We Must Stop The Slaughter House

What they do to these animals is not humanistic and is cruel. After they get them off the truck from the “farm” they line them up and put them in a machine that clamps them down and does not let them move. Then they take a captive bolt gun and shoot them in the head, but half the time it does not kill them it just stuns them. After that happens, they hang them by their back legs and slit their throats this lets them drain as much blood out as possible. Meanwhile most of the animals are still alive when they get hung upside down and get their throats slit it takes about 20 seconds to completely kill the animal after the throat has been slit so while it is upside down it is still

Schlosser describes the environment of the meat packing plants serving fast food companies in a startling straightforward narrative of his visit through a meat packing plant. He describes a brutal, and sometimes unsanitary environment. The rights of animals are a very broad and complex subject, but Schlosser touches on this as he describes the slaughterhouse floor. He describes animals in various states of disembowelment. Sometimes the animals were dead or stunned; sometimes they were thrashing about wildly in the last throws of death. The slaughter room floor was described as being covered with blood and feces. Employees worked at a furious pace to meet the day's quota. What bothered me most was the fact that this meat is not only prepared for fast food companies but also contracted out to serve our children's schools.

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.

The conditions for animals in modern slaughterhouses are unsanitary and violent. The lack of rules and regulations cause animals to be treated poorly because this industry is focused on mass production and profit rather than finding a more humane alternative to run the meat packing business. The most effective method to stop this cruelty is to learn about where meat comes from, start supporting the organic and family farms which will ultimately lead to the reducing the amount of animals that have to suffer.

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.

Factory Farming is an increasing industry in the United States. These large farms, which evidently appear to be more like slaughterhouses than the typical farms a person can imagine are located throughout the United States. These factory farms contain animals ranging from chickens, sheep, goats, cows, turkeys, and pigs, they also contain dairy products. The conditions for the animals and the employees of these factory farms are inhumane and vile. Life behind the walls of the factory farm is both unsanitary for the animals and the employees. Employees are forced to endure long hours and poor treatment. Animals in these conditions withstand living in cages and are forced to live in uninhabitable ways.

Murder and abuse cases never fail to startle society. Moral codes are flouted with unmatched rigorousness by these indubitable egregious crimes. Sufferers in these cases are often people. Nonetheless, these callous obscenities should not be seen as less important when animals are the victims. Animals undergo horrendous abuse due to barbaric individuals, greed, and unnecessary lab testing.

“I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we 've got to do it right. We 've got to give those animals a decent life and we 've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.” ― Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin brings up a brilliant point, it’s okay to eat meat but it’s not okay to treat these animals throughout their life as just something that you will be killing. They have the right to live healthily and in a property environment. Throughout the novel The Chain by Ted Genoways it brings a light to all the dangerous conditions animals and workers go through and what actually goes into the meat you buy in stores. Although low prices on farm produced meat sound enticing, the abused caused to animals and the dangerous working conditions for workers cause dangerously poor sanitation, and can affect many Americans health.

In “The Way of All Flesh” the author Ted Conover describes his experience working as an undercover USDA inspector in a meat packing plant. He shows how extremely grotesque the industry really is by providing numerous examples on the health and treatment of animals, the conditions of the meat, and the health and treatment of the employees. Conover shows the reader what it is really like in the slaughterhouse by using descriptive language. Throughout the article Conover brings up the treatment and the conditions the animals are put in. Conover supports his arguments by appealing to the reader’s emotions, by making the readers feel sympathetic for both the animals and workers.

A poll conducted by the ASPCA revealed that 94% of Americans believe that production animals, specifically those raised for food, deserve to live a comfortable life free of cruelty and neglect. Despite this belief, many factory farm animals are abused and neglected in such ways that, if witnessed by consumers, would not be accepted. Over 99% of the United State’s farm animals live on factory farms that use them for means of profit, many of them violating the Animal Welfare Act and other laws put in place to protect the humane treatment of animals (ASPCA). This abuse is not limited to any specific type of farm animal. Although different animals are used for different purposes, they all share a common suffering and a need for humane care.

Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals” was extraordinary. As a former meat buyer for a large food distributor, I had visited kill floors several times, and I had made some assumptions about the book before I read it. But the meat business has changed radically since I was a buyer and I found the first-hand accounts of extreme animal abuse Safran Foer employed in the book not only to be controversial but also repulsive. It was very difficult to read about some of the regularly used techniques that factory farms use in the name of efficiency.

The idea that industrial farming is bad for the environment is well known, but what people do not think about is horrible practice of factory farms within industrial farming. Factory farms are inhumane and not only because the animal is being slaughtered, but because of the way the animals are treated before the are killed. A person would think that if they were to be innocently killed that they would want to be treated with respect and dignity before they die. In this paper, I will argue that animals have rights through a utilitarian view and that they should not be treated in an inhumane way.

There is a large problem of animal cruelty linked to the food industry in the United States. Countless slaughterhouses, chicken farms, and other meat producers have been found guilty of harming animals and killing them inhumanely. This is something that clearly needs to change.

The process of preparing cattle for slaughter is a cruel and unjust operation. These innocent animals are branded, dehorned, and their tails are docked; all without anesthetic. The transportation to the slaughterhouse is a challenging one. Cows who produce milk are forced to the point of exhaustion.