So, while beating, dragging or mutilating a dog or cat could and should result in charges of felony animal cruelty, mutilating, dragging or beating a pig, chicken or other farm animal is not only legal but common practice on factory farms. Welcome to the world of modern factory farms, where animal abuse and cruelty are not rare exceptions but the norm or standard practice and profitable method for conducting business.(3)

 

Maybe the treatment of animals on factory farms is not something you’ve thought about before or necessarily want to think about now. I know I didn’t for a great deal of my life. It’s easy not to think about the suffering endured by the animals we call “lunch” and “dinner” because society is so removed from the horror. We see a package in the grocery store or a photo on a menu and rarely if ever get a glimpse of the brutal reality of how the animal got there. We have nice, comfortable names for the animals we eat.(4)  Like “hamburger” to describe the ground up body parts of slaughtered cows.(5)  We are bombarded with advertising showing us content cows on lush, green pastures happy to sacrifice their offspring and lives for our culinary pleasure. We are brainwashed to believe that we need to eat animals for adequate protein and optimal health. Powerful and profitable animal agriculture industries go to extreme lengths to keep the truth hidden. Why? Because industries that profit from animal agriculture know that most people would turn away in horror if they saw how the animals they regularly eat live and die at the hands of humans.

 

Speaking of hidden horrors, did you know that at the behest of animal agricultural industries, a number of states have actually passed laws that make it illegal to document the abusive treatment of factory farmed animals? These so called “ag gag” bills attempt to stop documentation of the horrendous suffering of farm animals by making it illegal to take audio or video recordings or photos of animals at any factory farm/animal agricultural facility(6). The sanctions for violators vary but include fines and possibly jail sentences!  Ag gag bills are incredibly dangerous to food safety and beg the question, “Exactly what are the animal agricultural industries so desperate to keep hidden?” I think the answer is quite simply, the truth.

 

Take birds for example. Billions of chickens are slaughtered each year in the U.S. Nearly all of these animals are raised in windowless enclosures that are completely concealed and inaccessible to the public eye. In order to maximize profits, chickens are bred to grow quickly. In fact, today’s broiler chickens reach slaughter weight in record time. If people grew at such unnatural rates, they would weigh almost 350 pounds by their second birthday!(7)  Each chicken has the space equivalent of a standard size sheet of paper or 8 inches by 11 inches. For weeks and weeks, thousands and thousands of chickens live and defecate in the same small ammonia-filled area. One writer described it as “[a] sea of chickens from wall to wall, sitting in their own feces, struggling to move.”(8)

 

Speaking of feces, did you know that fecal material is often found on store bought chicken products?(9) Or that salmonella and campylobacter bacteria was found on 81% of all turkeys tested and almost 70% of pork (pig meat)? Did you know that the majority of the antibiotics used in the United States today are given to factory farmed animals?(10)

 

According to CNN, 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics were sold for meat and poultry use in 2011. That same year, 7.7 million pounds were sold for human use. Why are so many antibiotics being used in factory farms? Because of the intense confinement in which factory farmed animals live, a “perfect storm” exists for the development of harmful bacteria. To try and stop the spread of harmful disease, factory farmed animals are given antibiotics, in addition to growth-promoting hormones, pesticides and aflatoxins.(11) Many people don’t realize that the antibiotics given to these animals collect and form a toxic residue in the animals’ tissues. This toxic residue is then passed on to people when they consume factory farmed animals or their by-products, like eggs or milk.

 

I often wonder why it is acceptable, at least in the U.S., to eat a lamb, or a calf, or a chicken, but not a dog or a cat. I have yet to hear a reasonable justification. But those who carefully consider the question generally better understand why many people, including myself, choose not to eat any animal. One of my favorite authors wrote about his struggle with the issue. He questioned whether cows or pigs, or any of the animals we regularly eat were so different from cats and dogs that there were two moral standards, one that applied to dogs and cats and the other to cows and chickens. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that something had to give. Either he had to change his beliefs and feelings about how companion animals should be treated, or he had to change his beliefs and feelings about the treatment of factory farmed animals.”(12)

 

Kris Giovanini

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1) There are only two federal laws that supposedly “protect” farm animals, and those laws deal with the transport of animals to slaughter and the "so-called" humane slaughtering practices. Both laws are full of exemptions, lack any real enforcement, and neither one applies to poultry. (2) As stated by the ASPCA, common (and legal) agricultural practices today are “shockingly cruel.” (3) There are many good books on topic. Two of my favorite: Gail A. Eisnitz, Slaughterhouse, The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect and Inhumane Treatment Inside The US Meat Industry (Prometheus Books, 2007) and Eric Marcus, Meat Market, Animals, Ethics & Money (Brio Press, 2005). (4) In an effort to boost sales, the pork and beef industries are now giving even more pleasant sounding names to many cuts of animal parts on the basis that current labels may be “too confusing” to consumers. So, boneless shoulder top steak will become “Boston roast” and pork chops will soon become “Porterhouse chops” or “New York chops.” Now doesn’t that sound easier to digest? (5) Did you know “hamburger” can include virtually any ground up cow part from (and including) tongue to tail? Apparently, it may also include “E-coli” and chicken poop. Mike Adams, What’s Really In Your Hamburger, foodmatters.tv/articles-1/whats-really-in-your-hamburger (2013). Mike Adams, FDA Finally Admits Chicken Meat Contains Cancer-Causing Arsenic (but keep eating it, yo!) naturalnews.com/032659_arsenic_chicken.html (June 9, 2011). (6) Alicia Graef, More States Want to Punish People Reporting Animal Abuse care2.com/causes/more-states-want-to-punish-people-reporting-animal-abuse.html (February 2013). Taping of Farm Cruelty is Becoming the Crime, Wall Street Journal, 6 April 2013. Alicia Graef, Ag Gag Bill Introduced As Butterball Worker Is Convicted of Cruelty, care2.com/causes/ag-gag-bill-introduced-as-butterball-worker-is-convicted-of-cruelty.html (April 12, 2013). “US Animal Activist Laws May Impact Globally,” BBC News, April 2013. Eating With Our Eyes Closed, New York Times, 9 April 2013, nytimes.com/2013/04/10/opinion/eating-with-our-eyes-closed.html?_r=0 . Jim Hightower, Why it's Literally Sickening to Ban Whistleblowers from Exposing Cruelty at Factory Farms, Alternet.org (April 24, 2013). See also, Michele Simon, Best Public Relations Money Can Buy - A Guide to Food Industry Front Groups, Food Safety News (March 17, 2013) (7) Maryn McKenna, Why We Can’t See Inside Poultry Production and What Might Change If We Could, wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/poultry-transparency/ (January 29, 2013). (8) Leah Garces, Why We Haven’t Seen Inside A Broiler Chicken Factory in a Decade, sites.google.com/site/farmswithoutharm1/news/whywehaven’tseeninsideabroilerchickenfactoryfarminadecade (January 24, 2013). Mike Adams, FDA Finally Admits Chicken Meat Contains Cancer-Causing Arsenic (but keep eating it, yo!) naturalnews.com/032659_arsenic_chicken.html (June 9, 2011),. (9) PCRM, It’s a Crapshoot: Feces Taint 50% of Buffalo Chicken, pcrm.org/media/online/dec2012/its-a-crapshoot-feces-taint-50-percent-of-buffalo (December, 2012). Dr. Mercola, Beef Burgers Made of Horse Meat and Salmonella Outbreak from Ground Beef – The Unsavory Truth of Rising Food Fraud and Contamination, foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Food/meat_consumption_0105131122.html (February, 2013). Salmonella: It’s What’s For Dinner, mfablog.org/2013/03/salmonella-its-whats-for-dinner.html (March, 2013). (10) Ari Solomon, FDA Shocker: Eighty-One Percent of Ground Turkey Contains Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, mfablog.org/2013/04/fda-shocker-eighty-one-percent-of-ground-turkey-contains-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria.html (April 17, 2013). Helena Bottemiller, FDA Data: Slight Uptick in Animal Antibiotic Use, Resistance Remains Issue in Meat, foodsafetynews.com/2013/02/rep-slaughter-on-antibiotic-resistance-we-are-standing-on-the-brink-of-a-public-health-catastrophe/#.UXwKq-bnZ9A (February 2013). Jan Christensen, What Government Tests Found in Your Meat, CNN Health (April 16, 2013) (11) Rep. Slaughter on NARMS: “We Are Standing on the Brink of a Public Health Catastrophe,” foodsafetynews.com/2013/02/rep-slaughter-on-antibiotic-resistance-we-are-standing-on-the-brink-of-a-public-health-catastrophe ( February 2013). Helena Bottemiller, FDA Data: Slight Uptick in Animal Antibiotic Use, Resistance Remains Issue in Meat, foodsafetynews.com/2013/02/rep-slaughter-on-antibiotic-resistance-we-are-standing-on-the-brink-of-a-public-health-catastrophe/ - .UXwKq-bnZ9A (February 2013) (12) Tom Regan, Empty Cages, (Roman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2004), p.31.