posted on 2009-04-17

What is wrong with industrial farming?

Factory farms are horrible for animals, the environment and humans.

A couple of decades ago, farmers realized that reducing the space and adding more animals, giving them growth hormone to accelerate their growing and giving them steroids, so they could grow 2 or 3 times their normal size to roduce muscles instead of fat, they would make more money and faster, so farmers took the animal from the fields were they could graze freely under the sun and lock them indoors in a permanent way, started to feed them with hormones, steroids and antibiotics to combat the illnesses the animals started to suffer from their abnormal body sizes, small cages or stalls, and also to feed them with animals parts to minimize the expenses of their natural food, such asgrains, grass and other natural food resource of farm animals.

These new animals created this way, suffer from birth to death in tiny and often overcrowded places.

Sow stalls doesn't allow the sows to even turn around and as soon as the piglets are a bit old, they rape her and make her pregnant again. A couple of years later, when she "is wasted" or can't reproduce anymore, she is taken away for the first time and if she can't walk (because she never did it before), the employees often beat them up and kick them for hours.

"Veal" mean calves taken when they are born from their mothers, and tied by the neck on a small crate, avoiding them to walk or even move at all for 10 weeks, lying on their own excrement all this time and then when finally they are release, is just to slaughter them.

Egg laying hens when born are debeaked, that means to cut off their beaks with a hot guillotine without anaesthetic, for them not to hurt too each other due to stress and frustration and often bleed to dead. The male chicks are put in a processor that slices them alive to make cat and dog food. They are kept in overcrowded cages with 8 to 12 hens in each one. Where a chicken can spread her wings that is the space they have for all, making it imposible to turn around and move. They often stand on chicken wire, which cuts their fingers. Normal chickens produce one egg every now and then, this ones produce 1 a day. When they get all sick due to the food, lack of space and calcium (all goes to the unnatural over production of egg shells), their bones of legs and wings breaks, they suffer from heart, liver and all sort of problems. Then often, the employees toss them to a pile of dyeng or dead hens to die slowly and then are throw to the garbish. If they survive thy are kill to be consumed by humans and cats/dogs.

Cows, they produce normally about 4 litters of milk a day to feed their calf. In the US and other countries, they are known to produce up to 60 liters of milk a day, and they have machines pumping their milk most of the day for 15 minutes intervals, but if employees are busy or neglect them, the machines start to suck up blood and pus from the udders. These cows often suffer of mastitis. Any human breastfeeding mother who has suffered of mastitis, knows the unbearable agony of this. When they don't produce enough milk, they are rape again, so they have another calf that take away for "veal" production and when she is wore out, they take her to kill her for human consumption.

Pigs, they make them grow so much to create the double of muscles or more, that often they can't walk at all and their legs get broken because they can't support their weight. They also get heart failure, kidney, lever disseases

All these animals, are given the growth hormone and steroids to lay more eggs, produce so much milk, grow more muscles instead of fat, going against mother nature. They are fed among all these things animal parts so that is where the mad cow decease comes from or how even the bird flu may spread from chickens and hens having to eat the food made from wasted chicks and ill hens that is given to them.

The live span of these animals reduces considerable and only live for a couple of years. The way how they are genetically manipulated, they reach sexual maturity in days or weeks instead of months or even years.

You can help to keep us doing this high level personal and active lobbying!

These are useful links to be aware of.

Irish Seal Sanctuary

Don't support factory farming