Factory Farms Research Paper
The Pain of Factory Farming
Even though 94% of Americans say that animals used in food production for humans deserve to live free from abuse and cruelty, 10 billion farm animals are in conditions that are lower than low, often leading to a painful death (Farm Animal). Animal rights refers to the philosophy that animals as a whole should maintain the right to live a life without human exploitation, suffering and hurting, and dying young. The chicken production system seems good when all people see is advertisements with happy chickens in a field on grass free roaming to their hearts content. But if dug just a little deeper, you will see the layers of abuse no one will ever want to wrap their head around. There are many different processes of …show more content…
animals in the food production process. The animals, especially chickens, suffering with the mass amount of pain from factory farming do not have the choice in what goes on and because of the gross amount of effects it has on the world, more intense laws should be created to minimize the unhealthy actions of factory farming.
Depending on the company and area in which the animal production takes place, the pain and suffering ranges from cluttering chickens in cages to smashing their heads. Multiple species of animals are killed in different ways. Chickens, cows, and pigs are the main animals used in factory farming. Chickens are one of the most abused out of all of them. 280 million hens are used to produce and lay 77.3 billion eggs in 2007, and from their produce even more. Female chicks are “debeaked” at a young age (Factory Farming). This means that a portion of their beaks are seared off with a hot blade. This prevents the unusual feather-pecking that can result from the abundance of stress from being stuck in a battery cage their whole lives. A chicken’s beak is filled with nerves resulting in severe and possibly chronic pain from debeaking (Factory Farming). 95% of egg-laying hens spend their lives in battery cages (Factory Farming). Battery cages commonly hold 5 to 10 birds, and each chicken lives in a place that is less than a sheet of letter-size paper in size (Factory Farming). These poor birds are constantly rubbing against and standing on wire cages. Because of this, the hens suffer severe feather loss and their bodies become covered with bruises and abrasions. Naturally, hens produce 75-100 eggs annually but because the demand for eggs is growing, hens are bred and artificially made to produce high numbers of eggs, more than 250 eggs annually (Factory Farming). To snap their bodies into the egg-laying cycle, hens are starved and denied any food for up to two weeks, a process called forced molting (Factory Farming). Chickens normally live 5–8 years, but because of egg production process, chickens egg-laying skills determinate after 1–2 years. These hens are then called “spent” and thrown to slaughter. The amount a chicken used for meat grows each day. Farm Sanctuary says that Studies have consistently shown that approximately 26–30% of broiler chickens suffer from difficulty walking (Farm Sanctuary). Chickens are injected with large amounts of hormones so they grow unnaturally and very fast. Their skeletons have trouble maintaining their rapidly growing bodies. This can lead to deformities and weakness in the chickens body. The growth of broiler chickens is often the cause with acute heart failure because the chickens were not able to effectively get oxygen circulated throughout their body. This problem is the leading cause of death in chickens as they reach market weight. The process in which chickens are being raised is inhumane and disgusting. No living thing should have to suffer through anything close to what they suffer.
When the process of raising chickens is complete, They are transported for slaughter. Chickens are the only animals other than turkeys that are exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act, a federal law that requires some animals have minimized pain before they are slaughtered (Chicken Used for Food). Male chicks can not grow up to lay eggs, so they are the first to go to the slaughterhouse. According to PETA, 260 million are killed each year upon hatching (Chickens Used for Food). The way they are killed is the reason factory farming is deadly. The chickens are killed in multiple saddening ways. They are sometimes sucked through a series of pipes fully alive onto an electrified kill plate. Another way they are killed is by being ground up fully conscious in a “macerator”. The last way they are killed is by being gassed. Because there is a decrease in the amount of “spent hens”, workers pick and choose to kill newborn chicks and send them away to gas them with high concentrations of carbon dioxide. In many cases, the gas does not kill the birds, and there have been multiple records of live hens found at landfills walking on and around of piles of decomposing chickens. When the chickens that have been growing rapidly have attained slaughter weight, they are pushed into trucks that get no protection from very hot or cold temperatures and many birds die as they are shipped to processing facilities. The best of these facilities kill about 8,400 birds per hour (Chicken Used for Food). First, human workers hang the live chickens into leg shackles on a moving rail which the birds hang upside-down as they move. They are then placed in baths of electrified water which “stuns” them. This is for humane purposes, in order to decrease the amount of pain they are in before their throats are cut. There have been multiple ways that has shown that the stunning doesn’t relieve pain, but is done to stop them from moving to make the processing easier. The stunned birds move on to a mechanical blade that cuts their throats, fully alive. After the chickens bleed out, they are emerged into a extremely hot bath that removes feathers. This is a high-speed assembly-line process and because it is so fast, it contains multiple mistakes. The voltage in the electrified bath could also be too low, resulting in the bath only stunning the chickens for a few seconds and the chickens are well aware of the throat-cutting machine as they approach it. The blade could also miss many chickens, so multiple chickens are boiled alive in the scalding bath.
There are many effects and reasons to having this way of food production.
Of course there are ¨good¨ effects of having this way but it doesn't even compare to the disgusting effects that come out of the way these animals are being treated. The risks affect human health as well as environmental health. Surprisingly, The way animals are being treated is affecting humans in the long run. Factory farms aren’t always maintained as well as they can be and it can be a easy way for Salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens to be passed to humans. A pathogens are microorganisms that cause diseases. Many examples are bacteria, fungi, and viruses. These are found mostly in sewage and runoff water from farms. The bacteria is passed through meat, dairy, eggs, and person-to-person contact. To “destroy” unsanitary conditions in farms, animals are forced to eat large doses of antibiotics but bacteria is constantly evolving and becoming used to conditions that the farms a trying to prevent. If the antibiotics are used too much, used in the wrong way, or depending too much on them, it makes the risk for horrible, drug-resistant bacteria to be created and spread with people and animals. Because of the bacteria present from chicken waste, Pregnant women who live close to a farm can be effected in many bad ways. The manure from a factory farm makes its way into the groundwater of towns and could cause multiple miscarriages. According to PETA, a report by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture states that “ingesting water with nitrate levels above 10 milligrams per liter can cause “blue baby” syndrome (methemoglobinemia), which is a condition that prevents blood from carrying oxygen and which can lead to ‘increased rates of stomach cancer, birth defects, miscarriage, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, reduced body growth and slower reflexes, and increased thyroid size.’” The report states that the nitrate in a “manure lagoon” on a usual factory farm can
measure an incredible 300 milligrams per liter (Other Risks). This is a level that creates a huge threat to families who drink from water supply close to the farm. It not only causes effects to physical health, but also to mental health. Scientists have shown that there is a link between the toxic chemicals found in animal waste and the development problems in the mind. This includes depression and brain damage. PETA states that “according to University of Southern California toxicology professor Dr. Kaye H. Kilburn, the ‘coincidence of people showing a pattern of impairment and being exposed to hydrogen sulfide arising from lagoons where hog manure is stored and then sprayed on fields or sprayed into the air” has a “practically undeniable’ connection to neurological disorders in communities around the farms”. The manure pits’ fumes have also been attached to severe depression. There have been numerous studies that found abnormally high rates of depression and anxiety among people who live close to factory farms (Other Health Risks). There are many effects of factory farming in the environment as well. Air Pollution is a big part of the reason why factory farming is so bad. Over 37% of methane emissions result from factory farming (Good). Methane is far worse than carbon dioxide for global warming. The fossil fuels used in energy, transportation, and fake fertilizers gives out 90 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually (Good). Factory farming gives out harmful compounds, including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, that can bring negative health effects to humans. Deforestation is also a huge downside to farming. In the U.S only, over 260 million acres of forest trees are cut down to make space for farms, most are used to grow livestock and feed. These numbers only account for land cleared to feed animals. Clearing land to grow the feed releases enough carbon in the air to increase the rate of global warming by 50% (Good).
In conclusion, it is clear to see that chickens, trying to endure the mass amount of chronic harm from factory farming do not have the choice to stop what workers are doing to them and the effects it has on the world, the laws’ power should be heightened and put into action to decrease the negative actions of factory farming. This is shown through the actions of the workers towards the helpless animal being raised and slaughtered. The animals undergo continuous misery from the process and the effects are horrid. Not only do the chickens suffer physically, but they also suffer mentally. This is inhumane and barbaric. The effects are also a big part of why the laws should be increased in intensity. The negative effects of factory farming is so intense that it is killing unborn children. The multiple aspects are the reason the factory farming process should be changes nd detailed to overall become cleaner and more humane.
Even though 94% of Americans say that animals used in food production for humans deserve to live free from abuse and cruelty, 10 billion farm animals are in conditions that are lower than low, often leading to a painful death (Farm Animal). Animal rights refers to the philosophy that animals as a whole should maintain the right to live a life without human exploitation, suffering and hurting, and dying young. The chicken production system seems good when all people see is advertisements with happy chickens in a field on grass free roaming to their hearts content. But if dug just a little deeper, you will see the layers of abuse no one will ever want to wrap their head around. There are many different processes of …show more content…
animals in the food production process. The animals, especially chickens, suffering with the mass amount of pain from factory farming do not have the choice in what goes on and because of the gross amount of effects it has on the world, more intense laws should be created to minimize the unhealthy actions of factory farming.
Depending on the company and area in which the animal production takes place, the pain and suffering ranges from cluttering chickens in cages to smashing their heads. Multiple species of animals are killed in different ways. Chickens, cows, and pigs are the main animals used in factory farming. Chickens are one of the most abused out of all of them. 280 million hens are used to produce and lay 77.3 billion eggs in 2007, and from their produce even more. Female chicks are “debeaked” at a young age (Factory Farming). This means that a portion of their beaks are seared off with a hot blade. This prevents the unusual feather-pecking that can result from the abundance of stress from being stuck in a battery cage their whole lives. A chicken’s beak is filled with nerves resulting in severe and possibly chronic pain from debeaking (Factory Farming). 95% of egg-laying hens spend their lives in battery cages (Factory Farming). Battery cages commonly hold 5 to 10 birds, and each chicken lives in a place that is less than a sheet of letter-size paper in size (Factory Farming). These poor birds are constantly rubbing against and standing on wire cages. Because of this, the hens suffer severe feather loss and their bodies become covered with bruises and abrasions. Naturally, hens produce 75-100 eggs annually but because the demand for eggs is growing, hens are bred and artificially made to produce high numbers of eggs, more than 250 eggs annually (Factory Farming). To snap their bodies into the egg-laying cycle, hens are starved and denied any food for up to two weeks, a process called forced molting (Factory Farming). Chickens normally live 5–8 years, but because of egg production process, chickens egg-laying skills determinate after 1–2 years. These hens are then called “spent” and thrown to slaughter. The amount a chicken used for meat grows each day. Farm Sanctuary says that Studies have consistently shown that approximately 26–30% of broiler chickens suffer from difficulty walking (Farm Sanctuary). Chickens are injected with large amounts of hormones so they grow unnaturally and very fast. Their skeletons have trouble maintaining their rapidly growing bodies. This can lead to deformities and weakness in the chickens body. The growth of broiler chickens is often the cause with acute heart failure because the chickens were not able to effectively get oxygen circulated throughout their body. This problem is the leading cause of death in chickens as they reach market weight. The process in which chickens are being raised is inhumane and disgusting. No living thing should have to suffer through anything close to what they suffer.
When the process of raising chickens is complete, They are transported for slaughter. Chickens are the only animals other than turkeys that are exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act, a federal law that requires some animals have minimized pain before they are slaughtered (Chicken Used for Food). Male chicks can not grow up to lay eggs, so they are the first to go to the slaughterhouse. According to PETA, 260 million are killed each year upon hatching (Chickens Used for Food). The way they are killed is the reason factory farming is deadly. The chickens are killed in multiple saddening ways. They are sometimes sucked through a series of pipes fully alive onto an electrified kill plate. Another way they are killed is by being ground up fully conscious in a “macerator”. The last way they are killed is by being gassed. Because there is a decrease in the amount of “spent hens”, workers pick and choose to kill newborn chicks and send them away to gas them with high concentrations of carbon dioxide. In many cases, the gas does not kill the birds, and there have been multiple records of live hens found at landfills walking on and around of piles of decomposing chickens. When the chickens that have been growing rapidly have attained slaughter weight, they are pushed into trucks that get no protection from very hot or cold temperatures and many birds die as they are shipped to processing facilities. The best of these facilities kill about 8,400 birds per hour (Chicken Used for Food). First, human workers hang the live chickens into leg shackles on a moving rail which the birds hang upside-down as they move. They are then placed in baths of electrified water which “stuns” them. This is for humane purposes, in order to decrease the amount of pain they are in before their throats are cut. There have been multiple ways that has shown that the stunning doesn’t relieve pain, but is done to stop them from moving to make the processing easier. The stunned birds move on to a mechanical blade that cuts their throats, fully alive. After the chickens bleed out, they are emerged into a extremely hot bath that removes feathers. This is a high-speed assembly-line process and because it is so fast, it contains multiple mistakes. The voltage in the electrified bath could also be too low, resulting in the bath only stunning the chickens for a few seconds and the chickens are well aware of the throat-cutting machine as they approach it. The blade could also miss many chickens, so multiple chickens are boiled alive in the scalding bath.
There are many effects and reasons to having this way of food production.
Of course there are ¨good¨ effects of having this way but it doesn't even compare to the disgusting effects that come out of the way these animals are being treated. The risks affect human health as well as environmental health. Surprisingly, The way animals are being treated is affecting humans in the long run. Factory farms aren’t always maintained as well as they can be and it can be a easy way for Salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens to be passed to humans. A pathogens are microorganisms that cause diseases. Many examples are bacteria, fungi, and viruses. These are found mostly in sewage and runoff water from farms. The bacteria is passed through meat, dairy, eggs, and person-to-person contact. To “destroy” unsanitary conditions in farms, animals are forced to eat large doses of antibiotics but bacteria is constantly evolving and becoming used to conditions that the farms a trying to prevent. If the antibiotics are used too much, used in the wrong way, or depending too much on them, it makes the risk for horrible, drug-resistant bacteria to be created and spread with people and animals. Because of the bacteria present from chicken waste, Pregnant women who live close to a farm can be effected in many bad ways. The manure from a factory farm makes its way into the groundwater of towns and could cause multiple miscarriages. According to PETA, a report by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture states that “ingesting water with nitrate levels above 10 milligrams per liter can cause “blue baby” syndrome (methemoglobinemia), which is a condition that prevents blood from carrying oxygen and which can lead to ‘increased rates of stomach cancer, birth defects, miscarriage, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, reduced body growth and slower reflexes, and increased thyroid size.’” The report states that the nitrate in a “manure lagoon” on a usual factory farm can
measure an incredible 300 milligrams per liter (Other Risks). This is a level that creates a huge threat to families who drink from water supply close to the farm. It not only causes effects to physical health, but also to mental health. Scientists have shown that there is a link between the toxic chemicals found in animal waste and the development problems in the mind. This includes depression and brain damage. PETA states that “according to University of Southern California toxicology professor Dr. Kaye H. Kilburn, the ‘coincidence of people showing a pattern of impairment and being exposed to hydrogen sulfide arising from lagoons where hog manure is stored and then sprayed on fields or sprayed into the air” has a “practically undeniable’ connection to neurological disorders in communities around the farms”. The manure pits’ fumes have also been attached to severe depression. There have been numerous studies that found abnormally high rates of depression and anxiety among people who live close to factory farms (Other Health Risks). There are many effects of factory farming in the environment as well. Air Pollution is a big part of the reason why factory farming is so bad. Over 37% of methane emissions result from factory farming (Good). Methane is far worse than carbon dioxide for global warming. The fossil fuels used in energy, transportation, and fake fertilizers gives out 90 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually (Good). Factory farming gives out harmful compounds, including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, that can bring negative health effects to humans. Deforestation is also a huge downside to farming. In the U.S only, over 260 million acres of forest trees are cut down to make space for farms, most are used to grow livestock and feed. These numbers only account for land cleared to feed animals. Clearing land to grow the feed releases enough carbon in the air to increase the rate of global warming by 50% (Good).
In conclusion, it is clear to see that chickens, trying to endure the mass amount of chronic harm from factory farming do not have the choice to stop what workers are doing to them and the effects it has on the world, the laws’ power should be heightened and put into action to decrease the negative actions of factory farming. This is shown through the actions of the workers towards the helpless animal being raised and slaughtered. The animals undergo continuous misery from the process and the effects are horrid. Not only do the chickens suffer physically, but they also suffer mentally. This is inhumane and barbaric. The effects are also a big part of why the laws should be increased in intensity. The negative effects of factory farming is so intense that it is killing unborn children. The multiple aspects are the reason the factory farming process should be changes nd detailed to overall become cleaner and more humane.