It is the opinion of most human beings that we are the superior life form on this planet. Somehow, this has justified a convoluted idea that everything else belongs to us. However, animals are not ours to eat. Yet we eat meat without any regard for the animal. I have watched undercover investigation videos on the internet from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). These videos were the catalyst for my becoming an Ovo-Lacto vegetarian. The videos depicted horribly unnecessary methods in which the factory farm workers torture animals before their death. I am not calling for Vegetarianism to be the law of the land. However, we must demand higher standards from the food and farm industries, not only for how animals are treated but also for our own health. These animals are giving up their lives for our lunch, dinner, and breakfast. At the very least, they are worthy of humane treatment until then.
When Americans think of farms, we typically think of serene crops and endless pastures. We imagine happy-go-lucky cows, chickens, and pigs all living harmoniously together like in Charlotte's Web. This may have been the case in simpler times but today the demand for meat has created factory farms. They operate much like a car factory. Imagine conveyor belts rolling down eggs and maybe even chicken legs. The cost to compete with the demand has led to animals being treated as just that, car parts. Except, this is life being manufactured into something else. Americans often admit that they don't want to know where their food came from or how it was made. We often avoid the horrible truths that are behind providing us with the meal we say a blessing for having. We thank a superior being and forget one we consider inferior. Animals have feelings; they do not deserve to suffer for our benefit. They have the right to live just as much as any other creature. Insensitivity to their basic rights leads to unnecessary cruelty.
Animals are not our property; they have rights. They have the right to pursue their own interests. Farm animals are treated much like plantation slaves of the 1800s. Just because animals cannot communicate to our comprehension does not mean that we are more intelligent or that our lives are more valuable. That would be speciesism, the assumption that one species is superior to another. In The Animal Liberation Movement, Peter Singer asks, "If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human being to use another for its own ends, how can it entitle human beings to exploit nonhuman beings?” Insensitivity to animals is simply cruel. Animals are worthy of kindness, mercy, and compassion.
Farm animals need freedom of movement and expression of normal behaviors. Most animals on factory farms have cages so compact they are unable to turn around or rest flat on the floor. The crowding of animals and their waste on factory farms creates such a strain on the animals' immune systems that normal body processes may be impaired (HSUS:Antibiotics). Hens, for example, are crowded three or four to a cage with a floor area less than the size of a single page of a newspaper. The cages have wire floors, since this reduces cleaning costs; though wire is unsuitable for the hens' feet; the floors slope, since this makes the eggs roll down for easy collection, although this makes it difficult for the hens to rest comfortably. These conditions hinder the birds' natural instincts: they cannot stretch their wings fully, walk freely, dust-bathe, scratch the ground or build a nest. Although they have never known other living conditions, observers have noticed that the birds sadly try to perform these natural actions. Frustrated at their inability to do so, hens often develop what farmers call "vices" and peck each other to death. To prevent this, the sensitive beaks of young birds are seared off with a hot blade (Singer).
Male cattle and pigs are castrated without any painkillers. Animals raised for food are bred and drugged to grow as large as possible as quickly as possible while many are so heavy that they become crippled under their own weight and die. Animals on factory farms rarely see the sun or breathe fresh air until they are prodded and crammed onto trucks for a nightmarish ride to the slaughterhouse, often through weather extremes and without food or water. Many die during transport, and others are too sick or weak to walk off the truck after they reach the slaughterhouse. The animals who survive this horrible ride are hung upside-down and their throats are slit, often while they're completely conscious. Many birds are still alive while they are suspended upside down, "skinned, hacked into pieces, or scalded in the defeathering tanks"(PETA). Pigs are comparable to dogs in intelligence and interests. However, if anyone kept a dog in the same way many pigs are kept, they would be liable to prosecution. It is because our interest in exploiting pigs is greater than our interest in exploiting dogs that we object to cruelty to dogs while funding the cruelty to pigs (Singer).
Animals are sentient creatures and do not deserve to suffer. It has been debated for ages whether animals have feelings or not. We wonder how much they understand, realize, and recognize. A common view is that animals are small-minded with few prospects in life limited to eating, excreting, sleeping, and mating. Animals are rarely thought of as being happy or sad. That is unless of course, it is one of our pets. Singer illustrates how the capacity for suffering is the vital characteristic that gives a being the right to equal consideration. The capacity for suffering and enjoying things is a pre-requisite for having interests at all. “It would be nonsense to say that it was not in the interests of a stone to be kicked along the road by a child. A stone does not have interests because it cannot suffer. Nothing that we can do to it could possibly make any difference to its welfare.” He states. A calf, on the other hand, does have an interest in not being tormented, because it will suffer if it is. "If a being suffers, there can be no moral justification for refusing to consider that suffering, no matter what the characteristics of the being are." We should also consider Singer's point that "a wild animal cannot distinguish an attempt to overpower and confine from an attempt to kill; one causes just as much terror as the other."
Animals can suffer from extreme loneliness, boredom, and frustration from being locked in chains or small cages (PETA). This may seem irrelevant considering the soon-to-be fate of most farm animals. However, more and more studies show that certain animals are able to recognize themselves. This and other cognitive behavior is the foundation of empathy. Empathy has been one of the vital characteristics used in distinguishing humans from other living beings. According to Eugene Linden's article How Much Do Animals Really Know?, scientists are discovering evidence of higher mental abilities in a wide range of animals. They have observed surprising traits that demonstrate empathy. Empathy is the ability to relate to another being, and it is the basis of morality. Empathy relies on self-awareness. Only an animal that recognizes itself can understand another’s circumstance. If it can be proven that an animal knows it is a separate creature from another, the case for animal empathy becomes very strong (Linden).
Unhealthy farm animals result in unhealthy food for human consumption. Antibiotics are frequently used to speed animal growth and prevent the incidence and spread of disease in unhygienic environments typical of American agriculture. This practice makes way for drug-resistant pathogens that can affect both humans and animals. Researchers have found that antibiotic-resistance genes can dwell in chicken meat and pork. “As the bacteria become more resistant to the antibiotics fed to farm animals raised for meat, they may become more resistant to the antibiotics needed to treat sick people,” says the researchers (HSUS:Antibiotics). Antibiotic-resistant strains can last longer in the body, possibly making one even sicker than before (Karras). Campylobacter is a pathogen, found in a chicken’s intestinal tract, that causes no harm to the animal, but it can make humans fatally ill. “Infections of campy are so common that many of us have probably already had it at least once,” says Robert Tauxe, M.D., deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Food borne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases in Atlanta. In addition, farmers often add arsenic, a known carcinogen, to chicken feed in order to fatten the flock (Karras).
Researchers have found a strain of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA, in workers and hogs at a hog farm that operates in Iowa and Illinois. Suggesting transmission can occur between pigs and humans. MRSA is a staph that's resistant to antibiotics. Handling contaminated meat could spread MRSA (Hadish). Considering the disgusting conditions in which these animals are kept, it's quite scary to ponder what else could be transmitted so easily from animals to humans. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has performed investigations that have documented that "downed" cattle, those too sick or disabled to stand or walk, are routinely beaten, dragged with chains, shocked with electric prods, and pushed by forklifts in efforts to move them at slaughter facilities. Except for the inability to rise, these nonambulatory animals appeared otherwise healthy. However, when researchers took bacterial cultures, they found cows infected with Salmonella and E. coli (HSUS:Downed Cattle). Because of the investigations, mistreatment and allegations of nonambulatory animals being slaughtered for human consumption prompted the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Some studies show that because nonambulatory animals spend more time lying down, they are more likely contaminated with fecal matter. Therefore, "downed" cattle may suffer from higher rates of food borne pathogens. All these findings have led to questioning the reliability of the USDA inspection process. Researchers have concluded, “Contaminated meat used to make ground beef would also contaminate subsequent clean meat exposed to common machinery and, thus, would increase the danger of contamination" (HSUS:Downed Cattle). “The USDA works feverishly to prevent a plant from shutting down; they go in and hold hands and grant extensions,” says Carol Tucker-Foreman, distinguished fellow of the Food Policy Institute for the Consumer Federation of America (Karras). A ban on the slaughter of downed animals would presumably cease the unnecessary torment of such animals while improving the safety of the food supply
(HSUS:Downed Cattle).
Americans have a blind trust in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. If more Americans were made aware of the inhumane treatment animals endure, there would undoubtedly be an economic backlash on farm factories. For now, most are in the dark about how their nourishment is nourished. We are much like the animals themselves, hidden in the dark with uncaring supervision. The very characteristics that we use to distinguish ourselves from the animals are void when it comes to our treatment of them. Are intelligence, empathy, and cognition characteristics that we only apply to our own kind? That would be speciesism, another form of discrimination. To consider animal rights is an absurd concept for most based on our many differences. However, difference is the basis of discrimination and discrimination is a corruption of morality. With so much at stake, animal welfare really is crucial to our own humanity.
When Americans think of farms, we typically think of serene crops and endless pastures. We imagine happy-go-lucky cows, chickens, and pigs all living harmoniously together like in Charlotte's Web. This may have been the case in simpler times but today the demand for meat has created factory farms. They operate much like a car factory. Imagine conveyor belts rolling down eggs and maybe even chicken legs. The cost to compete with the demand has led to animals being treated as just that, car parts. Except, this is life being manufactured into something else. Americans often admit that they don't want to know where their food came from or how it was made. We often avoid the horrible truths that are behind providing us with the meal we say a blessing for having. We thank a superior being and forget one we consider inferior. Animals have feelings; they do not deserve to suffer for our benefit. They have the right to live just as much as any other creature. Insensitivity to their basic rights leads to unnecessary cruelty.
Animals are not our property; they have rights. They have the right to pursue their own interests. Farm animals are treated much like plantation slaves of the 1800s. Just because animals cannot communicate to our comprehension does not mean that we are more intelligent or that our lives are more valuable. That would be speciesism, the assumption that one species is superior to another. In The Animal Liberation Movement, Peter Singer asks, "If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human being to use another for its own ends, how can it entitle human beings to exploit nonhuman beings?” Insensitivity to animals is simply cruel. Animals are worthy of kindness, mercy, and compassion.
Farm animals need freedom of movement and expression of normal behaviors. Most animals on factory farms have cages so compact they are unable to turn around or rest flat on the floor. The crowding of animals and their waste on factory farms creates such a strain on the animals' immune systems that normal body processes may be impaired (HSUS:Antibiotics). Hens, for example, are crowded three or four to a cage with a floor area less than the size of a single page of a newspaper. The cages have wire floors, since this reduces cleaning costs; though wire is unsuitable for the hens' feet; the floors slope, since this makes the eggs roll down for easy collection, although this makes it difficult for the hens to rest comfortably. These conditions hinder the birds' natural instincts: they cannot stretch their wings fully, walk freely, dust-bathe, scratch the ground or build a nest. Although they have never known other living conditions, observers have noticed that the birds sadly try to perform these natural actions. Frustrated at their inability to do so, hens often develop what farmers call "vices" and peck each other to death. To prevent this, the sensitive beaks of young birds are seared off with a hot blade (Singer).
Male cattle and pigs are castrated without any painkillers. Animals raised for food are bred and drugged to grow as large as possible as quickly as possible while many are so heavy that they become crippled under their own weight and die. Animals on factory farms rarely see the sun or breathe fresh air until they are prodded and crammed onto trucks for a nightmarish ride to the slaughterhouse, often through weather extremes and without food or water. Many die during transport, and others are too sick or weak to walk off the truck after they reach the slaughterhouse. The animals who survive this horrible ride are hung upside-down and their throats are slit, often while they're completely conscious. Many birds are still alive while they are suspended upside down, "skinned, hacked into pieces, or scalded in the defeathering tanks"(PETA). Pigs are comparable to dogs in intelligence and interests. However, if anyone kept a dog in the same way many pigs are kept, they would be liable to prosecution. It is because our interest in exploiting pigs is greater than our interest in exploiting dogs that we object to cruelty to dogs while funding the cruelty to pigs (Singer).
Animals are sentient creatures and do not deserve to suffer. It has been debated for ages whether animals have feelings or not. We wonder how much they understand, realize, and recognize. A common view is that animals are small-minded with few prospects in life limited to eating, excreting, sleeping, and mating. Animals are rarely thought of as being happy or sad. That is unless of course, it is one of our pets. Singer illustrates how the capacity for suffering is the vital characteristic that gives a being the right to equal consideration. The capacity for suffering and enjoying things is a pre-requisite for having interests at all. “It would be nonsense to say that it was not in the interests of a stone to be kicked along the road by a child. A stone does not have interests because it cannot suffer. Nothing that we can do to it could possibly make any difference to its welfare.” He states. A calf, on the other hand, does have an interest in not being tormented, because it will suffer if it is. "If a being suffers, there can be no moral justification for refusing to consider that suffering, no matter what the characteristics of the being are." We should also consider Singer's point that "a wild animal cannot distinguish an attempt to overpower and confine from an attempt to kill; one causes just as much terror as the other."
Animals can suffer from extreme loneliness, boredom, and frustration from being locked in chains or small cages (PETA). This may seem irrelevant considering the soon-to-be fate of most farm animals. However, more and more studies show that certain animals are able to recognize themselves. This and other cognitive behavior is the foundation of empathy. Empathy has been one of the vital characteristics used in distinguishing humans from other living beings. According to Eugene Linden's article How Much Do Animals Really Know?, scientists are discovering evidence of higher mental abilities in a wide range of animals. They have observed surprising traits that demonstrate empathy. Empathy is the ability to relate to another being, and it is the basis of morality. Empathy relies on self-awareness. Only an animal that recognizes itself can understand another’s circumstance. If it can be proven that an animal knows it is a separate creature from another, the case for animal empathy becomes very strong (Linden).
Unhealthy farm animals result in unhealthy food for human consumption. Antibiotics are frequently used to speed animal growth and prevent the incidence and spread of disease in unhygienic environments typical of American agriculture. This practice makes way for drug-resistant pathogens that can affect both humans and animals. Researchers have found that antibiotic-resistance genes can dwell in chicken meat and pork. “As the bacteria become more resistant to the antibiotics fed to farm animals raised for meat, they may become more resistant to the antibiotics needed to treat sick people,” says the researchers (HSUS:Antibiotics). Antibiotic-resistant strains can last longer in the body, possibly making one even sicker than before (Karras). Campylobacter is a pathogen, found in a chicken’s intestinal tract, that causes no harm to the animal, but it can make humans fatally ill. “Infections of campy are so common that many of us have probably already had it at least once,” says Robert Tauxe, M.D., deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Food borne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases in Atlanta. In addition, farmers often add arsenic, a known carcinogen, to chicken feed in order to fatten the flock (Karras).
Researchers have found a strain of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA, in workers and hogs at a hog farm that operates in Iowa and Illinois. Suggesting transmission can occur between pigs and humans. MRSA is a staph that's resistant to antibiotics. Handling contaminated meat could spread MRSA (Hadish). Considering the disgusting conditions in which these animals are kept, it's quite scary to ponder what else could be transmitted so easily from animals to humans. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has performed investigations that have documented that "downed" cattle, those too sick or disabled to stand or walk, are routinely beaten, dragged with chains, shocked with electric prods, and pushed by forklifts in efforts to move them at slaughter facilities. Except for the inability to rise, these nonambulatory animals appeared otherwise healthy. However, when researchers took bacterial cultures, they found cows infected with Salmonella and E. coli (HSUS:Downed Cattle). Because of the investigations, mistreatment and allegations of nonambulatory animals being slaughtered for human consumption prompted the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Some studies show that because nonambulatory animals spend more time lying down, they are more likely contaminated with fecal matter. Therefore, "downed" cattle may suffer from higher rates of food borne pathogens. All these findings have led to questioning the reliability of the USDA inspection process. Researchers have concluded, “Contaminated meat used to make ground beef would also contaminate subsequent clean meat exposed to common machinery and, thus, would increase the danger of contamination" (HSUS:Downed Cattle). “The USDA works feverishly to prevent a plant from shutting down; they go in and hold hands and grant extensions,” says Carol Tucker-Foreman, distinguished fellow of the Food Policy Institute for the Consumer Federation of America (Karras). A ban on the slaughter of downed animals would presumably cease the unnecessary torment of such animals while improving the safety of the food supply
(HSUS:Downed Cattle).
Americans have a blind trust in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. If more Americans were made aware of the inhumane treatment animals endure, there would undoubtedly be an economic backlash on farm factories. For now, most are in the dark about how their nourishment is nourished. We are much like the animals themselves, hidden in the dark with uncaring supervision. The very characteristics that we use to distinguish ourselves from the animals are void when it comes to our treatment of them. Are intelligence, empathy, and cognition characteristics that we only apply to our own kind? That would be speciesism, another form of discrimination. To consider animal rights is an absurd concept for most based on our many differences. However, difference is the basis of discrimination and discrimination is a corruption of morality. With so much at stake, animal welfare really is crucial to our own humanity.
Works Cited
Hadish, Cindy. "Study: Pigs, People Can Share MRSA." The Gazette (2009).
Humane Society of The United States, The. HSUS Factory Farming Fact Sheet: Antibiotics in Animal Agriculture and Human Health. 21 April 2008. 17 April 2009
—. HSUS Report: Food Safety Concerns with the Slaughter of Downed Cattle . 19 February 2008. 20 April 2009
Karras, Tula. That Chicken Dinner? It Might Make You Sick. 11 Februrary 2009. 17 April 2009
Linden, Eugene. "How Much Do Animals Really Know?" Parade 29 July 2007.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Vegetarian 101. 17 April 2009
Singer, Peter. "The Animal Liberation Movement." 22 August 2000. Utilitarian.org. 17 April 2009
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