking chickens is a process carried out, supposedly, to prevent them from pecking others in their overcrowded areas. It is a painful process and done without any pain relief. Such tools as debudding guns, hot glue guns, or cigarette lighters are used to cut through bone, cartilage, and soft tissue of the young birds. This causes behavioral changes in the bird, indicative of acute and chronic pain. Furthermore, the debeaking process causes nerve damaged tissue to develop into painful tumors called neuromas.
Dead animals are gathered from factory farms and transported to rendering plants. However, not all the animals die before being taken there. Often, if an animal is too sick to stand, it is hauled away alive. Some die en route, suffocating after being packed into trucks. Others that make it alive, have their throats slit before entry into the plant. Some may even die at this time, but not always. Others just bleed to death or die during the processing. “Downer cows” are those who arrive at auction yards or slaughter houses, dead, trampled, lacerated, or just plain ill from diseases. If they do not respond to electrical shocks and get up and walk, they are dragged by chains to the dumpsters to wait to die by whatever the means. Most of the animal is rendered down for animal feed, but some parts from chickens, for example, that are not considered edible are used for other purposes. Bones, feathers, heads, feet, and intestines are processed into two products – fat or tallow, plus a protein-rich component. The fat is used to make soap, lipstick, and other cosmetics. The protein material is used for bonemeal and garden fertilizer. Farmed fish feed is allowed to contain 10% beef liver and 25% cereals, but some do contain visible chicken feathers. It is the use of these products being put back into animal feed that is causing the most commotion being referred to, by some, as a form of cannabalism.
