Factory Farming
Over 56 billion farm animals are killed every year by humans. Many of these farm animals are kept in small crates or inside a corral with little to no room to move around. Factory farms is a type of farming used to increase productivity and decrease the cost of farming, but just because it is cheaper and easier doesn't mean it's the best way to do things in the farming industry. Factory farms animals often breed their animals to grow unnaturally fast for more production of meat, milk, and eggs for the food industry. Factory farming is a growing problem that is not fair to the animals involved; they are often treated horribly just to have an equally horrible death. Over 99% of farm animals are raised in factory farms.
Factory farms are often tortuous places for animals to live. In the article “Chickens Used for Laying Eggs” it states that “chickens are among the most abused of all farm animals. From hatching to slaughter, hens are subjected to mutilation, confinement, and deprivation of the ability to live their lives as the social beings they are.”
Cows are also mistreated in factory farms. “Cattle Raised for Meat and Dairy Consumption” says that “cows used by the dairy industry are intensively confined, continually impregnated, and bred for high milk production with little concern for their well-being. Far from being the “happy cows” the industry makes them out to be, these typically playful, nurturing animals endure immense suffering on factory farms.” Pigs, sheep, goats, and turkey are also many of the farm animals that are horribly mistreated.
Taping of factory farm cruelty becoming illegal will only make it easier to mistreat the farm animals. “Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime” states that “a dozen or so state legislatures have proposed or enacted bills that would make it illegal to covertly videotape livestock farms, or apply for a job at one without disclosing ties to animal rights groups. One of the group’s model bills, “The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act,” prohibits filming or taking pictures on livestock farms to “defame the facility or its owner.” Violators would be placed on a “terrorist registry.” Not being able to tape what happens on factory farms will make it a lot harder to prove that the animals are being mistreated.
Factory farming can provide a large amounts of food for society. In the article “Factory Farms” it says that “with more people moving from rural areas to cities, large-scale farming has become increasingly popular. More mouths require more food worldwide, which means that more food needs to be produced faster and cheaper.”
In the article “Start a Dialogue With Farmers” by Annette Sweeney, she states that “Our concern is that activist groups by sending individuals into agricultural facilities create a large risk of disease for the animals.” This statement is a fallacy because it is not a completely true statement. Animals are more likely to get a disease in their horrible living conditions than from someone coming into an agricultural facility. With the animals kept in small places with barely enough room to move around they can contract a disease from their own manure or the many strong ammonia levels in the space where they live. They often give the animals many antibiotics to keep them from getting sick, but this can also factor into them getting sick.
If we were to end factory farming, it would not only be beneficial to animals but also humans would benefit from the ending of factory farming. With the end of factory farming would come healthier animals products because those animals products wouldn’t come from animals that were cramped into a tiny space and jammed full of antibiotics. No more factory farming would mean that animals would be given a better life; death may be the end result, but at least they had a good life leading up to the end.
Factory farming is a horrible cruelty towards farm animals. No animal should be trapped in a cage or pen that they cannot move around in no matter how efficient or cheap it is to keep animals that way. There are some shelters in the United States that help farm animals. For example, Farm Sanctuary is an amazing farm animals sanctuary that changes the course of many farm animals’ lives. Volunteering at a sanctuary like Farm Sanctuary and donating money to farm animal shelters can help towards the death of factory farming. Not buying the products created by these factory farms also keeps the factory farming places from making as much money so that also helps the cause.
Farm animals aren’t just dinner; they are living, breathing things that are very intelligent and feel and understand pain, joy, hatred, kindness, and they don’t deserve to have a horrible life.
