Deprivation and Disease

Simply put, the factory farming system of modern
agriculture strives to produce the most meat, milk, and eggs
as quickly and cheaply as possible, and in the smallest
amount of space possible. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens,
turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and other animals are kept in
small cages or stalls, often unable to turn around. They are
deprived of exercise so that all of their bodies' energy goes
toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human
consumption. They are fed growth hormones to fatten them
faster and are genetically altered to grow larger or to
produce more milk or eggs than nature originally intended.

Because crowding creates a prime atmosphere for disease,
animals on factory farms are fed and sprayed with huge
amounts of pesticides and antibiotics, which remain in their
bodies and are passed on to the people who eat them,
creating serious human health hazards.

Chickens are divided into two groups: layers and broilers.
Five to six laying hens are kept in a 14-inch-square mesh
cage, and cages are often stacked in many tiers. Conveyor
belts bring in food and water and carry away eggs and
excrement. Because the hens are severely crowded, they are
kept in semi-darkness and their beaks are cut off with hot
irons (without anesthetics) to keep them from pecking each
other to death. The wire mesh of the cages rubs their feathers
off, chafes their skin, and cripples their feet.

Approximately 20 percent of the hens raised under these
conditions die of stress or disease.(1) At the age of one to
two years, their overworked bodies decline in egg production
and they are slaughtered (chickens would normally live
15-20 years).(2) Ninety percent of all commercially sold
eggs come from chickens raised on factory farms.(3)

More than six billion "broiler" chickens are raised in sheds
each year.(4) Lighting is manipulated to keep the birds eating
as often as possible, and they are killed after only nine
weeks. Despite the heavy use of pesticides and antibiotics,
up to 60 percent of chickens sold at the supermarket are
infected with live salmonella bacteria.(5)

Genetic selection to keep up with demand and also reduce
production costs, causes extremely painful joint and bone
conditions, making any movement difficult. PETA's 1994
undercover investigation into the "broiler" chicken industry
also revealed birds suffering from dehydration, respiratory
diseases, bacterial infections, heart attacks, crippled legs,
and other serious ailments.

Cattle raised for beef are usually born in one state, fattened
in another, and slaughtered in yet another. They are fed an
unnatural diet of high-bulk grains and other "fillers"
(including sawdust) until they weigh 1,000 pounds. They are
castrated, de-horned, and branded without anesthetics.
During transportation, cattle are crowded into metal trucks
where they suffer from fear, injury, temperature extremes,
and lack of food, water, and veterinary care.

Calves raised for veal--the male offspring of dairy cows--are
the most cruelly confined and deprived animals on factory
farms. Taken from their mothers only a few days after birth,
they are chained in stalls only 22 inches wide with slatted
floors that cause severe leg and joint pain. Since their
mothers' milk is usurped for human consumption, they are
fed a milk substitute laced with hormones but deprived of
iron: anemia keeps their flesh pale and tender but makes the
calves very weak. When they are slaughtered at the age of
about 16 weeks, they are often too sick or crippled to walk.
One out of every 10 calves dies in confinement.(6)

Ninety percent of all pigs are closely confined at some point
in their lives, and 70 percent are kept constantly confined.(7)
Sows are kept pregnant or nursing constantly and are
squeezed into narrow metal "iron maiden" stalls, unable to
turn around. Although pigs are naturally peaceful and social
animals, they resort to cannibalism and tailbiting when
packed into crowded pens and develop neurotic behaviors
when kept isolated and confined. Pork producers lose $187
million a year due to dysentery, cholera, trichinosis, and
other diseases fostered by factory farming.(8)
Approximately 30 percent of all pork products are
contaminated with toxoplasmosis.(9)

Laws and Lifestyles

Factory farming is an extremely cruel method of raising
animals, but its profitability makes it popular. One way to
stop the abuses of factory farming is to support legislation
that abolishes battery cages, veal crates, and
intensive-confinement systems. But the best way to save
animals from the misery of factory farming is to stop buying
and eating meat, milk, and eggs. Vegetarianism and veganism
mean eating for life: yours and theirs.

References

1."Factory Farming," United Animal Defenders, Inc., p. 3.
2.Mason, Jim and Peter Singer, Animal Factories, p. 5.
3.Poultry Digest, July 1978, p. 363.
4.Animal Factories, op.cit., pp. 6-8.
5.Burros, Marian, "Clinton Plan Would Move Meat and
Poultry Inspections to F.D.A.," The New York Times,
  Sept. 13, 1993.
6."Factory Farming," p. 2.
7.Animal Factories, op.cit., p. 8.
8.Ibid, p. 76.
9.Dubey, J.P., "Toxoplasmosis," Journal of the
  American Veterinary Medical Association, Vol. 189,
  No. 2, 1986, p. 168.