We humans sure do have an ego! This chapter will delve into the horrors of animal cruelty as it exists in the world of animal agriculture, and how raising animals for food has led to uncountable atrocities both against the animals and the humans who work in these extreme conditions.
The invention of refrigeration led to insurmountable growth in the meat and poultry industry. With refrigeration, an animal can be slaughtered, eviscerated, and aseptically packaged, not even resembling the animal it came from, and shipped all the way across the country, and in some cases the world, to a supermarket near you.. This creates a complete disconnect, and therefore disrespect, for the animal that gave its life unwillingly for food.
In this chapter, we’ll talk about how going vegan will help you to help animals. We’ll talk about the evils of speciesism and “humane” meat. We’ll also explain how chickens, cows, and pigs are treated in factories.
“We should always be clear that animal exploitation is wrong because it involves speciesism. And speciesism is wrong because, like racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, classism, and all other forms of human discrimination, speciesism involves violence inflicted on members of the moral community where that infliction of violence cannot be morally justified.”—Gary L. Francione, legal scholar and pioneer of the Abolitionist Theory of animal rights.
Speciesism is probably best described as human superiorism. Like a racist, a speciesist is someone who believes that humans are far superior to all other species and that all non-human animals should not be afforded the same protections that are afforded to humans. This way of thinking allows human animals to abuse and exploit non-human animals for food, clothing, and entertainment.
Have you ever heard this term? Humane meat is defined as meat that was raised in a humane and compassionate way. In other words, the farmer who raised the animals raised them in a way that was compassionate prior to sending that animal to slaughter. This term is an advertising buzzword, designed to make people feel better about the animal foods they are purchasing, as if for some reason raising the animal in a more humane way makes it okay to kill it for food later in life. The term itself is an oxymoron. Regardless of how an animal is treated throughout its life, the end result is the same. Death for dollars. Whether it is a free-range chicken or a grass-fed cow (and we will get to those terms shortly), the sad truth is that these animals that are raised for food will all end up the same. Dead. It’s a sad reality that 99 percent of all animals raised for food are raised on factory farms. Chickens, beef cattle, and pigs are all subjected to atrocities in these farms.
Did you know that chickens are quite intelligent? Studies show they have the intelligence equal to most dogs and cats—even some primates. Chickens are quite social as well, and they enjoy living in groups. They find their place in the pecking order and enjoy taking dust baths and basking in the sun. Chickens raised for poultry and egg-laying hens, however, are now completely different breeds. Both suffer terrible, brief lives.
Of all animals raised for food, chickens probably have it the worst. Worldwide, more than 50 billion chickens are slaughtered each year for food. That is 95,129 chickens slaughtered for every single minute of every single hour of every single day.
From the minute they hatch, factory farm–raised chickens spend their lives in confinement. Once hatched in a commercial hatchery, the chicks are sprayed with vaccines and packed into crates to be shipped to the “farm.” Once they arrive at a rearing shed, they will stay there until they are shipped off to slaughter.
These chickens are bred and injected with antibiotics and growth hormones to grow so quickly their organs often fail. Heart attacks are common, especially under the extreme stress and conditions in a broiler shed.
Even so-called cage-free or free-range chickens are kept in warehouses that are known as broiler sheds. For a chicken to be called cage-free or free-range, it has to have a door to allow for outdoor access. No rules govern how often those birds get to experience the outside, or how big that outdoor space needs to be. Some free-range broiler sheds have an outdoor space of only about 5 feet by 5 feet (1.52 sq m) for thousands of birds.
Tens of thousands of chicks are packed into these sheds. As the chickens grow, the space gets tighter. Because the chickens are bred for big breasts—the most desirable part of a chicken—they often have a hard time walking. Their legs are not strong enough to hold them up. The chickens fall down, get trampled on by the other chickens, and die. That is commonplace in the industry.
During the chickens’ time in the shed, the litter is never changed. It gets pretty smelly in those sheds. The soiled litter burns the legs and bellies of the chickens.
When the chickens are only six to seven weeks old, it’s time to go to slaughter. The farm workers come to collect all of the birds at once, often grabbing them by the ankles and violently throwing them into crates. They then stack the crates onto trucks and send them to the slaughterhouses.
At the slaughterhouse, the chickens are shackled by their ankles and hung upside down on conveyors that run their heads into a “stunning” water bath, where they’re electrocuted until they’re unconscious. Their throats are then slit. Often chickens, being the intelligent creatures that they are, will raise their heads to avoid the stunning water bath, and the chickens then have their throats slit while fully conscious.
After the farmers have removed the chickens from the barn, plenty of dead birds remain on the broiler shed floor. The house is cleaned out, and the whole process starts over.
Whether sourced from a factory farm or a free-range ranch, the truth is, eggs are not all they are cracked up to be, even if sourced from your own backyard.
The idealistic farm with the big red barn, the farmer working the fields, and the farmer’s wife feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs to sell to the neighborhood market has become all but extinct. They have been replaced by large corporate factory farms. The more chickens that can fit into the smallest possible space mean more eggs and more profits. Unfortunately, this leads to the decline in quality of life of those poor egg-laying chickens.
But eating their eggs doesn’t hurt the chicken, right? Wrong. Egg-laying hens lead some of the most cruelty-filled lives of all animals bred for food. From the moment they hatch, the suffering begins. Virtually all egg-laying hens come from hatcheries that kill all male chicks shortly after hatching. Because the males are of no use to the egg industry, since they don’t lay eggs and aren’t bred to grow as large or as rapidly as chickens used in the meat industry, they are quickly sorted out and suffocated, gassed, or thrown into a grinder, while still alive.
Things aren’t much better for the females. Once sorted from the male chicks, females are often packed into shipping boxes and shipped off to fill orders. When they arrive at the rearing facility, they are either placed in cages or sheds, depending on which type of facility they are at, and raised until they reach egg-laying age, or about seventeen weeks old. At the rearing facility, they get exposed to increasing lengths of light in the sheds. By altering the levels of light, the sleep levels and behaviors of the hens are affected, which stimulates their ability to produce eggs.
Once the chickens reach egg-producing age, they are transferred to an egg-laying facility. The hens will become a part of the system, whether it is a battery cage, a cage-free warehouse, or a free-range facility. The majority of the hens’ short lives are spent here.
Regardless of the facility, many of the same practices occur. Debeaking is a common practice in which the beaks of the birds are seared off with a hot blade to prevent the birds from pecking at each other. Why? Because thousands of birds can be held in just one warehouse, and even without cages, these birds are kept so closely together that they don’t always get along. Imagine being stuck in an elevator with twenty other adults for one-and-a-half years—the average lifespan of an egg-laying hen. You’d be pecking at each other, too!
The natural lifespan of a chicken can be up to twelve years, but due to the strain and breeding of today’s egg-laying hen, that is commonly reduced to about seventy-two weeks. When the hen reaches about seventy-two weeks old, her egg production decreases, making her less profitable. Some egg producers then put the chickens through the horrific process of forced molting, which can re-invigorate egg production. Forced molting occurs when feed is withheld or severely reduced for up to two weeks, causing a marked reduction in body weight.
Once chickens stop laying “enough” eggs, they are considered spent. Spent chickens are rounded up and packed into crates where they are marked for slaughter. Because egg-laying hens are a different breed than those raised for meat, and also because their bodies are too bruised and beaten, they are either ground up to be used as fertilizer, or they are processed into low-quality products, such as soups and stocks, and animal food, such as dog or cat food.
What about backyard eggs? While it is true that the quality of the lives of most backyard chickens are leaps and bounds ahead of those raised on commercial factory farms, there are still a couple of reasons why backyard eggs should not be eaten. Just like those in factory farms, most backyard chickens come from hatcheries. And ordering up a box of egg-laying hens directly contributes to the death and suffering of hundreds of millions of male chicks each and every year.
Besides, the eggs don’t belong to you. Did you know it takes a hen about twenty-five hours to produce just one egg? The amount of energy and resources it takes for her to produce that egg takes a lot out of her. And if left to her own devices, once she realizes the egg is not fertilized, she might even crack the egg open and eat it, shell and all, to regain those nutrients.
MEET TURKEY LURKEY
Each year, hundreds of millions of turkeys are slaughtered, 45 million for Thanksgiving alone. Poultry animals are explicitly excluded from the federal Humane Slaughter Act, and so they are not required to be rendered unconscious before they are killed. Countless turkeys die terrified and in pain in grisly slaughterhouses.
Turkey Lurkey was brought to Farm Sanctuary by a woman who had rescued her from a farm, saving the friendly bird from becoming a holiday meal. Safe forever from that fate, Turkey Lurkey now receives only kindness from humans, and she adores them in return. This sweet turkey follows guests around like a dog. She loves it when they pet her gently on the head and scratch her chest.
These animals probably have it better than any other animal raised for food, but that’s not saying much. Many beef cattle are born and live on a range, for months or sometimes even years. Calves are able to feed from their mothers, and social behaviors are formed.
However, cattle are not adequately protected against extreme cold or extreme hot weather. They may die of dehydration or freeze to death. When the animals are injured or sick, they don’t always receive the necessary veterinary attention. On the ranch, the following extremely inhumane practices occur.
• Castration: Male calves’ testicles are ripped from their scrotums, often without anesthesia.
• Branding: Ranchers brand cattle with hot iron brands to identify them. This practice is extremely traumatic and painful, and it’s done without anesthesia. Branding causes third-degree burns, and the cows bellow in pain and attempt to escape.
• Waddling: Beef cattle are also subjected to waddling, which is another type of identification marking. This painful procedure entails cutting chunks out of the hide that hangs under the animals’ necks. Waddling marks are supposed to be large enough so that ranchers can identify their cattle from a distance.
After months or even years on the range, cattle are frightened and confused when people come to round them up. Terrified animals are often injured, some so severely that they become “downed” and are unable to walk or even stand. These downed animals commonly suffer for days without receiving food, water, or veterinary care. Many die of neglect. Other downed animals are dragged or pushed with tractors on their way to the stockyards.
Once at the stockyards, cattle are further frightened and confused as they’re forced through a series of walkways and holding pens. Then they are shown to and sold to the highest bidder.
Upon reaching maturity, cattle are trucked to a feedlot to be fattened up and readied for slaughter. At feedlots, cattle are crowded by the thousands into dry, dusty, manure-filled holding pens. The odor in the air can be smelled for miles, and it’s full of harmful bacteria, ammonia, methane, and other noxious chemicals, subjecting the cattle to a constant risk of respiratory infection. Cattle on feedlots are fed a highly unnatural diet to fatten them up. They’re routinely implanted with growth hormones and antibiotics.
Eventually, all cattle will go to a slaughterhouse, and that last trip can be a terrible one. Cattle do not travel well, and the stress of being confined in shipping trailers causes immense stress to the animals. Ironically, many animals are injured or die on the way to be killed.
A standard beef slaughterhouse kills 250 cattle every hour—four every minute.
When Pinto was found during an investigation of a California “calf ranch,” he was confined to a crate and too weak to stand. Over the years, we have encountered many such ailing calves.
Male calves are a byproduct of the dairy industry, which must breed cows to keep them in milk production, but has no use for the males whose births inevitably result. The male calves are taken from their mothers as newborns and sold to be raised for cheap beef or veal, often in deplorable conditions.
Dead and dying calves are a common sight at calf ranches. Pinto, however, lived to know a better fate. Once his release was secured, he was rushed to safety. With emergency veterinary treatment and lots of TLC, he made a full recovery.
This carefree, young, 3,000-pound (1360 kg) steer is now safe at Animal Acres, Farm Sanctuary’s Southern California shelter, playing, grazing, and soaking up the good life.
Prior to being hung up by their back legs and bled to death, cattle are supposed to be rendered unconscious. This stunning is usually done by a mechanical blow to the head. However, the procedure is terribly imprecise, and inadequate stunning is inevitable. As a result, conscious animals are often hung upside down, kicking and struggling, while a slaughterhouse worker makes another attempt to render them unconscious. Eventually, the animals’ throats will be sliced, whether or not they are unconscious.
Calves raised for veal live their entire lives in wooden crates tethered by their necks without room to walk, turn around, or even just lie down. Calves raised to become veal are also purposely fed an all-liquid milk substitute that is deficient in iron and fiber in order to produce anemia, which results in the pale-colored flesh typical of veal. Veal calves are slaughtered at the ripe old age of four to five months old, and they are unable to walk to slaughter because their muscles are severely underdeveloped. Some veal calves are killed at just a few days old to be sold as low-grade “bob” veal for products such as frozen TV dinners.
What about dairy cows? They don’t get killed for the milk. Many people consume dairy products, even if they’ve given up meat, because they don’t think that taking milk from the cow hurts the cow. And while it may be true that a dairy cow is not killed for her milk, the real truth is that a cow doesn’t produce milk if it isn’t giving birth to a calf.
Dairy cows are kept pregnant constantly, and once those cows give birth, the calves are almost immediately whisked away from their mothers. In most commercial dairy operations, this means that the girls are kept and raised to live out the same fate as their mothers, and the boys are either sent off to auction to the veal industry, or they are just simply left to die.
If we were able to read the mind of a dairy cow, she would tell us she would rather be killed than endure being constantly pregnant, only to have her calves stolen from her at birth. She would tell how she is constantly strapped to a painful milking machine that causes her udders to chafe and get infected with puss-filled sores.
A domestic cow has a lifespan of up to twenty years, but the average dairy cow very rarely lives past the age of four. Cows raised for milk production are generally removed from the herd at age four and sold for beef. Almost 20 percent of the beef produced in the United States comes from “spent” dairy cows. In other words, if the cow is not producing at least 3 to 4 gallons (12 to 15 liters) of milk per day, it is not commercially viable to keep her around. So she is sent to slaughter.
Pigs are very smart animals. Studies have shown that they are as smart as a three-year-old child. The poor piggy really gets a bad rap as a dirty and messy animal. The truth is, these sweet hogs only wallow in the mud as a way to cool off and protect themselves from the sun. Did you know that pigs can’t sweat? The saying, “Sweat like a pig,” actually makes no sense at all! In fact, pigs are some of the cleanest animals. They make a conscious effort not to ever defecate where they eat or sleep.
Pigs are natural problem solvers. They are even more trainable than dogs and cats.
Did we mention these sweeties are actually naturally lean as well? Yep, they only get fat when they have been overfed by humans.
The pork industry is simply disgusting. Many large factory pig farms house their pigs in deplorable conditions. Many are kept in gestation crates. That’s a metal enclosure where a sow is kept during pregnancy—and most of her adult life.
The enclosures measure 6.6 × 2 feet (2 m × 60 cm) and house sows that weigh up to 600 pounds (270 kg). The floors of the crates are made of cold, hard concrete, and they’re slotted so that her waste can be collected below. Remember that pigs do not like to defecate where they sleep or eat, so this causes immense stress to her.
As the pig outgrows the crate, she is forced to sleep on her chest, unable to even turn around. A few days before giving birth, she will be moved to a farrowing crate, where she is able to lie down to nurse. Though that’s the only time she sees her piglets. Otherwise, they are housed apart from her.
This practice is physically abhorable, and the practice is emotional torture for the animal. The pig is constantly kept in a crate, unable to even turn around, let alone get comfortable, only to have her babies kept separated from her as she nurses. The pig lies on her side, so her nipples are available to the piglets for nursing; the piglets are kept in an adjacent pen, separated by a fence or bars, where mama cannot even cuddle and coo her babies. The babies are eventually taken away completely only to have the entire process repeated over and over again.
Pork producers argue that gestation crates are needed because sows housed so closely together will fight, but a trip to a farm sanctuary will show that 600-pound (272 kg) pigs indeed live in harmony together without the use of cages. In fact, they create their own hierarchy among themselves. When a group of unacquainted pigs are first placed together, they will fight to establish a dominance hierarchy. The fighting behavior is generally mouth-to-neck attacks with strong thrusts sideways and upwards. After about an hour, the level of aggression drops dramatically. Within twenty-four hours of mixing, the hierarchy will be established.
Piglets are stolen away from their mothers at just a few weeks old. Their tails are chopped off, the ends of their teeth are snipped off with pliers, and the males are castrated—all without anesthesia. The pigs then spend their entire lives in extremely crowded pens on tiny slabs of filthy concrete. Pig farms are some of the saddest places on earth. Confined pigs cry and bite at the bars of their tiny pens out of boredom.
Pigs naturally live for ten to fifteen years. But factory-farmed pigs are sent to slaughter after just six months. The pigs are forced onto transport trucks that travel for many miles through all sorts of weather extremes to take them to the slaughterhouse. Many die of heat exhaustion in the summer or freeze to death in the winter.
A typical slaughterhouse kills up to 1,000 pigs an hour—sixteen per minute. Because of improper stunning methods, many pigs are still fully awake, conscious, and squealing when they are dumped into scalding-hot water, which is intended to remove their hair and soften their skin.
You picked up this book for a reason. You read this chapter because deep down you knew that giving up meat and adopting a cruelty-free way of life was the right thing to do. Ignore the naysayers who tell you that one person won’t make a difference, because they’re wrong. On average, each meat-eating person contributes to the death of more than 100 animals each year. So if you think you, just one person, won’t make a difference, we can assure you that those 100 animals certainly disagree. So stop the suffering and become a WellBeing.
Sophie was rescued from a Future Farmers of America (FFA) project, and what she experienced as its subject hardly inspires confidence in the future of American farming. Young people who participate in FFA are each expected to raise a farm animal of their choice and then auction him or her for slaughter at the local fair. As they awaited this doom, Sophie and her fellow FFA pigs lived in a small concrete pen without bedding or comfort of any kind. Most developed sores, and all were constantly harassed by flies. The pigs had also been subjected to ear-notching, which is a common industry procedure in which pieces of the ear are cut out, without anesthetic, for identification.
This grim life did not, however, come to a grim end for Sophie and her best friend, Alicia. Disillusioned with the project, the young woman responsible for the two pigs decided to find a home for them instead. Now Sophie and Alicia are safe at Farm Sanctuary’s Southern California Shelter, where they teach visitors lessons in compassion, ensuring that the future of farm animals in America will be brighter.
