These are not Old MacDonald’s farms. Far from the idyllic, spacious pastures that are often shown in food advertisements and children’s programming, factory farms raise large numbers of animals in extreme confinement. More than 99% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised on factory farms, where they’re regarded as a commodity for maximizing profit.
Factory-farmed animals are often subjected to painful mutilations. They’re fed growth hormones and bred to grow unnaturally fast and large. These animals often cannot support this unnatural growth, which leads to debilitating and painful conditions and deformities. In order to maintain some semblance of health, factory-farmed animals are often administered antibiotics to counteract their unsanitary living conditions.
Most factory-farmed animals are kept indoors their entire lives, without access to sunlight or the outdoors. For example, some pigs are often kept in cages so narrow that they can’t turn around. Caged chickens are sometimes allotted no more floor space than that of a sheet of letter-sized paper.
It’s true that factory farmed animals are given food, water, and shelter. Many would say that’s enough for an animal that’s going to end up on a supermarket shelf. But cruelty to farm animals should be no more acceptable than cruelty to dogs and cats. Farm animals deserve to be treated better.
But the welfare of these farm animals isn’t the only controversy. We will explore the huge price the environment pays as a result of factory farming tomorrow.
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Photo, posted April 30, 2005, courtesy of Friends of Family Farmers via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
The entire office just cheered in unison when we heard the tease for your factory farming story. This important subject, affecting 10 billion land animals each year in the US alone, is conveniently ignored–especially by the media who fear loss of advertising dollars. We are eternally grateful to you for exposing the atrocities of factory farming. With over 300 rescued farmed animals in our care we know well that they think, feel and suffer every bit as much as we do. We will share widely and applaud you!
Factory farming exists to meet current supply and demand. The only way to end the atrocities committed against animals is to stop eating them. Factory farms are not the only farms that abuse animals, asmany smaller farms also do. In fact, farms that claim to provide a good life, do so from the farmer’s perspective and seeing the animals as commodities. The only way to truly be humane is to let animals live free, stop mass-producing them for food. The only humane and responsible choice is to live vegan. Visit MercyforAnimals.com
How many more animals are churned out from which to make money.
Alison James