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Introduction
Chickens - Crippled By The System
Breeding Pigs - A Life Of Hard labour
At The Slaughterhouse
Dairy Cows - The Milk Of Human Kindness
WARNING - Very graphic pictures
The popular vision of cattle grazing undisturbed in lush green fields or pigs snuffling happily in the earth, blissfully unaware of their intended fate, has long been defunct. The myth of the `short but happy` lives of the animals that end up on the plates of 95% of British consumers may help to ease the collective conscience, but it also provides a facade to hide some of the most inhumane and appalling treatment of our fellow creatures.
Chickens - Crippled By The System
Every year, over 800 million chickens are produced in Britain for their meat. The large majority are reared intensively in squalid conditions, fed growth promoting antibiotics and slaughtered at 6-7 weeks of age when they are still baby birds. They are crammed into foul smelling, dark, windowless sheds and kept in huge numbers. Each shed may contain up to 100,000 birds. Due to selective breeding and growth promoters, these birds have been bred to put on the maximum amount of weight in the shortest time. The unnatural growth rate results in birds suffering from heart attacks, soft crippled bones, slipped tendons and dislocated hips. As enormous strain is put on their young growing bones, grotesque leg and feet deformities result. They struggle towards the feed and water points in competition with other birds, but many don`t get there. Millions die of starvation, stress, dehydration and disease. Dead birds decompose on the shed floor while others peck at their corpses. Their suffering is a direct result of the poultry industry`s desire to maximise profit.
Breeding Pigs - A Life Of Hard Labour
The life of the typical breeding female is particularly harsh and relentless. They are first impregnated when six to eight months old - increasingly via artificial insemination. As a result of selective breeding, sows now typically give birth to 10 or even more piglets, compared with four or five in the wild. A week before the end of the 16 and a half week pregnancy, the animals are moved into a farrowing crate, a barren structure built from metal and concrete. It is just a few inches longer and wider than the sow herself. Her newborn piglets are forced suckle from a small area known as a 'creep', adjacent to but separate from, their mother. The justification for the use of the farrowing crate is that the sow would otherwise crush her young. Recent research, however, shows that, 'given the right management', piglets delivered in loose housing units suffer no more deaths than are found in farrowing crates. After three or four weeks, mother and piglets are separated, whereas under semi-natural conditions, piglets continue suckling for up to 12.5 weeks. The separation - which causes stress to both mother and offspring - increases the speed with which the sow comes into season and thus she becomes capable of having another litter sooner than nature intends. Anorexia is increasingly common amongst young breeding animals.
At The Slaughterhouse
On arrival at the slaughterhouse the animals are frightened and confused. They are already in a state of stress due to poor transport conditions. Yet they are treated with no compassion and no regard for their fear. Animals do not go to their death easily or happily so slaughterhouse workers randomly beat, kick and shout at the animals. They even use electric goads and sticks to beat the animals in the genitals.
In slaughterhouses there is no `nice` way to kill an animal. The Slaughterhouse Act says that all animals should be stunned prior to slaughter, supposedly to render them unconscious and insensitive to pain before having their throats cut and bleeding to death. However, this is rarely the case as slaughterhouse workers are on piece-work ie: they get paid for the amount of animals they kill and process, so they rush to get as many animals killed as possible. Consequently, many animals are not properly stunned and go to their death merely paralysed. It is estimated that around 90% of animals are not effectively stunned prior to slaughter.
Dairy Cows - The Milk Of Human Kindness
In order to produce commercial quantities of milk, dairy cows are forced to endure a constant cycle of pregnancies. Calves are usually removed from their mothers within 24 hours of birth. Separation of mother and infant causes acute anxiety and suffering for both animals. Most dairy calves are considered a waste by-product and are killed within a week or two for baby food, or for cheese and pie ingredients. In modern dairy farming, cows can be expected to produce between 6,000 and 12,000 litres of milk during their 10 month lactation. This means she may be carrying in excess of 20 litres at any one time - ten times as much as would be required for her calf. Around 20% of British dairy cows are lame at any one time. Dairy cows are also prone to mastitis - an acutely painful infection of the udder caused by bacteria and other environmental pathogens entering via the teat canal. The average lifespan of modern dairy cows is only about five years - naturally, they live to an age of 25-30 years. Because of the BSE crisis, no cattle older than 30 months are permitted to go into the human food chain. Instead, they are killed and burned and their remains stored in giant warehouses around the country.