Factory Farming and the Welfare of Animals PHI 103 Informal Logic Factory Farming and the Welfare of Animals Even though higher yields are met for demand and human consumption, factory farming is cruel to animals due to the fact animals are often subject to harsh living conditions, more susceptible to diseases and injuries and are treated inhumanely during the slaughtering process. Unfortunately, with an increase in human population worldwide, the strain on farmers to meet the demand increases as well. This in turn causes more animals to be subject to this cruelty. In the U.S., the concept of factory farms primarily involving animals such as pigs, cattle and chicken began in the 1920’s as a way to increase efficiencies by capturing …show more content…
This is due in part by the previous statement to get higher yields out every animal raised. Cattle, chickens and pigs alike are all subject to certain fattening diets, modern breeding techniques and growth hormone treatments. These forced practices have very adverse, life altering and threatening affects that lead farmers to use antibiotics in order to keep diseases at bay. The Committee on Drug Use in Food Animals states, “doses are used when pathogens are known to be present in the environment or when animals encounter a high stress situation and are more susceptible to pathogens “, (1999, p. 28). It is important to point out that the use of growth hormones and antibiotics dramatically increases body mass, drastically shortens the lifespan of animals such as cattle and is being detected in food for human consumption. Farming practices like the use of growth hormones in cattle has created a new dilemma when considering welfare and health of factory farm animals. Moving even beyond the farm to the actual dinner plate, the effect consuming factory farm raised animals is still under debate but the fact still remains that the animals display compromising health issues. For instance, dairy cattle are given a growth hormone called BST, or bovine somatotropin, is given to dairy cattle during lactation cycles to sustain milk production. The fact that cattle are producing more milk by administering a naturally occurring hormone is not really the
Nine out of ten calves in the United States are given hormonal growth stimulators. Some of the reasons why farmers would give their animals hormone growth stimulators and antibiotics would be so the animals would grow faster than they normally would. Since the animals are growing faster, the farmers are making more money. The way that they are making more than what they would be without using hormones and antibiotics is because the animals tend to eat more the longer they are alive. If the animals are getting a boost in their growing process, they will not be consuming as much food,
Moreover, the average age for chickens can be five to ten years, and they will need five to six months to be fully grown. But in the factory farms, they will use antibiotics to make chickens grow faster than usual. For the “meat” chicken, they only need six weeks to reach “market weight” and slaughtered to produce meat. According to researchers at the University of Arkansas’s Division of Agriculture, “If you grew as fast as a chicken, you’d weigh 349 pounds at age 2” (Gristle, 35). Also, the big animals, such as cows and pigs in the factory farms are living in a cruel situation too. Cows and pigs are the kinds of animals who live outdoor. If they live in an enclosed environment, they will get sick and depressed, and then they will bite one another and kill their young in despair. So the factory farms have problem to raise big animal at the beginning. However, the factory farms hire some scientists to solve this problem. Eventually, the scientists suggested that “dumped antibiotics into the grain they fed the stock; created two-foot-by-seven-foot gestation crates so sows couldn’t bite one another’s tails or crush their young by lying down” (In the Belly of The
A growing issue in the world today is the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in animal production industry. However, for over sixty years Americans have been exposed to hormones on a regular basic when they consume beef. (Organic Consumer Association) On average eighty percent of all feedlot cattle are given hormones to help them grow at an increased rate. (Communication Foundation) “In 1988 the European Union banned the use of all hormone growth promoters.” (Organic Consumer Association)
More than 99% of farm animals nationwide are raised in factory farms. Factory farms are large, industrial operations that raise large numbers of animals for food. These farms focus on profit and efficiency, rather than animal welfare (ASPCA). Factory farming has led to a complete disregard for animal health and rights and it needs to be controlled and better monitored.
Over the years, farmers have been producing meats, and growing crops, to feed all over the world. Farmers have been using different methods to achieve the constant demand for food, such as breeding, environment, and feeding. Technology has been a major factor in helping farmers evolve over the years. What pop out were factory farms all over the world. But what is a factory farm? Factory farms are huge buildings owned by big corporations, where meats are being produced by the thousands. Despite the effectiveness of this method, it comes at a price. Factory farms are key factory in feeding many countries over the world, but it struggles with the mistreatment of animals, and excessive waste.
Each year in Australia, over half a billion animals are raised, chemically modified and slaughtered for food and food production, simply for human benefit (Commonwealth of Australia Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, 2005). This seems a small portion compared to the Animal Equality Network’s statistic of fifty-six billion animals slaughtered each year globally, which include for the purposes of human consumption, entertainment, religious traditions and scientific research (Animal Equality Network, 2015). The chief supply of animal products for human use originates from the high yield method of factory farming. Factory farming is defined as a system of rearing livestock using highly intensive methods, in which poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled
Aside from animal abuse, factory farming also causes devastating effects on health. These health risks concern humans as well as animals. Approximately two-thirds of the 1,400 known pathogens to scientists are thought to have originated in animals (Sayre, Laura). The most common illnesses known to humans have actually came from the same animals we eat or have eaten in the past: tuberculosis and the common cold are thought to come to us from cattle, pertussis from pigs or sheep, leprosy from water buffalo, and influenza from ducks (Sayre, Laura). You may ask, “Well how does this have a connection with factory farming?” The connection is actually quite simple. Factory farms are breeding grounds for virulent disease, which spreads to the community through the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and even the people who work at these “farms” by coming in contact with them and their families (Sayre, Laura). The unsanitary and stressful conditions in factory farms are passing new diseases onto humans faster than ever before.
Are you ever curious on how your meat and eggs are raised before they get to your dining room table? There are many different ways that companies raise their animal products. Some of them involve much animal cruelty which is not fair to the poor animals. In the factory farms they treat these animals as if they are not even living, but as some kind of material use for us humans. It is not fair for the animals because they are in such horrendous condition and I totally disagree with the way they treat them.
Humane treatment and animal welfare of factory farms and slaughterhouse animals are a huge problem in our society.The rearing of farm animals today is dominated by industrialized facilities known as confined animal feeding operations. Most farms in the United States treat their animals unfairly in order to make products easier to sell and faster to make more money faster. Weaning the animals off of their food at a young age and starting them on a strict diet including mostly fatty foods, which will help the animal gain weight is common. Another common inhumane treatment in the animal welfare industry is keeping the animals in confinement. In most cases the animals stay in confinement their whole life. The
Factory farming creates an enormous volume of meat for consumption, and with over 9 billion land animals slaughtered in the United States, an immense amount of water, feed, energy, and land is used to
With dairy and meat production, as its bread and butter, there were several adjustments that were made on the farms. According to “A Change of Heart about Animals”, animals experience the same feelings as humans like pain, stress, affection, excitement, and love. Animals go through all of these emotions, yet they still bear the disrespect of humans in their everyday life. Today scientist “believe that [animals] should be treated with more respect and [people that] interact with these animals”(Yong 38) will have to change or it will result to the the deterioration of these animals. The treatment of farm animals is unacceptable due to the fact that humans have no regard for the sentiments of the animal. This demonstrates that all living beings aside from humans, should be granted rights of their own. The worst and most barbaric treatment of farm animals, is the use of drug and hormone within the factory. Many farms are providing animals with chemicals for growth, this showcases the degradation of animals within our past and present society. So, naturally the animals are doped up on drugs in order to stimulate growth and speed up reproduction. These events that occur inside the factory farms are an obvious violation to the rights and treatments of
Throughout history farming has been a way of life for almost all civilization. In today’s society the people of the United States have strongly leaned on factory farming. Industrial animal farming or "factory farming" is production or raising of animals based on the use of meat for human consumption, raised cheaply, raised efficiently, and producing other products that farms animals produce without focusing on living conditions of the animals. The lifestyle of a farmer is not like the rest. Some encourage factory farming because of the amount of meat, and other products that are produced, others however are discouraged by pollution rates in the areas surrounding the farms, such as any lakes, rivers, or streams, and also the continuous harm these animals encounter every single day. Because factory farms raise living creatures, precautions will be taken into consideration while raising animals.
Today’s factory farms, animals are crammed into thousands of filthy, windowless sheds, stuffed into wire cages, metal crates and many other tortuous devices. These animals are packed into spaces so tightly they can barely move. Many have no access to the outdoors, spending their lives on warehouse floors, or housed in cages and pens. They are stripped from their natural living, never being able to raise a family, build nests or root around in the soil. Most won’t feel the warmth of the sun or breathe fresh air until they are crammed into a truck, which is typically without food or water and sent to the slaughterhouse. They are often injected with antibiotics used to make them grow abnormally fast and keep them alive in unsanitary conditions.
Farm animals go through a lot of suffering and stress to meet the consumer’s needs. Factory farms use antibiotics for the wrong reasons without consideration of the animals and the customer’s health and it should be regulated properly. Antibiotics have many negative effects and there are better solutions to how to raise farm animals properly. Labels mislead the people of believing the animals of being naturally farmed, but that is not the case.
This painful process increases the cattle’s chances for lameness, tumors, and cancers. Raloff also states, “Since 1988, concerns about the potential health risks of drug residues have led the EU to ban importation of the meat of hormone-treated animals. The United States and Canada, which produce such meat, have vigorously fought the ban through both punitive tariffs on various imports from Europe and appeals to the World Trade Organization.” Although, beef is highly mutated by man no other animal is affected more by growth hormones than chickens. Many of the chickens bred for slaughter are kept in small warehouses where hundreds of other chickens reside. These small pens increase the chicken’s chance of lameness and illness due to lack of exercise and the constant flow of growth hormone fed to them. Like the beef the chickens grow abnormally large very quickly, and can barely stand on their own two feet more than a few seconds. Although many of these animals are extremely sick and close to death they are not wasted. Many are still used as food. As horrible as this is, downed cattle and chickens are still commonly slaughtered every day. This drastically increases the chances of E.coli to spread throughout America, mad cow disease, and other food borne illnesses.