Being Human Means Being Humane

More than nine billion animals are raised and slaughtered for food every year in the United States. Most of these animals are kept in factory farms where livestock is confined to a very small area during its entire lifetime. These animals are fed large amounts of food to fatten them up as quickly as possible.

Factory farming is not concerned with how the animals are treated. Its function is to produce meat for human consumption as quickly and cheaply as possible. Unfortunately, Americans’ increased consumption of meat is a contributing factor to our dramatic increase in obesity and heart disease.

Billions of pounds of waste from slaughtered animals are fed to other animals on these farms, including cattle blood fed to calves. Waste generated by slaughtered cows is fed to pigs and chickens, and waste from dead chickens and pigs is fed to cattle.

Factory farming is also causing dangerous bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. Animals in factory farms live in very confined spaces, in or close to their own manure and urine. This unsanitary condition makes them highly prone to illness, so antibiotics are placed in their feed to boost their immune systems. The routine administration of antibiotics to factory farmed animals increases bacterial resistance to the antibiotics that humans use to fight off illnesses.

Whether you eat meat or not, everyone should want animals to live in sanitary and somewhat comfortable conditions. Placing animals in spaces so small that they cannot turn around, often never see light, and live in their own waste is cruel. Most male calves are castrated at three months and sent to feedlots, while female calves are taken away from their mothers just days after they are born and fed on artificial milk as they prepare to become diary cows. Dairy cows usually also have a very painful procedure called docking in which their tails are cut off to make it easier for workers to get close to their udders for milking. Dairy cows are eventually slaughtered when their milk production declines at five years of age, while male cows are quickly fattened and ready for slaughter in only one or two years. The natural lifespan of a cow is twenty-five years.

Pigs are very social, affectionate and intelligent creatures that are confined in narrow cages where they cannot even turn around. A mother pig is usually unable to move during most of her life, lying in her feces while her piglets barely have room to move. As a pig grows, it is placed in a concrete pen without any form of bedding and without soil to root in, which is natural for a pig. Pigs become aggressive and restless in such confinement and often attack one another. Many pigs develop pneumonia from the high level of ammonia produced by the waste they live in. Chickens in factory farms spend their entire life in a space of less than eight by ten inches.

Chickens naturally forage for food by pecking with their beaks. Since they are unable to peck in their small cages, their beaks are seared off. Chickens raised for meat are genetically altered to have thighs and breasts so large that they have difficulty standing. Chicken hens raised to produce eggs are kept in cramped cages with five to eight other hens in a space of just 14 square inches. Male chicks born in egg factories are suffocated in trash bags. When hens stop producing eggs they are slaughtered for meat.

Being human means being humane. This requires us to be compassionate to animals. There will be a much brighter future for all living beings if man can learn to respect and be kind to animals. Empathy for animals helps build moral character, reduces our tendency for violence, and creates a world where people are more caring toward each other.