Animal Cruelty Linked to the Food Industry in the United States

Our nation’s industrial farming has become more than just feeding people; it has become a way for the food industry to make more money as human population continues to grow. Jonathan Safran Foer in his book Eating Animals, illustrates the effects factory farming has had on animals meant for human consumption. Furthermore, Foer asks many questions to the reader on what will it take for us to change our ways before we say enough is enough. The questions individuals need to be asking themselves are: how do we deal with the problem of factory farming, and what can people do to help solve these issues? Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, also illustrates the animal abuse that goes unseen within the food industry as well as Bernard Rollin and Robert Desch in their article “Farm Factories”, both demonstrate what is wrong today with factory farming. Foer gives such examples of employees who work in slaughterhouses giving accounts of what goes on in the kill floors, and stories of employees who have witnessed thousands and thousands of cows going through the slaughter process alive (Animals 231). Namit Arora in the article “On Eating Animals”, as well as Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, both address some of the issues that animals face once they hit the kill floor. The food industry has transformed not only how people eat, but also the negative effects our climate endures as a result of factory farming as illustrated by Anna Lappe in “The Climate Crisis at the End

Do animals have the right to a certain quality of life? How would your views change if our cooks got treated the same way cattle and poultry do? How would you feel about them being beaten and brought to their knees just to be detained to know how to cook todays specials? You might think that the food industry has no issues and no faults behind their tasty food, but when you open up the meat curtain, there is a different kind of world out there that is cruel and inhumane. In Robert Kenner’s 2008 film, Food, Inc., He shows the conditions that cows, chickens, and pigs have to live in. The dark and closeted homes in which the animals are closely compacted together and eating, sleeping, and walking in their own manure. As a person who would consider themselves an animal rights activist, most people would agree that the food industry treats their animals like products instead of living things.

“For most humans, especially for those in modern urban and suburban communities, the most direct form or contact with non-human animals is at meal time: we eat them. This simple fact is the key to what each one of us can do about changing these attitudes. The use and abuse of animals raised for food far exceeds, in sheer numbers of animals affected, any other kind of mistreatment” (Coats). The most effective method to stop this cruelty is to learn about where the meat comes from, by supporting the organic and family farms which will ultimately lead to the reducing the amount of animals that have to suffer (PETA). More than 95 percent of animal abuse in America occurs in the meat packing industry (Harper & Low). Animals suffer an unimaginable amount, they are raised to be killed, then bought and then consumed. In order to help fight back against the abuse, there needs to be a cut back on the amount of meat or poultry that is consumed. Seriously consider the option of becoming a vegetarian; by not eating meat, you completely stop supporting animal

A problem that arises from this is that animal abuse can take place without any consequences, simply because it goes unseen. Therefore, the installation of video cameras to monitor behavior inside of farms will help in the process of finding those who are guilty. Undercover videos of the animals being killed in such a brutal fashion only gives the farm a poor reputation, not to mention the ethical issue of animals suffering unnecessarily when euthanasia is available. Incidents similar to the aforementioned will only continue to happen if the government does not step in. Security cameras, proper training of new employees and regular examinations to ensure all FDA regulations as well as animal welfare laws are being practiced should be implemented in farms.

America is a country of meat lovers! Yet a lot of us don’t know about how most of these farm animals are killed. Farm operators know what they are doing is wrong and they will try hard to hide these gruesome images from the public. A new popular method used by the agriculture lobby is the ag-gag law. This law makes it so it’s a crime to secretly videotape industrial feedlot and slaughterhouses to expose animal mistreat and abuse. Already seven states have this law in the book! In a nation that lavishes loves and has legitimate securities on house pets, processing plant animals are forgotten and exposed to the harsh elements.

America’s meat industry hides from the consumer, according to Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The consumer, as well as corporations, have built walls instead of demanding transparency. Journalists and the general public are not permitted to enter abattoirs of many corporations, leaving the judgement of slaughtering methods to the businesses themselves. State and federal regulations aren’t always enforced, thus corporations decide what is ‘humane’. Profit organisations find the most efficient and lucrative system, yet ignore the secondary costs to natural systems. Pollan argues that in preventing abuse, only transparency holds businesses accountable to regulations. He states in Omnivore’s Dilemma, ‘No other country raises and slaughters its food animals quite as intensively or as brutally as we do’. Many Americans would disagree because they are ignorant of the system. We have chosen not to see what really happens to the animals we eat, understandably, due to the unpleasant truths Pollan uncovers. As a summary, slaughterhouses kill a steer by stunning it, hanging it upside down by its leg and bleeding it out by cutting its throat. However, (according to McDonald’s) they accept a five percent error rate, meaning when the first ‘stunning’ does not kill the animal, the steer continues along the conveyor belt for processing. Animal rights group’s accounts have revealed that live animals have been skinned alive and go through immense suffering. Despite the

Research Lab Lets Livestock Suffer in Quest for Profit” writer Michael Moss clearly states that the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (MARC), which is financed by our own American taxpayers, has one major goal—namely, to gain profit for meat producing companies in a time of dietary alteration (Moss). He further explains that even though this company is providing great benefits for our market, the animals are paying a greater cost. Many professionals are involved in these inhumane experiments, whether they agree or disagree, such as James Keen, a scientist and veterinarian who worked for the center for 24 years; “They pay tons of attention to increasing animal production, and just a pebble-sized concern to animal welfare” (Moss). Dr. Keen their employee of many years clearly admits to the mistreatment of animals (Moss). He continues: “And it probably looks fine to them because they’re not thinking about it, and they’re not being held accountable” (Moss). Although Dr. James Keen may seem trivial, he’s objection is in fact crucial in terms of today’s concern over the laws under the Animal Welfare Act being applied and shared equally for the humane treatment of

The food system in the U.S. has changed a lot over these decades. In the past, people grew crops in their land and vegetables in their gardens. Today, the food system is dominated by the industrial farms and food companies. The industrial food system prevents us from knowing the food. We do not know where the food comes from, how it is produced, and what the conditions that animals live in are. Animals, such as cattle and chickens, are raised in concentrated feedlots where the conditions are terrible and the space is narrow. When it comes to the meatpacking, we do not know how the animals are slaughtered, gutted, and skinned. The operations are invisible and conducted behind walls. The industrial food system aims to produce more food faster and more cheaply. However, it hides lots of truths, such as its effect on consumers’ health, the environment, and the society. If there were more transparency in the food system, the inhumane practice of meatpacking would be reduced; the living conditions of animals would be improved; fewer fertilizers and pesticides would be used in agriculture; consumers would have the chance to see how the food is produced and make a wiser choice of what to eat; and the current industrial food system might be replaced.

America is not what it used to be. America has changed from what it was yesterday, and will evolve into the infinite unknown. Every day we continue to lose touch with our self-respect and what we value. We have lost our morality for animals. The public majority seems to no longer care how our meat is produced and made. Big companies have been able to keep it a secret from the people of how bad our meat has gotten over the past few years. These big companies are making billions of dollars a year, $198 billion to be exact, and are spending that money to keep their operations blind to anyone who even attempts to investigate them. The only way for these companies to really take a hit is if the public truly knows about what these companies are doing behind the curtain, the public needs to be properly educated on what’s happening to these animals and decide if all this cruelty is really worth it or not. This has been an ongoing problem for years now and it seems companies have gained nothing but power since most people have not cared to take notice.

Animals all around the world are abused everyday, with 100 million animals being poisoned, burned, crippled, and abused in other ways in the U.S each year, and Ninety five percent of animals used for farming are excluded from only federal law offering any sort of protection. This information is very cruel indeed, but what people don't know is that large meatpacking industries are the cause of this abuse. Organic farmers, on the other hand, treat their animals with more respect, and allow animals to be free-range, resulting in healthier meat. Because of this, people need to stop buying from these meatpacking industries because their practices are morally and physically unhealthy and should instead buy organic and healthier options.

Recently, a few of the top chicken producers such as Tyson and Perdue were claimed to treat their chickens inhumanely. Not just that, many of the large food companies such as McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Chick-fil-A are being exposed by their contract farmers. To create a voice for the animal, many articles, websites, and books were created, dedicating to petition for animal rights, especially for chickens.

In the modern era, large corporations are holding feedlots without respect for ethics or safety. They don’t consider the magnitude of the effects of their actions, and are heedless of the safety of the environment, the animals, and the public. In the end, these large corporations get away with it because of the lack of regulations and penalties that deter them from such practices. In essence, these problems have, and will continue, to persist due to the lack of funding for federal regulatory agencies, as well as the lack of public knowledge and outreach upon the issue. It’s important to note that the food industry must adapt to the demands of the market. If the public calls for safe and wholesome food, then it is the responsibility of producers

I mean, it’s the idea of a tomato” (Kenner, Food Inc.). Although fast food may seem the root of the problem, it goes much deeper to where it is affecting innocent families without them even realizing it. Foer offers a persuasive counterargument when he states, “Needless to say, jamming deformed, drugged, overstressed birds together in a filthy, waste-coated room is not very healthy. Beyond deformities, eye damage, blindness, bacterial infections of bones, slipped vertebrae, paralysis, internal bleeding, anemia, slipped tendons, twisted lower legs and necks, respiratory diseases, and weakened immune systems are frequent and long-standing problems on factory farms” (Foer 131). This demonstrates that vendors are not the only ones at fault, but growers and suppliers have provided a big contribution to this harmful system. PETA supports this claim when they state, “On today’s factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds and stuffed into wire cages, metal crates, and other torturous devices” (Misery for Animals, PETA). Even though most people think that the food industry is too big to bring down, there have been groups that have

Animals are not the only ones who are traumatized during this emotional process. The employees who must work in such facilities including the slaughterhouses are known to suffer emotionally as well, often severely. Temple Grandin, a slaughterhouse expert, states that it is not unheard of for the employees to “become sadistic, literally brutalized by what they must do hourly and daily” (Pollan 233). Also, physical health has deteriorated within and around such facilities due to the serious result of pollution inside the farms (which can spread into the surrounding ecosystem) from the neglectful maintenance of hygienic standards. According to nytimes.com, millions are faced with horribly unsanitary and substandard food from factory farms each year, as the United States alone had over 76 million people affected by fouled food – 5,000 of those fatal (nytimes.com). Humane animal farming is an option that not many producers consider because of the inherently higher cost and dramatically lower quantity of animals processed.

Animal cruelty continues to plague the meat and dairy industry and a policy to reverse this is enacting stricter regulations on meat and dairy labels that explicitly state the additives and preservatives used on the product. Moreover, my policy will persuade people to purchase meat and dairy that is ethically raised and is not made with preservatives or additives, this is my value of health. Moreover, my policy is for those who eat meat and dairy and are unaware of the health side affects of consuming it and the animal cruelty that goes into producing a piece of meat or glass of milk, which encompasses my value of compassion. We are a compassionate species who turns the channel during an ASPCA commercial. We root for Nemo, Babe and Bambi yet we watch the movie whilst eating fish, pork or venison. The hypocrisy is unbelievable yet not talked about. Most Americans do not recognize this link between our compassion and the animals we eat and the hypocrisy that surrounds it. In this essay I address the compassion humans posses and how it is being wiped out through eating meat and dairy. I also address how we have the potential to rid the meat and dairy industry of the abuse. I will also discuss how meat and dairy is detrimental to our health.