Animal Agriculture Facts.
Learn a little about what really goes on! We've be lied too and convinced that everything is okay when in reality these animals suffer and are prisoners. There is a lot out there that because its done on a wide scale it is not considered cruel. It has to be abnormal and not done widely as a whole for it to be considered CRUEL however that does not change the fact for the animals these things that happened to them is extremely cruel. Over 70 BILLION land animals are killed every year to be eaten.
The Pig Industry
• Pigs who are used to bring piglets into the world (which will be killed in some short months after birth) spend their lifetime in a gestation/farrowing crate that keeps them so confided they do not even have any room to turn around. They are continuously impregnated until the day they also go to slaughter.
• After a few weeks their babies are taken also from them just like calves from their moms. However piglets do get to stay with their mothers for a little while before they are taken away and then begin the process to be fattened up for slaughter.
• While piglets are a couple days old they are taken one by one they have their teeth pulled, they have their tails cut and they also their ears cut. Males are castrated all these procedures are done without ANY PAIN RELIEF.
• Pigs also spend there short lives in barns where they never get to see the light of day, or feel the grass beneath their hoofs
• Pigs are slaughtered at 4-6 months of age.
• Most pigs only get to experience air, and some sunshine when they go to slaughter.
• To make the pigs move it is not uncommon that
• To make the pigs move it is not uncommon that
• Slaughtering pigs, not all are unconscious when they go into the scalding tanks because of the demand and amount of animals need to be killed a day sometimes the stunning just does not work. Several former slaughterhouse workers have reported some pigs awaken and tried to run out from the scalding tanks.
• In slaughterhouses because a lot of places hires foreigners they usually mark buckets in english one is usually for condemned or diseased parts. But because of some of the workers that are limited with english it has been said often that those parts can be taken and then people eat it.
• In slaughterhouses because a lot of places hires foreigners they usually mark buckets in english one is usually for condemned or diseased parts. But because of some of the workers that are limited with english it has been said often that those parts can be taken and then people eat it.
• Amongst the cruelty that these animals face pigs are also common to have tapeworms this is havoc on a persons body. They can move through your body, your eyes, your tissues, your heart, and most commonly your brain.
Cows for Meat and the Dairy Industry
Dairy industry
• Cows like humans produce milk to feed their young so in order to produce milk they have to be pregnant. So cows are artificial inseminated over and over again.
• Cows are also fed hormones so it forces them to produce more milk.
• Once the baby is born they take him or her away from their mother so s/he won’t drink. if they are female they will live and be fed commercial milk replacer. They will become replacement cows, for other cows who are dry and no longer able to produce milk either due to being dry or illness such as mastitis. The male cows are not as lucky, they are killed any where from the time they are born to 24 weeks old. The ones that make it past a few days old are then either sold or kept for the veal industry. They however are usually then chained to huts or veal crates. Both female or male they are to be kept away from their mothers at all times.
• The fate of a cow once she is no longer able to produce milk is to be shipped off to slaughter. Often dairy industry will sell cows to slaughterhouses to be slaughtered. Bearing witness each week often at the slaughterhouse in Toronto we see mothers who come and are just bursting with milk and there utter is just so full. (Check Toronto Cow Save)
• Cows in the dairy industry are forced to have baby after baby and have there babies ripped away from them and their utter grows so much that it makes it nearly impossible for them to walk properly. They usually are kept for 3 - 5 pregnant cycles then sent to also be killed.
• Dairy industry is the backbone of the Veal industry. If it wasn’t for them there would be no need to continue the slaughter of baby cows. The veal industry only exists because of the dairy industry.
• Its not uncommon for cheese to use rennet from the stomachs of slaughtered calves. Lots think that cheese comes solely from milk however this process involves the use of other parts of the cow as well.
Cows for Meat.
• During the first part before heading to the feedlots most of them have inadequate veterinary care. So often many become sick or die from infection or injury.
• While still young cows are often branded (burned with a hot iron), dehorned (their horns are gouged out or cut or burned off), and males are castrated having their testicles ripped out of their scrotums without painkillers, or they tightly clamp them.
• While still young cows are often branded (burned with a hot iron), dehorned (their horns are gouged out or cut or burned off), and males are castrated having their testicles ripped out of their scrotums without painkillers, or they tightly clamp them.
• Cows being raised for beef, once grown large enough they are sent to massive feedlots where they are fattened for slaughter.
• Cattle on feedlots are fed a highly unnatural diet of grain and corn in order to fatten them up quickly
• Cattle on feedlots are fed a highly unnatural diet of grain and corn in order to fatten them up quickly
• Cows when being slaughtered because of the demand and many animals to kill a day, stunning sometimes is missed, or not done properly. So often cows have become conscious when humans start cutting their legs, or taking their skin/hide off.
Chickens for Meat and Egg industry
Chickens for meat and egg layers
• Like the dairy industry males are not profitable. So male chicks are killed 1-2 days old. Many places still use horrible methods of disposing them they are often ground alive or then gassed. Whether being raised for meat, or chickens who will then be turned into the egg layers only females are a use to the industry.
• Because of the demand of Chicken meat, they are one of the MOST ABUSED species on earth. Chickens raised for meat are called broiler chickens (Broilers)
• Chicks shortly after hatching have their beaks cut, this process is called debeaking. This is done using a burning-hot blade without any pain relief. The chicks are in pain during and after the horrible process is done. This process is also hazardous for their own well being making it difficult to eat and drink.
• Chickens are forced to grow 65 times faster then their bodies naturally would.
• They are also kept in crowded windowless barns/sheds by the thousands that never get to see the light of day
• With the egg industry birds are forced to stay in battery cages roughly 18 inches by 24 inches which can hold about 10 hens.
• Hens in the egg industry are also forced to urinate on one another and are often also covered in each others feces. These barns and sheds are usually very heavy with the stench of ammonia and feces. Often birds get sick and even dye and other a live birds are forced to remain in the same confined with their dead cagemate.
• The lightening for the hens to produce eggs is manipulated, whatever lightening helps them to keep producing eggs the more the better. Many rescued hens at sanctuaries sometimes suffer from egg yolk peritonitis from laying so many eggs.
• Chickens spend there short life in these barns covered with their own feces, which is rarely cleaned if a bird dies, other birds end up standing on them, near them, etc.
• Chickens like pigs, cows, all face diseases like lameness and other issues due to their body growing too rapidly in such a short amount of time.
• Chickens in particular suffer for leg problems because of being so young and having to grow so large in such a short time frame their legs can not support their body.
• They are also forced to breathe ammonia all day long just due to feathers and feces.
• Many chickens suffer from various health problems such as chronic respiratory illness and bacterial infections.
* Estimate of 300 million chickens used each year for their eggs. Most eggs are eggs that people eat, some of them are kept for hatching, new flocks and a small portions of eggs is kept for vaccine production.
Additionally to all the cruelty and horrors these animals face confining so many animals in one area produces much more waste then surrounding land can handle. Factory farms are associated with various environmental hazards, such as land, water and air pollution.
Slaughtering Age
Additional links and resources!
