To avoid the exploitation of animals. Why do we make a difference between pets and other animals? How terrible would it be if someone served us our dog or cat for dinner? But it is totally okay to eat a cow or a pig, right? That really doesn’t make sense to me. Every animal should have the same right on a happy and long life.
Meat eaters consume 7,000 animals in lifetime. It breaks down to 11 cows, 27 pigs, 2,400 chickens, 80 turkeys, 30 sheep and 4,500 fish.
Factory Farming:
Animals on factory farms endure constant fear and torment:
- They’re often given so little space that they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably. Egg-laying hens are kept in small cages, chickens and pigs are kept in jam-packed sheds, and cows are kept on crowded, filthy feedlots.
- Antibiotics are used to make animals grow faster and to keep them alive in the unsanitary conditions. Research shows that factory farms’ widespread use of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten human health.
- Most factory-farmed animals have been genetically manipulated to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than they naturally would. Some chickens grow so unnaturally large that their legs cannot support their outsized bodies, and they suffer from starvation or dehydration when they can’t walk to reach food and water.
- When they’ve grown large enough to slaughter or their bodies have been worn out from producing milk or eggs, animals raised for food are crowded onto trucks and transported for miles through all weather extremes, typically without food or water.
- At the slaughterhouse, those who survived the transport will have their throats slit, often while they’re still conscious. Many remain conscious when they’re plunged into the scalding-hot water of the defeathering or hair-removal tanks or while their bodies are being skinned or hacked apart.
- More information here.
‘But I only eat organic meat’:
- There are no rules to protect organic male chicks in egg-laying operations. They can be ground up, gassed, suffocated, thrown into garbage bags or disposed of in other unsavory ways.
- Organic poultry raised for meat are allowed to be kept under continuous lighting and are allowed to be excessively fed.
- Some organic dairy cows are allowed to be kept in confined and small spaces while others are allowed to be kept tied up.
- Organic pigs may have their tails chopped off and their ears notched.
- There are no rules in place protecting young organic livestock from being taken from their mother.
- There are no rules to protect organic poultry from having their beaks clipped.
- Debeaking, dehorning, and castration without painkillers is allowed in organic production.
- There are no rules against rough handling or yelling at organic livestock.
- Organic dairy cows and organic egg chickens will eventually be killed for meat in most cases.
- There are no rules surrounding how an organic animal can be killed – meaning a producer, organic or otherwise may kill livestock pretty much anyway they like, including head beating, boiling alive, shooting and more.
Sources: https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/ https://www.thebalance.com/is-organic-livestock-production-more-humane-2538119
