Warning! These are actual photographs and videos documenting the abuse found in "food animal" factories, stockyards, and slaughterhouses. Many people will find them unsettling.
There are many wonderful websites that tell the truth about how animals that we eat are treated. Would you really want to eat one of these animals? We hide from the truth because it makes us uncomfortable. I think we choose to not know.
Pigs raised on factory farms are confined in metal and concrete pens with hard slatted flooring. The live here until they reach slaughter weight of 250 pounds at six months old.
Female pigs used for breeding (called 'breeding sows' by industry) are confined most of their lives in 'gestation crates' which are so small that they cannot even turn around. The pigs' basic needs are denied, and they experience severe physical and psychological disorders.
Healthy Land/Healthy Cows—"Real" Organic Farms
Is it or not????
Aurora "Organic" factory confinement dairy—Platteville, Colorado
The Cornucopia Institute is dedicated to the fight for
economic justice for the family-scale farming community. Through research,
advocacy, and economic development our goal is to empower farmers both
politically and through marketplace initiatives. The Organic Integrity Project
acts as a corporate watchdog assuring that no compromises to the credibility of
organic farming methods and the food it produces are made in the pursuit of
profit. We will actively resist regulatory rollbacks and the weakening of
organic standards to protect and maintain consumer confidence in the organic
food label.
NEW: Photo Gallery of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. mislabeling of conventional food
products as organic.
Animals who died during transit are thrown on deadpiles like this one behind Lancaster stockyards in Pennsylvania. The sheep at the far right, Hilda, was rescued by Farm Sanctuary
here is Hilda Now
A dumpster behind a hatchery for laying hens is filled with dead and dying male chicks who are of no economic value to the egg industry
Egg laying hens are packed into 'battery cages' which are lined up in rows in huge factory warehouses
Hung upside down by shackles, thousands of chickens are killed every hour at the slaughterhouse.
The mortality rate on foie gras farms is up to 20 times higher than on conventional duck farms. Dead ducks inside the sheds are commonplace
The bloody open wound on the wing of this bird is just one painful consequence of isolation cages
This is how baby chicks are hatched in big drawers.
Think about how the feedlot smells when you go by.... how would you like to walk, lay, eat and live in these conditions all your life?
You are what you eat...and this is exactly how cows are raised in feedlots. Think about it..... Got BEEF? Oh yum... if you only knew the rest of the story how animals are raised, transported and killed.... then follow it to the processing.... it would just make you ill.... oh let me think, it does make you ill...read more...then go to the web sites that I got this information from and read more details.
Laying Hens
There are approximately 300 million egg laying hens in the U.S. confined in battery cages — small wire cages stacked in tiers and lined up in rows inside huge warehouses. In accordance with the USDA's recommendation to give each hen four inches of 'feeder space,' hens are commonly packed four to a cage measuring just 16 inches wide. In this tiny space, the birds cannot stretch their wings or legs, and they cannot fulfill normal behavioral patterns or social needs. Constantly rubbing against the wire cages, they suffer from severe feather loss, and their bodies are covered with bruises and abrasions.
In order to reduce injuries resulting from excessive pecking — an aberrant behavior that occurs when the confined hens are bored and frustrated — practically all laying hens have part of their beaks cut off. Debeaking is a painful procedure that involves cutting through bone, cartilage, and soft tissue.
Laying more than 250 eggs per year each, laying hens' bodies are severely taxed. They suffer from "fatty liver syndrome" when their liver cells, which work overtime to produce the fat and protein for egg yolks, accumulate extra fat. They also suffer from what the industry calls 'cage layer fatigue,' and many become 'egg bound' and die when their bodies are too weak to pass another egg.
Osteoporosis is another common ailment afflicting egg laying hens, whose bodies lose more calcium to form egg shells than they can assimilate from their diets. One industry journal, Feedstuffs, explains, "...the laying hen at peak eggshell cannot absorb enough calcium from her diet..." while another (Lancaster Farming) states, "... a hen will use a quantity of calcium for yearly egg production that is greater than her entire skeleton by 30-fold or more." Inadequate calcium contributes to broken bones, paralysis, and death.
After one year in egg production, the birds are classified as 'spent hens' and are sent off to slaughter. Their brittle, calcium-depleted bones often shatter during handling or at the slaughterhouse. They usually end up in soups, pot pies, or similar low-grade chicken meat products in which their bodies can be shredded to hide the bruises from consumers.
With a growing supply of broiler chickens keeping slaughterhouses busy, egg producers have had to find new ways to dispose of spent hens. One entrepreneur has developed the 'Jet-Pro' system to turn spent hens into animal feed. As described in Feedstuffs, "Company trucks would enter layer operations, pick up the birds, and grind them up, on site, in a portable grinder... it (the ground up hens) would go to Jet-Pro's new extruder-texturizer, the 'Pellet Pro.'"
In one notorious case of extraordinary cruelty at Ward Egg Ranch in February 2003 in San Diego County, California, more than 15,000 spent laying hens were tossed alive into a wood-chipping machine to dispose of them. Despite tremendous outcry from a horrified public, the district attorney declined to prosecute the owners of the egg farm, calling the use of a wood-chipper to kill hens a "common industry practice."
In some cases, especially if the cost of replacement hens is high, laying hens may be 'force molted' to extend their laying capacity. This process involves starving the hens for up to 18 days, keeping them in the dark, and denying them water to shock their bodies into another egg-laying cycle. Commonly, between 5 and 10% of birds die during the molt, and those who live may lose more than 25% of their body weight.
For every egg-laying hen confined in a battery cage, there is a male chick who was killed at the hatchery. Because egg-laying chicken breeds have been genetically selected exclusively for maximum egg production, they don't grow fast or large enough to be raised profitably for meat. Therefore, male chicks of egg-laying breeds are of no economic value, and they are literally discarded on the day they hatch — usually by the cheapest, most convenient means available. Thrown into trash cans by the thousands, male chicks suffocate or are crushed under the weight of others.
Another common method of disposing of unwanted male chicks is grinding them up alive. This can result in unspeakable horrors, as described by one research scientist who observed that "even after twenty seconds, there were only partly damaged animals with whole skulls". In other words, fully conscious chicks were partially ground up and left to slowly and agonizingly die. Eyewitness accounts at commercial hatcheries indicate similar horrors of chicks being slowly dismembered by machinery blades en route to trash bins or manure spreaders
DAIRY COWS
Traditional small dairies, located primarily in the Northeast and Midwest,
are going out of business. They are being replaced by intensive 'dry lot'
dairies, which are typically located in the Southwest U.S.
Regardless of where they live, however, all dairy cows must give birth in order
to begin producing milk. Today, dairy cows are forced to have a calf every year.
Like human beings, cows have a nine-month gestation period, and so giving birth
every twelve months is physically demanding. The cows are also artificially
re-impregnated while they are still lactating from their previous birthing, so
their bodies are still producing milk during seven months of their nine-month
pregnancy.
With genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it is common
for modern dairy cows to produce 100 pounds of milk a day — ten times more than
they would produce naturally. As a result, the cows' bodies are under constant
stress, and they are at risk for numerous health problems.
Approximately half of the country's dairy cows suffer from mastitis, a bacterial
infection of their udders. This is such a common and costly ailment that a dairy
industry group, the National Mastitis Council, was formed specifically to combat
the disease. Other diseases, such as Bovine Leukemia Virus, Bovine
Immunodeficiency Virus, and Johne's disease (whose human counterpart is Crohn's
disease) are also rampant on modern dairies, but they commonly go unnoticed
because they are either difficult to detect or have a long incubation period.
A cow eating a normal grass diet could not produce milk at the abnormal levels
expected on modern dairies, and so today's dairy cows must be given high energy
feeds. The unnaturally rich diet causes metabolic disorders including ketosis,
which can be fatal, and laminitis, which causes lameness.
Another dairy industry disease caused by intensive milk production is "Milk
Fever." This ailment is caused by calcium deficiency, and it occurs when milk
secretion depletes calcium faster than it can be replenished in the blood.
In a healthy environment, cows would live in excess of twenty-five years, but on
modern dairies, they are slaughtered and made into ground beef after just three
or four years. The abuse wreaked upon the bodies of dairy cows is so intense
that the dairy industry also is a huge source of "downed animals" — animals who
are so sick or injured that they are unable to walk even stand. Investigators
have documented downed animals routinely being beaten, dragged, or pushed with
bulldozers in attempts to move them to slaughter.
Although the dairy industry is familiar with the cows' health problems and
suffering associated with intensive milk production, it continues to subject
cows to even worse abuses in the name of increased profit. Bovine Growth Hormone
(BGH), a synthetic hormone, is now being injected into cows to get them to
produce even more milk. Besides adversely affecting the cows' health, BGH also
increases birth defects in their calves.
Calves born to dairy cows are separated from their mothers immediately after
birth. The half that are born female are raised to replace older dairy cows in
the milking herd. The other half of the calves are male, and because they will
never produce milk, they are raised and slaughtered for meat. Most are killed
for beef, with close to one million being used for veal.
The veal industry was created as a by-product of the dairy industry to take
advantage of an abundant supply of unwanted male calves. Veal calves commonly
live for eighteen to twenty weeks in wooden crates that are so small that they
cannot turn around, stretch their legs, or even lie down comfortably. The calves
are fed a liquid milk substitute, deficient in iron and fiber, which is designed
to make the animals anemic, resulting in the light-colored flesh that is prized
as veal. In addition to this high-priced veal, some calves are killed at just a
few days old to be sold as low-grade 'bob' veal for products like frozen TV
dinners
BEEF CATTLE
Since the 1980s a series of mergers and acquisitions has resulted in concentrating over 80% of the 35 million beef cattle slaughtered annually in the U.S. into the hands of four huge corporations.
Many beef cattle are born and live on the range, foraging and fending for themselves for months or even years. They are not adequately protected against inclement weather, and they may die of dehydration or freeze to death. Injured, ill, or otherwise ailing animals do not receive necessary veterinary attention. One common malady afflicting beef cattle is called "cancer eye." Left untreated, the cancer eats away at the animal's eye and face, eventually producing a crater in the side of the animal's head.
Accustomed to roaming unimpeded and unconstrained, range cattle are frightened and confused when humans come to round them up. Terrified animals are often injured, some so severely that they become "downed" (unable to walk or even stand). These downed animals commonly suffer for days without receiving food, water or veterinary care, and many die of neglect. Others are dragged, beaten, and pushed with tractors on their way to slaughter.
Many cattle will experience additional transportation and handling stress at stockyards and auctions, where they are goaded through a series of walkways and holding pens and sold to the highest bidder. From the auction, older cattle may be taken directly to slaughter, or they may be taken to a feedlot. Younger animals and breeding-age cows may go back to the range.
Ranchers still identify cattle the same way they have since pioneer days — with hot iron brands. Needless to say, this practice is extremely traumatic and painful, and the animals bellow loudly as ranchers' brands are burned into their skin. Beef cattle are also subjected to 'waddling,' 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.
Most beef cattle spend the last few months of their lives at feedlots, crowded by the thousands into dusty, manure-laden holding pens. The air is thick with harmful bacteria and particulate matter, and the animals are at a constant risk for respiratory disease. Feedlot cattle are routinely implanted with growth-promoting hormones, and they are fed unnaturally rich diets designed to fatten them quickly and profitably. Because cattle are biologically suited to eat a grass-based, high fiber diet, their concentrated feedlot rations contribute to metabolic disorders.
Cattle may be transported several times during their lifetimes, and they may travel hundreds or even thousands of miles during a single trip. Long journeys are very stressful and contribute to disease and even death. The Drover's Journal reports, "Shipping fever costs livestock producers as much as $1 billion a year."
Young cattle are commonly taken to areas with cheap grazing land, to take advantage of this inexpensive feed source. Upon reaching maturity, they are trucked to a feedlot to be fattened and readied for slaughter. Eventually, all of them will end up at the slaughterhouse.
A standard beef slaughterhouse kills 250 cattle every hour. The high speed of the assembly line makes it increasingly difficult to treat animals with any semblance of humaneness. A Meat & Poultry article states, "Good handling is extremely difficult if equipment is 'maxed out' all the time. It is impossible to have a good attitude toward cattle if employees have to constantly overexert themselves, and thus transfer all that stress right down to the animals, just to keep up with the line."
Prior to being hung up by their back legs and bled to death, cattle are supposed to be rendered unconscious, as stipulated by the federal Humane Slaughter Act. 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 will be "stuck" in the throat with a knife, and blood will gush from their bodies whether or not they are unconscious.
This is detailed in an April 2001 Washington Post article, which describes typical slaughterplant conditions:
The cattle were supposed to be dead before they got to Moreno. But too often they weren't.
They blink. They make noises, he said softly. The head moves, the eyes are wide and looking around. Still Moreno would cut. On bad days, he says, dozens of animals reached his station clearly alive and conscious. Some would survive as far as the tail cutter, the belly ripper, the hide puller. They die, said Moreno, piece by piece...
"In plants all over the United States, this happens on a daily basis," said Lester Friedlander, a veterinarian and formerly chief government inspector at a Pennsylvania hamburger plant. "I've seen it happen. And I've talked to other veterinarians. They feel it's out of control."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the treatment of animals in meat plants, but enforcement of the law varies dramatically. While a few plants have been forced to halt production for a few hours because of alleged animal cruelty, such sanctions are rare.
Reaction to the Washington Post investigative piece and others like it precipitated a Congressional resolution reiterating the importance of the Humane Slaughter Act, but to date, there is little if any indication that the situation for animals in slaughterhouses has appreciably improved.
Follow this link for a little movie.
A new undercover
investigation reveals the cruelty of foie gras
production in France.
Click
here to
view footage taken by French activists (StopGavage.com).
Most of the information on this page is taken from the following web site... please visit it to learn even more.
http://www.factoryfarming.com/
More links to follow soon.
Diane
