Factory farming should be banned
Can you imagine spending your whole life in a cage? This is the reality that animals face daily on a factory farm. Factory farming needs to be stopped. This should be a serious concern because animals from factory farming can harm human health, it also harms the environment and it is not an ethical way to treat the animals.
The first reason why factory farming should be banned is that it can cause health issues for people who eat them. According to Gale (2013), “[a]ntibiotics have been used by industrial animal producers for many years [] to prevent animals housed … from getting sick and to help them grow more quickly.” The owner of these companies want to decrease loss by giving animals antibiotics to prevent them from dying. These animals can harm the health of the human eating them. “People can become infected with antibiotic bacteria from a variety of resources… [such as] meat or other foods … if not properly cooked [and] workers who have contact with animals at factory farms…” (Gale, 2013). The fact that there are chances for people to get sick from their most desired foods shows how bad these factory farming can be. Health will be a great issue if people do not take action soon. Not only will factory farming harm human health, but it will also harm the environment.
Furthermore, factory farming can also be very dangerous for the environment. Gale (2013) states, “...the livestock industry accounts for 80% of the greenhouse gas emission, while the methane produced by cattle and their manure has a global warming effect equivalent to that of 33 million automobiles.” By working together to stop factory farming, people can save their environment. They will also have a cleaner air to breath ...
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...edia] do not tell us that chickens are the most tortured animals in factory farms and that most chickens have to stand on their own feces all day and end up getting litter burn from their manure … hens are often crammed together in cases so tiny that they do not get enough room to even lift a single wing—which then immobilizes them for their entire lives…” The animals do not even have space to move for their life. Living life only to be tortured and slaughtered alive is a really horrible thing to experience for the animals.
It is obvious that factory farming should be banned. They used antibiotics on the animals and produces harmful meats to eat. Furthermore they contribute a lot to pollution and cause health problems. Finally they treat the animals badly, torture and kill them alive. Clearly, from all this evidences mentioned, factory farming should be banned.
Every year worldwide, over seventy billion animals are killed for food in factories without the inclusion aquatic animals (“Factory Farms Overview¨). The animal rights movement began in Europe during the nineteenth century to protect horses, dogs and cats (Recarte 1). However, now modern animal rights groups have switched their focus to factory farms, test animals and the removal of ag-gag laws. The fight to create less painful and stressful environments in factories and the altogether removal of animal testing and ag-gag laws has been taken on by animal rights groups like ASPCA (“Factory Farms”). The biggest issue currently facing animals is factory farming.
When it comes to the pros and cons of factory farming, according to a non-profit organization called Farm Sanctuary, the cons definitely outweigh the pros. Food production in the United States today is dominated by factory farms, and their treatment of animals has been downright abusive. The usual farm consists of small, hugely overpopulated living spaces for the animals, and they are considered commodities to get more money rather than a living animal. Almost all of the animals undergo extreme amounts of mutilation at the hands of the farm workers and they usually cause chronic and/or extreme amounts of pain to the animals because they are usually done without any form of pain relief for the animals. All of this abuse towards the animals is all so the farmers can maximize the output of the products they get from the animals, and the animals’ bodies cannot support the overgrowth and they usually form painful, debilitating deformities from it. The areas in and around these large farms are generally extremely polluted from the extreme
Chickens are one of the top most tortured animals in factory farms. Farmers get the most money for chickens that are heavier and have enlarged thighs and breasts. Like most factory farmed animals, broiler chickens are raised in overcrowded cages their entire life, and become very aggressive. Because of this aggressiveness the employees of the farms cut of their beaks and toes without any type of painkiller or an anesthetic just to keep them from fighting. After being “debeaked” some chickens are then not able to eat and starve. Layer chickens lay 90-95% of the eggs sold in the U.S. (2013b) The torture starts the day they are born. Chicks are placed on a belt, where an employee than picks up each chick to see if it is a male or female. Newborn male chicks are thrown into trash bags, ground up alive, crushed, and killed many other inhumane ways.
Chickens have to endure suffering that no living thing should have to go through. The egg laying chickens have to be forced into tiny cages without enough room to stretch their wings. Up to 8 hens are crammed in to a cage that is the size of a folded newspaper, about 11"-14". Stress from the confinement leads to severe feather loss so the chicken will be almost completely bald in the cold cages. When the chickens are of egg-laying age, there beaks are cut off without any pain killers to ease the pain, they do this so the chickens don’t break their own eggs and eat them because the chickens are hungry.
Animals were once raised in a more humane and sanitary manner, but in the modern age of factory farming, animal cruelty has become common with large farm complexes. In reality these animals are housed in conditions worse than sweat shops. Under these conditions the animals are more prone to contracting illnesses due to the high amounts of bacterial growth. Furthermore, animals are fed sub-standardized feed such as genetically modified corn, which is low in nutrition, and does not contain the animal’s natural and essential dietary needs.
There are multiple ways to help reduce the polluting effects of factory farming. People can make a difference by simply avoiding factory farmed products, reducing their animal product intake, or by going either pescetarian, vegetarian, or vegan. Those concerned with the polluting effects of factory farming can also make a difference by encouraging others to eat less animal products, raising awareness towards animal and worker conditions in factory farms, supporting farm animal sanctuaries, and signing petitions to end factory farming. It is important for people to become involved in reducing the amount of pollution caused by factory farming.
Although factory farms may sound harmful, they are good to the animals, the environment, and the farmers that look over them. Just like humans, animals love to be around other animals. They want the contact between each other or they will get lonely. Factory farms help make this possible by raising an abundance of animals, whether it is beef cattle, swine, dairy cattle, or the most common, chickens. Like what the media portrays, Factory Farms have negative influences on animals in agriculture and society as a whole.
Animals trapped in factory farms are severely abused and tortured from birth to death. Chickens sometimes will be starved for up to 2 weeks and given no water to shock their bodies into moulting, chickens and hens will have their beaks removed to prevent fighting between other animals. Pigs will get their tails cut off to stop other pigs biting them off. These cruel procedures are done to minimise as few of animals dying as possible so more product can be created by the farmer. Within factory farms, animals are abused with overuse of antibiotics to prevent disease and maximise their body growth to create a higher yield of product. According to Animal Rights Action, 2 out of 3 farms are now factory farmed worldwide and factory farming is only increasing this is leading to more animals being raised for slaughter, abused and tortured, mentally and physically. This is not fair. How would you feel losing your child minutes after it's born? As within factory farms, female cows get their calves are taken away from them within minutes they are born never to be seen again. This leaves these poor female cows depressed which causes them to lose weight and because of this are slaughtered as farmers want to maximise their yield of
“By concentrating large numbers of animals together, factory farms are terrific incubators for disease. The stress of factory farm conditions weakens animals' immune systems; ammonia from accumulated waste burns lungs and makes them more susceptible to infection; the lack of sunlight and fresh air--as well as the genetic uniformity of industrial farm animal populations--facilitates the spread of pathogens." (Sayre) To summarize this section, it states that factory farms are creating diseases and because of this, the stress of the factory farms condition weakens the animal's immune systems. The animals that are caged up in these factory farms lack sunlight and fresh air. This is also the cause of pathogens spreading. Animals in these factory farms are crowded into small places with barely any room to even turn around. They are kept in there and fed hormones to grow their bodies until they become an unnatural size. This happens so that the animals can produce more meat. This is dangerous for them because the farmers are taking away the animals freedom. Factory farms conditions weaken the animals immune systems and this is putting the animals at risk for an infection. With the lack of sunlight and fresh air, the animals aren’t getting enough nutrition into them to fit off disease. The final piece of text evidence supports that caging animals is not good for them. Hui states, “In the wake of such criticisms, many companies have turned to experts like Dr. Grandin to help them understand animal welfare better: what motivates animals; what behaviours come naturally to them; and what causes them fear, stress or pain." (Hui) As explained in this quote, there are many criticisms to people caging animals and treating them inhumane. However, several companies left are still willing to help others understand animal welfare. In addition, he analyzes what behaviours come naturally to them along with what causes
Like many other industries, the farming industry has evolved into big business, “Animals on factory farms are regarded as commodities to be exploited for profit.” In each industry from clothing to instruments, the bosses want to make a profit. The more they can supply with the least amount of waste, the more profit they make. The same goes for factory farming. However instead of humans being the ones directly affected by big bosses, the animals are. They don’t have a voice, and can’t stand up for what is right or wrong. These animals are manipulated in every way to make a better profit. Factory farms mass produce animals for ...
Industrial farmers see chicken and other animals such as: cow, pigs, and goat as egg and dairy production and not as an intellectual individuals. From the birth of a baby chick to their death on the production line, chicken endure pain and suffer through out their entire short lives. Baby chicks are de-beak then they are move to battery cages that are wired up high in warehouses that are filled with artificial lighten. The cages are so confined that the ...
Factory farms have portrayed cruelty to animals in a way that is horrific; unfortunately the public often does not see what really goes on inside these “farms.” In order to understand the conditions present in these factory farms, it must first be examined what the animals in these factory farms are eating. Some of the ingredients commonly used in feeding the animals inside factory farms include the following: animal byproducts, plastic, drugs and chemicals, excessive grains, and meat from members of the same species. (Adams, 2007) These animals are tortured and used for purely slaughter in order to be fed on. Typically large numbers of animals are kept in closed and tight confinements, having only little room to move around, if even that. These confinements can lead to suffocation and death and is not rare. Evidence fr...
This causes dirt and crowded conditions on factory farms, which can proliferate sickness and disease among the animals. Subsequently, this increment of diseases evokes the use of drugs in mass quantities to reduce the effects of the diseases. However, when those animals are fed with antibiotics, they are no longer organic but what we call processed. Therefore, it can evoke broader health problems, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
"Factory Farming: Cruelty to Animals." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Web. 29 April. 2014.
The animals that are raised in factory farms, and the farms are ran just like any other business. According to the article Factory Framing, Misery of Animals, the factory farming industry strives to maximize output while minimizing cost, always at the animal’s expense. “The giant corporations that run most factory farms have found that they can make more money by squeezing as many animals as possible into tiny spaces, even though many of the animals die from disease or infection” (Factory Farming). This is actually quit disgusting that we eat food that walks around in each other’s feces and can attract disease. These animals live a life of abuse, but we sit back and say it’s okay because we will eventually eat them. “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 threatens human health” (Factory Farming). These animals aren’t treated with proper care and we act as if they are machines. Chickens for example, become so big and distorted that their legs can longer support them. Eventually they die because they can longer walk to get food or water. According to Factory Farming, most of these animals have been genetically manipulated to grow larger and to produce more eggs and milk than they naturally