Cruelty To Animals

Cows

Cows are gentle giants, large in size but sweet in nature. They are curious, clever animals who have been known to go to amazing lengths to escape from slaughterhouses. These very social animals prefer to spend their time together, and they form complex relationships, very much like dogs form packs. Learn more about the intelligence of cattle.

Like all animals, cows form strong maternal bonds with their children, and on dairy farms and cattle ranches, mother cows can be heard crying out for their calves for days after they are separated.

In the U.S., more than 41 million of these sensitive animals suffer and die for the meat and dairy industries every year.1 When they are still very young, cows are burned with hot irons (branding), their testicles are ripped out of their scrotums (castration), and their horns are cut or burned off all without painkillers. Once they have grown big enough, they are sent to massive, muddy feedlots to be fattened for slaughter or to dairy farms, where they will be repeatedly impregnated and separated from their calves until their bodies give out and they are sent to die.

Cattle raised for beef are usually born in one state, fattened in another, and slaughtered in yet another. They are transported hundreds of miles in all weather extremes to the slaughterhouse. Many cows die on the way to slaughter, and those who survive are shot in the head with a bolt gun, hung up by their legs, and taken onto the killing floor, where their throats are cut and they are skinned. Some cows remain fully conscious throughout the entire process according to one slaughterhouse worker, in an interview with the Washington Post, they die piece by piece. Calves raised for veal are kept in stalls so small that they can’t even turn around.


Chickens

Chickens are inquisitive, interesting animals who are as intelligent as mammals like cats, dogs, and even primates.1 They are very social and like to spend their days together, scratching for food, cleaning themselves in dust baths, roosting in trees, and lying in the sun. Dr. Chris Evans, administrator of the animal behavior lab at Australia’s Macquarie University, says, As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list [chickens’] attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m talking about monkeys.

Chickens are precocious birds. Mother hens actually cluck to their unborn chicks, who chirp back to their mothers and to one another from within their shells!3 The intelligence and adaptability of chickens actually make them particularly vulnerable to factory farming because, unlike most birds, baby chickens can survive without their mothers and without the comfort of a nest they come out of the shell raring to explore and ready to experience life. Learn more about the intelligence of chickens.

But the more than 9 billion chickens raised on factory farms each year in the U.S. never have the chance to do anything that is natural to them.4 They will never even meet their parents, let alone be raised by them. They will never take dust baths, feel the sun on their backs, breathe fresh air, roost in trees, or build nests.

Chickens raised for their flesh, called broilers by the chicken industry, spend their entire lives in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, where intense crowding and confinement lead to outbreaks of disease. They are bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can’t keep up, making heart attacks, organ failure, and crippling leg deformities common. Many become crippled under their own weight and eventually die because they can’t reach the water nozzles. When they are only 6 or 7 weeks old, they are crammed into cages and trucked to slaughter.

Birds exploited for their eggs, called laying hens by the industry, are crammed together in wire cages where they don’t even have enough room to spread a single wing. The cages are stacked on top of each other, and the excrement from chickens in the higher cages constantly falls on those below. The birds have part of their sensitive beaks cut off so that they won’t peck each other as a result of the frustration created by the unnatural confinement. After their bodies are exhausted and their production drops, they are shipped to slaughter, generally to be turned into chicken soup or cat or dog food because their flesh is too bruised and battered to be used for much else.

Eating Chickens Is Bad for Your Health

According to a major 2006 Harvard study of 135,000 people, people who frequently ate grilled skinless chicken had a 52 percent higher chance of developing bladder cancer compared to people who didn’t.

Because the male chicks of egg-laying breeder hens are unable to lay eggs and are not bred to produce excessive flesh for the meat industry, they are killed. Every year, more than 100 million of these young birds are ground up alive or tossed into bags to suffocate.

Chickens are slammed into small crates and trucked to the slaughterhouse through all weather extremes. Hundreds of millions suffer from broken wings and legs from rough handling, and millions die from the stress of the journey.5

At the slaughterhouse, their legs are snapped into shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding hot water to remove their feathers. Because they have no federal legal protection (birds are exempt from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act), most are still conscious when their throats are cut open, and many are literally scalded to death in the feather-removal tanks after missing the throat cutter.

Fish

Fish Farms: Underwater Factories

"Conditions on aquafarms are so horrendous that on some farms, 40 percent of the fish may die before farmers can kill and package them for food."
Fish farming, or aquaculture, has become a billion-dollar industry, and more than 30 percent of all the sea animals consumed each year are now raised on these farms. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization reports that the aquaculture industry is growing three times faster than land-based animal agriculture, and fish farms will surely become even more prevalent as our natural fisheries become exhausted.

Aquafarms can be based on land or in the ocean. Land-based farms raise thousands of fish in ponds, pools, or concrete tanks. Ocean-based aquafarms are situated close to shorelines, and fish in these farms are packed into net or mesh cages. All fish farms are rife with pollution, disease, and suffering, regardless of their location.

Aquafarms squander resources it can take 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce just 1 pound of farmed fish and pollute the environment with tons of fish feces, antibiotic-laden fish feed, and diseased fish carcasses.

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. In short, fish farms bring suffering and ecological devastation everywhere they go.

Many land-based aquafarms are indoors, so farmers even control the amount of light that fish get.

These farmed fish will spend their entire lives crammed together, constantly bumping against each other and the sides of their grossly overcrowded cage.


Pigs

Many people who know pigs compare them to dogs because they are friendly, loyal, and intelligent. Pigs are naturally very clean and avoid, if at all possible, soiling their living areas. When given the chance to live away from factory farms, pigs will spend hours playing, lying in the sun, and exploring their surroundings with their powerful sense of smell. Considered smarter than 3-year-old human children, pigs are very clever animals.1 Learn more about the intelligence of pigs.

Most people rarely have the opportunity to interact with these outgoing, sensitive animals because 97 percent of pigs in United States today are raised on factory farms.2 These pigs spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy warehouses, under constant stress from the intense confinement and denied everything that is natural to them.
Piglets' tails are cut off and their teeth are pulled out without the use of painkillers.

Piglets' tails are cut off and their teeth are pulled out without the use of painkillers.

As piglets, they are taken away from their mothers when they are less than 1 month old; their tails are cut off, some of their teeth are cut off, and the males have their testicles ripped out of their scrotums (castration), all without any pain relief. They spend their entire lives in overcrowded pens on a tiny slab of filthy concrete.

Breeding sows spend their entire miserable lives in tiny metal crates where they can't even turn around. Shortly after giving birth, they are once again forcibly impregnated. This cycle continues for years until their bodies finally give out and they are sent to be killed. When the time comes for slaughter, these smart and sensitive animals are forced onto transport trucks that travel for many miles through all weather extremes many die of heat exhaustion in the summer and arrive frozen to the inside of the truck in the winter.

According to industry reports, more than 1 million pigs die in transport each year, and an additional 420,000 are crippled by the time they arrive at the slaughterhouse.3, 4 Many are still fully conscious when they are immersed in scalding water for hair removal.


Turkeys

Ben Franklin called turkeys "true American originals." He had tremendous respect for their resourcefulness, agility, and beauty. Turkeys are intelligent animals who enjoy having their feathers stroked and listening to music, with which they will often sing quite loudly. In nature, turkeys can fly 55 miles an hour, run 25 miles an hour, and live up to four years.

But the story’s very different for turkeys on factory farms: They will be killed when they are only 5 or 6 months old, and during their short lives, they will be denied even the simplest pleasures, like running, building nests, and raising their young.

Like chickens, the 300 million turkeys raised and killed for their flesh every year in the United States have no federal legal protection. Thousands of turkeys are crammed into filthy sheds after their 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. When the time comes for slaughter, they are thrown into transport trucks, and when they arrive at the slaughterhouse, their throats are cut and their feathers burned off often while they are still fully conscious.

Ducks And Geese

Admired by parkgoers nationwide, ducks and geese are some of America’s best known and most beloved animals. Adept in water, land, and air, these birds fly hundreds of miles each year to migrate. Both ducks and geese fly and swim in formations that reduce air and water resistance for the birds in the rear. Ducks live in couples or groups, while pairs of geese mate for life, mourning for a significant amount of time when their partners die.

While most people don’t think of ducks and geese when discussing cruelty to farmed animals, these birds are severely abused by the meat and foie gras industries. Ducks and geese raised for their flesh spend their entire lives crammed in dirty, dark sheds where they suffer from injury and disease and are deprived of everything that is natural to them.

Ducks and geese raised for foie gras endure the pain of having a pipe shoved down their throats three times daily so that two pounds of grain can be pumped into their stomachs to produce the diseased fatty liver that some diners consider a delicacy. Foie gras production has been deemed cruel and inhumane by experts worldwide, including the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare. The state of California recently passed a law banning foie gras because the production methods are so cruel.

If you want to help these birds, feeding the wild ones in the park isn’t the best thing that you can do for them, refusing to eat the flesh and livers of their tortured cousins is. Be sure to ask your friends to boycott foie gras and duck meat as well.


While the suffering of all animals on factory farms is similar, each type of farmed animal faces different types of cruelty.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* Mother pigs on factory farms are confined to crates so small that they are unable to turn around or even lie down comfortably.

* 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.

* 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.


The following info was provided by Go Veg, which is owned by Peta. You should go check out their site for loads of great info on the benefits of going veg.

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