Animal Cruelty and Public Health Hazards in the Factory Farming Industry
Animal Cruelty and Public Health Hazards in the Factory Farming Industry
Richard Baumann
DeVry University
Animal Cruelty and Public Health Hazards in the Factory Farming Industry
Over the last few decades farming animals for food has grown and evolved into a highly efficient, streamlined industry known as factory farming. Factory farms are owned and operated by big corporations, and despite the fact they make up only a small percentage of farms in the United States, they are responsible for most of the meat and eggs we consume here (Sierra Club, 2005). In factory farming, baby piglets are castrated without anesthesia and thrown into a pen, where they huddle in a corner writhing in pain. Egg laying chickens are crammed four or five to a cage (45x50cm) for their entire lives. They cannot spread their wings or stretch out in any way, and they never see daylight. To prevent them from pecking at one another, their beaks are brutally burnt or sliced to a stub. To produce veal, newborn calves are confined in small crates and restrained to allow a minimum of movement until they are slaughtered at just five months old. Factory farmed animals are treated like non-living commodities, suffering horrendous cruelties to produce the maximum profit at the least amount of cost. In recent years public awareness about factory farming conditions has grown, and so have concerns over animal cruelty and public health. The general public should not tolerate animal cruelty in the factory farming industry because it is extremely inhumane to animals and it represents a growing health hazard for human beings; instead, consumers should put pressure on the industry to change the way animals are treated and to ensure farms do not pose a threat to public health. Before the appearance of industrial style techniques for producing animal products, farm animals were treated with dignity and respect. Factory farming as an industry began in the US sometime after World War II, when
Richard Baumann
DeVry University
Animal Cruelty and Public Health Hazards in the Factory Farming Industry
Over the last few decades farming animals for food has grown and evolved into a highly efficient, streamlined industry known as factory farming. Factory farms are owned and operated by big corporations, and despite the fact they make up only a small percentage of farms in the United States, they are responsible for most of the meat and eggs we consume here (Sierra Club, 2005). In factory farming, baby piglets are castrated without anesthesia and thrown into a pen, where they huddle in a corner writhing in pain. Egg laying chickens are crammed four or five to a cage (45x50cm) for their entire lives. They cannot spread their wings or stretch out in any way, and they never see daylight. To prevent them from pecking at one another, their beaks are brutally burnt or sliced to a stub. To produce veal, newborn calves are confined in small crates and restrained to allow a minimum of movement until they are slaughtered at just five months old. Factory farmed animals are treated like non-living commodities, suffering horrendous cruelties to produce the maximum profit at the least amount of cost. In recent years public awareness about factory farming conditions has grown, and so have concerns over animal cruelty and public health. The general public should not tolerate animal cruelty in the factory farming industry because it is extremely inhumane to animals and it represents a growing health hazard for human beings; instead, consumers should put pressure on the industry to change the way animals are treated and to ensure farms do not pose a threat to public health. Before the appearance of industrial style techniques for producing animal products, farm animals were treated with dignity and respect. Factory farming as an industry began in the US sometime after World War II, when