According to the Humane Society of the United States, nearly 100 billion land animals are being slaughtered globally each year. The meat-dependent society that we live in today is causing billions of animals to suffer horrendous conditions in factory farms, only to be killed later for human consumption.
Factory farming, also known as intensive animal farming, is a rapid form of breeding farm animals in order to maximize production at the lowest cost possible. Pigs, cows, chickens, and many other animals are confined indoors in compact, disease-ridden environments. Young animals are separated from their mothers at birth and forced to live in an environment packed with feces.
Many animals live nearly up to a month or more before they are killed and processed into the packaging that we see in stores. According to Farm Forward, it is estimated that 99% of livestock in the U.S. were slaughtered in 2017 due to factory farming—that is 10 billion animals.
Among other animals, chickens are killed most under a horrific method called live-shackle slaughter. In this process, chickens are shackled and hung upside down to be painfully shocked through electrically charged water. Their throats are then slit before being de-feathered in a tank of scalding water. There are many occurrences when chickens endure the excruciating pain this inhumane treatment enforces while they are still conscious.
(Photo courtesy Hans Prinsen)
Docking the tails belonging to cows and pigs is another form of animal cruelty that is commonly practiced in factory farming. What’s infuriating is that this practice is legal in many places in the U.S. Cows utilize their tails to their benefit—as a flat swatter. Cows commonly have their docked without anesthesia, causing agonizing pain.
These are only a few of the inhumane practices ongoing in factory farms. Every second every day, billions of animals are confined in unbearable conditions and are slaughtered barbarously.
If we have domestic violence and abuse laws that protect people in the U.S., why don’t we have laws that protect animals from violence and abuse? Moreover, not just companion animals, but also farm animals? Do they not share the same emotions of and responses to joy and terror as us?
Let us use our voices to speak and act for them. Not tomorrow, not the day after—today.
(Photo courtesy Jorge Maya)
