Why Farm Animals
While all animals deserve a life free of suffering, farm animals experience the most injustice and cruelty on a daily basis. Nearly 10 billion animals are killed for human consumption each year in the United States alone - and 99% of these animals are from factory farms, the horrible conditions of which make the peaceful pasture life we imagine far from the truth. Factory farm realities include:
-
Extremely cramped living conditions for the entirety of life - many animals barely get the chance to turn around or leave a body-sized cage until the day they are sent to slaughter. For example, 95% of egg-laying hens spend their entire lives in battery cages, where each chicken has floor space equal to less than a sheet of paper.
-
Mutilation without anesthetics, cutting off body parts with shears, heated blades, or electrical currents, including castration and debeaking
-
Forced insemination of female animals with painful tools
-
Infant calves are separated from their mothers usually within hours of birth, which has been shown to cause trauma for both
-
Extremely unsanitary conditions forcing animals to wade through layers of their own excrement, which causes disease, respiratory problems and ulcers
-
Male chicks are seen as waste products since they cannot produce their own eggs, and are ground up in industrial choppers while fully conscious. Alternatively, some are sucked through pipes onto an electrical kill plate and poison gassed. 260 million are killed every year in these methods.
-
Wild hens only lay around 10-30 eggs per year, and even that takes a big toll on the hen’s body. In factory farms, hens are forced to produce 250-300 eggs per year, causing extreme stress, pain, organ damage and early death. And since this rate does not happen naturally, hens are starved for 2 weeks to shock their bodies into another egg laying cycle.
-
Genetic manipulation to increase production, which causes painful health issues including heart failure in chickens, who are forced to grow 65 times faster than their bodies normally would. Commercial male turkeys grow to a weight 3 times larger than wild male turkeys in only 4 months - so large they cannot reproduce naturally and so that process is carried out artificially by humans.
-
Unenforced welfare standards for slaughter, meaning many animals are killed while still conscious, and able to feel the methods such as throat slitting and electrocution. “Stunning” methods also involve cruelty and trauma, as this word for cows commonly means driving a metal rod into their brain.
To read more, visit:
https://www.farmsanctuary.org/issue/factory-farming/
https://thehumaneleague.org/article/what-is-factory-farming
https://mercyforanimals.org/the-problem/
It is common for us to pass off animals as products and commodities - but they have feelings too, and deserve empathy and respect just as we would treat one another. They deserve to be seen as lives worth protecting, since they experience suffering, pain and positive emotions as we do. Animal sentience - that they are capable of feeling - is proven through scientific studies and observation. We only have to open our eyes and hearts to be able to relate.
-
Newborn chicks are more intelligent, alert, and aware of their environment than human toddlers
-
Chickens are social animals, and are able to recognize their siblings and form strong friendships.
-
Mother cows will call to their babies when they are separated, sometimes develop a raw throat from crying out for days, and become sick and lose weight from this separation
-
Pigs are more intelligent than dogs and can problem solve
-
Turkeys love affection and cuddles
-
Female sheep often stay in their group of friends for life
To learn more about how animals have emotions, personalities and connections, see Farm Sanctuary’s research-based papers comprising "The Someone Project" - currently including cows, chickens, pigs, and sheep.
