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The effects of eating meat
Food industry animal abuse
Poor treatment of animals
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The abuse of livestock is a widespread problem that affects everyone who buys and consumes meat products. Most people are not even aware of how slaughter-destined animals are treated while alive, what chemicals are forced into their bodies, what they are forced to eat, and how they are slaughtered. Fortunately, an increasing number of slaughter plants and small farms have been conforming to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA), after it was passed in 1958, and amended to be fully enforced in 2002, but there are still slaughter plants that abuse, neglect, and provide poor conditions for livestock (“Humane” Animal). When looking at the realities of mass producing meat and animal products, two serious problems arise: the quality of life for the animals, and the possible negative health effects for the people who consume these products. Abuse is a hard word to define; but one knows it when one sees it. Being force-fed unnatural diets, receiving unneeded injections of hormones and antibiotics, both natural and synthetic, slaughtered while still conscious and fully capable of feeling pain, unprecedented prodding with electrical cattle prods, filthy and cramped living conditions—this is abuse, and is common in the business of meat production. Many of these are considered violations of HMSA, but still many forms of abuse are legal. HMSA defines a violation as use of excessive force, dragging conscious animals, not providing water, not providing food if an animal will be held in a pen for 24 hours, not providing room to lie down if an animal is being held overnight, and slaughtering still-conscious animals (“Humane Slaughter”). HMSA does not regulate the antibiotics and hormones injected into ... ... middle of paper ... ...s of Stress and Injury on Meat and By-product Quality. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Antibiotics in Agriculture -. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014 “Humane Methods of Handling and Slaughter: GAO-08-686T.” GAO Reports (2008) 1. MAS Complete. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. “Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.” Animal Welfare Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014. “Humane Methods of Slaughter Act: Weaknesses in USDA Enforcement.” GAO Reports (2010): 1. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. “Humane Slaughter Violations.” Animal Welfare Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014. Pacelle, Wayne. “Action Needed to Better Enforce Humane Slaughter Act.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Mar. 2010. Web 16 Dec. 2013. Robinson, Jo. “What You Need to Know About the Beef You Eat.” Mother Earth News. 01 Feb. 2008: 74. eLibrary. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
It is not just the animals who are being treated wrongly. The workers are vulnerable and suffer from injuries on a daily basis. This workforce requires so much protection, such as chainmail outfits to protect themselves from tools. From cuts, sprains, to amputations, “ The injury rate in a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory.” (238). Many immigrants come to the states, some illegally. Companies give their supervisors bonuses when they have little reported injuries as a reward for a spectacular job. Regardless, these supervisors do not make attempts to make the work environment safer. They threaten the employees with their jobs. They will put injured employees on easier shifts to heal so it will not look suspicious as to why they are in pain. Next to failing to report injuries, women in the slaughterhouses suffer from sexual assault. Male coworkers pressure women into dating and sex. Reported cases include men using animal parts on them in an explicit manner, making work another kind of nightmare. All this corruption and lack of respect for workers is all for a cheap meal people buy when they have the
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.
Did they have a good quality of life before the death that turned them into someone’s dinner?” (Steiner 845). With these questions the author tries to hook up his audience and make them think about how and where does everyday meat comes from.
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.
America’s habitual complacency coexists with its lack of inquisitiveness. People used to know where their food came from because they asked. They knew the country, state, and most likely the farm as well. Currently, society is so far removed from the entire food process that their knowledge of its origin is limited to the grocery store it came from. This disconnection not only creates a lack of appreciation for the source, but a lack of interest in conditions, treatment, and final product too. People’s common “ignorance is bliss” attitude has led to animals’ torturous inhumane treatment, slaughter, and conditions. They are also pumped full of a plethora of preemptive drugs intended to sustain their lives without a physician’s attention.
Picture this: You clock out of work a little after 5:00 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, and you head to your car. The rumbling of your stomach is all too audible as you slink into the driver’s seat, evidence of yet another skipped lunch. As you drive down the highway, your mouth begins to salivate at the thought of your next meal as your eyes scan the blue exit signs for anything with the word “food”. Then, you see it; a sign on the side of the highway indicating that there is a fast food joint at the next exit! Relief spreads throughout your body, but the sign is not enough to quench your growing hunger pangs that emanate from deep within your belly. You take the exit, and, upon arriving at the fast food restaurant, quickly jump to the nearest open register. You waste no time with niceties, and instead simply state your need for a cheeseburger with everything on it. As you frantically throw your money at the cashier, you snatch up your food and head to a red booth near the door. The smells of greasy goodness waft up from the paper bag as you unfurl your treats. However, as you remove the thin paper that holds your cheeseburger, a wave of disappointment rushes over you. You stare at the measly meat offering before you, and a single question pops into your head: where’s the beef?
The Meat industry treats their workers the same way they treat the animals. They treat these living beings as if they were worthless. Slaughterhouses kill thousands of hogs a day and pack thousands chickens tightly together like a jail-cell. These ani...
Meat has become a part of our culture in our country, where it is expected as part of each meal of the day. But the production of the meat raises questions on whether eating meat is ethical in people’s eyes. Studies in recent years have shown that the growing impact of our meat eating culture, has negatively affected different aspects around us. The problem is not about whether people should or should not eat meat, but that we should focus on how the production of meat can have negative affects and how we can limit those problems.
...h and safety laws have been disregarded in the slaughterhouses, causing a number of deaths. Also, there is a great deal of corruption in the slaughterhouses where workers are being threatened or lied to, especially about their injuries. I couldn’t imagine a factory not providing any type of reimbursement if anybody got hurt on the job.
Many people believe there is a relation to fast food chains and cruel treatment to animals in factory farms. Many undercover investigations have been conducted on factory farms all over the United States; photographs and video footage of employees abusing animals has been exposed. Proof that animals are confined to tight spaces and unable to move, covered in disease, given too much medicine, and increased in size.
Each year, 10 billion animals, not including fish, are raised and killed each year for food, but did you know that an overwhelming 99% of them are raised and killed on factory farms? A factory farm is a place where animals are packed into spaces so tight that they can hardly move. They are forced into cages so small that the animals can’t even turn around. Many of these animals have no access to the outdoors and they spend most of their lives in cages or pens. This type of treatment can cause severe and mental distress. Many would agree that this type of treatment is animal cruelty, but why are there so few laws to protect these animals? Every year, animals raised for meat, dairy and egg industries are among the most abused in the United States. Many of the abusive tactics used on farm animals would be illegal to do to dogs or cats. These farm animals are inhumanly slaughtered, tortured and killed. In some cases before these animals get to the slaughter house they suffer brutally cruel treatment that has been legal for the most part. One of these practices is of shoving a pipe down the throat of a duck or goose to force feed the animal several times a day. One example of the abuse that goes on inside these factory farms is a practice called 'debeaking'. It is a process that involves cutting or burning through bone, cartilage and soft tissue to remove the upper beak of chickens, turkeys, and ducks. These animals are not even given anesthetics. These farm animals are also deprived of exercise so that all their bodies’ energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption, fed drugs to fatten them and keep them alive in conditions that w...
In order to feed society’s immense appetite for meat, animals are kept and raised in confined and torturous situations. Ninety-nine percent of the meat in the US
The production of beef produces requires a lot of energy and leaves a huge carbon footprint on planet earth. The process of producing beef goes far beyond raising cattle. It includes heavy water use, immense amounts of land to grow grain and/or corn, and requires an almost endless amount transportation. We have to consider not only the amount of land the cattle physically occupy, but also the amount of land used to grow the huge amount of food they require. To put it into perspective, the production of beef uses “30% of the earth’s land mass” (Peta 2013). In addition, it takes 31.5kWh of energy to produce 1lb of beef, approximately 58lbs of CO2 emissions (Federal Register 2010). Speaking of energy, the amount of grain fed to cattle is staggeringly high. Including beef cattle and dairy cattle if all that feed “were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million" (Pimentel, David 2014). And yet another aspect of this, perhaps an externality effect on the environment is deforestation, land dehydration, and contamination of water sources from runoff.
Terlouw, E.M.C., Arnould, C., Auperin, B., Berri, C., Le Bihan-Duval, E., Deiss, V., Lefervre, F., Lensink, B.J., & Mounier, L. (2008). Pre-slaughter conditions, animal stress and welfare: current status and possible future research. Animal, 2(10), 1501-1517.