Picture Credit: FarmingUK Team 

Large factory farming systems are faced with a variety of animal welfare problems, such as horn injuries in cattle and feather pecking in chickens. In order to address these issues, unethical procedures such as dehorning in cattle’s and goats as well as beak trimming in laying hens are regularly applied. These cruel mutilating practices as well as other practices such as early maternal separation, overcrowding and unhealthy living conditions, impede animal rights. Factory farming systems demand fast-growing or high-yielding animals. They achieve this through selective breeding and the use of concentrated feed. This puts the animals at risk of developing often-painful physiological problems, problems that the richest in the food industry often and always overlook because of the profit they can make.

 

Factory farm workers follow these cruel procedures to make sure the farm makes the expected cash grab every month without sparring a taught for the poor animals that suffer from the minute they are born in the far. By mutilating these farm animals, it will stop the animals from being able to hurt one another and preserve their meat or body for slaughtering and harvesting that faces these unfortunate animals at the end of the road. However, the reason animals hurt one another is because these poor animals are under so much stress with no space to roam, no natural sunlight and are always abused and beaten by factory farm workers who are only interested in the money, profit they can make.

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Since 2017, upwards of 84% of the estimated 319 million egg-laying hens throughout the United States were confined to sterile battery cages where they were crowded and deprived of the freedom to practice normal activities such as exploring, sleeping, perching, dust bathing, or simply stretching their wings. Birds are suffering from debilitating beak trimming, standing on wire floors that cripple their bodies, breathing poisonous air, and spending their whole lives under unhealthy, dim lighting. Given the appalling conditions, income and profitability for the industry remain high as hens have been genetically bred to create an abundance of eggs at the cost of their own health and welfare.

 

Around about 55million chickens are consumed worldwide every day. In the US alone, around 8 billion chickens are estimated to be consumed every year. Millions of chickens used for eggs are crammed into windowless sheds, with no sunlight at all. Their delicate beaks are sealed shut, and many experience painful, untreated bleeding and tearing which is very suffering for them. These poor chickens die from terrible conditions, and their bodies rot next to other hens laying eggs for human consumption. Chickens raised for meat are bred to grow so quickly that they are often unable to walk without discomfort. The air surrounding the chickens held captive at the factory farms are filled with acrylic, and the ammonia released causes serious skin and throat irritation, blindness, and fatal respiratory problems for the chickens there. Abuse from farm workers is also rampant. Recently a spy and investigative video shows factory workers staff beating chickens with spiked clubs, killing chicks, and cutting their limbs off while the poor chickens are still alive to able feel the overwhelming and excruciating pain.

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As for pigs, the majority of them in the United States, over an estimated 120 million, are pigs raised indoors in barrens, which are cramped confined animal feeding operations as we know as “Factory Farms”. These cruel operations of a farm are subjected to mutilations such as cutting off of a pig’s tail and castration, which is the altering of a pig’s body, to save time and money, factory farm workers castrate pigs while they are awake and can feel the excruciating pain as this process is without the aid of pain medication. Pigs endure unrelenting abuse from the day they are born. Male piglets shriek in pain as their testicles are violently ripped out and their sensitive tails cut off without painkillers. Mother pigs are crammed into small, filthy gestation crates. Constricted by metal bars on all sides, they cannot lie down comfortably or even turn around for nearly their entire lives. Pregnant pigs are traditionally confined to crates for their four-month long gestation, while in the crates, these pigs can only stand in place or lie down. Along with the severely restricted movement, they are deprived of any other mental and physical stimulation. The pigs are transferred to another type of enclosure, farrowing crates, shortly before they give birth. As well as being intensively restrictive, these crates limit physical interactions between the pig and her piglets except for suckling. After the piglets are weaned, the pigs are impregnated and subjected to the same treatment again, creating a cruel cycle of stress and deprivation until they are eventually slaughtered.

 

Fish slaughterhouses are no less horrific than the other unfortunate animals that are factory farmed. Fish flailing in buckets gasping for oxygen, skinned fish still moving on the cutting table, and factory farmed workers tearing the heads off live fish. Fish are tormented from the water to the cutting table. They are suffocated, skinned, and dismembered, yet still conscious and able to feel pain. Crowded by tens of thousands in ponds in factory farms, fish are seriously impacted by heavy confinement. Conditions cause accidents and disease. Fish often lose sight or become infected with parasites.

 

Factory farmed Turkeys face a very painful life bred to grow unnaturally fast, turkeys at factory farms often suffer heart attacks and debilitating leg deformities. They live most of their lives crammed together inside large sheds. At just five months old, they are killed. When slaughtered, these poor birds are ripped from their transport crates and violently thrust upside down into metal shackles. Many birds struggle to breathe. Others suffer broken bones. They are painfully dragged through electrified water before their throats are cut open often while the animals are still conscious. Many birds are scalded alive in feather-removal tanks.

 

It is a very saddening and helpless reality that these poor factories farmed animals live in, however there is hope in that many animal welfares as well as activist groups are trying to take a stand again the harsh methods of factory farming. High welfare and pastured based farms are being set up around the world, though there are limited in terms of numbers, they are a growing force. These farms will offer animals a chance at a proper growing life, free of pain, suffering and highly emotional distress which is inhumane for us to treat these animals who feed us with their lives.

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#FactoryFarming #AnimalCruelty #CageTheCruelty #AnimalSaviourJC

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Written by: Joshua. C 8th of july 2020

 

References:

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https://www.ciwf.org.uk/factory-farming/animal-cruelty/

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https://awionline.org/content/inhumane-practices-factory-farms

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https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/news/10-facts-you-should-know-about-factory-farmed-chickens

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/salmon-farm-miami-environment_n_5e32e405c5b6f26233253163

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https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/end-factory-farming

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