BLOG #11
SAMEERA
.S. DHANANI
DR.
JASON SMITH
ENG
101
29TH
MAY 2014
Animal Welfare on Factory Farms
Animals have always been attached to human
beings. Weather it is a harvesting crops from the farm or cattle breading
animals have always been a back bone for farmers especially in the agriculture
field. Due to having animals working in farm it reduces the hard work from
human beings and also helps to create an animal husbandry in the society.
Having pets or animals in farm help us to create an environment where people
look at animals with different perspective that pets will protect their house
in their absence. Sometimes some animals do adapt the human qualities in them
and tend to have a normal behavior like we humans do but it is very difficult.
It requires a lot of training as well for the animals to get trained and act as
human beings do.
Today feedlots with 1,000 head or
more of capacity comprise less than 5 percent of total feedlots but market
80-90 percent of fed cattle in fact the 10 largest cattle feeding operations in
the US comprise approximately 30% of the total feedlot capacity. In 1999 the top
ten hog farms, all corporately owned, had an estimated 1.5 million sows and
were responsible for 25-30% of the total pork production in the US. In
2005 the top three hog companies owned 21% of all US sows in production. In a
recent survey of broiler farms only 0.4% of birds were produced by independent
operations outside of the industrial broiler production contracts that dominate
the industry. About 1.7 percent of operations were certified organic (1.4
percent of broilers), while a smaller fraction (0.44 percent of operations)
reported that they produced free-range broilers. Factory farming is a major
industry. But why should this worry us? Well, concentrating animal production
into very intensive units has severe implications for animal welfare. Every year,
millions of animals that are raised for food experience terrible living
conditions on industrialized or “factory” farms. These factory farms are large,
profit driven companies which view animals as units of production, rather than
living creatures, and put efficiency and profits ahead of animal health and
welfare.
While views differ about
the degree of comfort and freedom that farm animals deserve, most people can
agree on a minimum standard of cleanliness and space, and that animals should
not needlessly suffer. Yet the reality is that the basic structure of
industrial farms is at odds with the overall well-being of the animals they
raise.
Industrial farms push
for the maximum production from the animals regardless of the stress this
places them under and the resultant shortening of their lifespan. Confining as
many animals indoors as possible might maximize efficiency and profits, but it also
exposes the animals to high levels of toxins from decomposing manure and can
create ideal conditions for diseases to spread. Feeding animals an unnatural
diet rather than letting them graze and forage on open land simply adds to
their health problems. To counteract these unhealthy conditions, factory farmed
animals are given constant low doses of antibiotics which are contributing to
the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They are also routinely
treated with pesticides and other unhealthy additives, and can be
given hormones solely to increase productivity.
Even though animals help us a lot in our farm works I believe animals should be
treated with compassion and protected from suffering. True but unfortunately it
is difficult for billions of farm animals lack even the most basic protections
under the law. As our fight for stronger laws, and protection of animals
continues we hope to make a difference today through more humane farming,
welfare-conscious shopping and reduced consumption of animal production. Over
the last few decades, corporatized, industrialized agriculture has largely
replaced America’s independent, family farms with catastrophic consequences for
animals.
Other common practices on factory
farms, such as de-beaking chickens or the tail docking (cutting) of cows and
piglets, are said to increase efficiency and safety, but they also cause
discomfort, pain, and stress for the animals. Although these tactics may help
“mechanize” the animals and can increase yields by causing less interference
with production, this does not justify the resulting suffering. In every stage
of development on a factory farm, animals suffer needless mutations and
cramped, confined living conditions. Scientists have even linked animal stress
to problems with food quality and safety. When an animal is subject to stress
and pain, it is more prone to disease and can produce lower quality meat, milk,
or eggs. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and other animals live in extremely
stressful conditions:
·Kept in small cages or
jam-packed sheds or on filthy feedlots, often with so little space that they
can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably
·Deprived of exercise so
that all their bodies’ energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for
human consumption
·Fed drugs to fatten
them faster and keep them alive in conditions that could otherwise kill them
·Genetically altered to
grow faster or to produce much more milk or eggs than they naturally would
(many animals become crippled under their own weight and die just inches away
from water and food). When they have finally grown large enough, animals raised
for food are crowded onto trucks and transported over many miles through all
weather extremes, typically without food or water, to the slaughterhouse. Those
who survive this nightmarish journey will have their throats slit, often while
they are still conscious. Many remain conscious when they are plunged into the
scalding-hot water of the defeathering or hair-removal tanks or while their bodies
are being skinned or hacked apart.
.
97%
of the 10 billion animals tortured and killed each year are farm animals.
Now a day’s animal are being used for the
personal desire and to have fun in the society. The animals are not seen as
individual, sentient beings with unique physical and psychological needs but as
eggs, milk, meat, leather are bee targeted. Sellers want to be rich very fast.
Factory farming being a very busy business, its goal is to maximize production
and, consequently, profit. Since the animals are being utilized as an object
they are forced to lay eggs.
On today’s factory
farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds and
confined to wire cages, gestation crates, barren dirt lots, and other
cruel confinement systems. These animals will never raise their families, root
around in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural and important
to them. Most won’t even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until
the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter. The green pastures and
idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories.
The factory farming industry strives to maximize output while
minimizing costs—always at the animals’ expense. The giant corporations that
run most factory farms have found that they can make more money by cramming
animals into tiny spaces, even though many of the animals get sick and some
die. The industry journal National Hog
Farmer explains, “Crowding pigs pays,” and egg-industry expert
Bernard Rollins writes that “chickens are cheap; cages are expensive.”
Farmers cut costs by feeding animals the remains of other animals,
keeping them in extremely small and soiled enclosures, and refusing to provide
bedding. Because animals live in such a manner and are denied normal social
interactions, they experience boredom and stress so great that it leads to
unnatural aggression. To curb this aggression, conceal the disease that results
from such horrendous living conditions, and stimulate aberrant growth, farmers
routinely administer drugs to animals, which in turn reach meat-eating
consumers. The consequences of this agribusiness are institutionalized animal
cruelty, environmental destruction and resource depletion, and health dangers.
A growing number of
organic consumers, natural health advocates and climate hawks are taking a more
comprehensive look at the fundamental causes of global warming. Livestock
production is responsible for nearly one fifth of the world's greenhouse gas
emissions - more than all the planes, trains and automobiles in the world
combined. Factory farming uses substantial amounts of pesticides and chemical
fertilizers to produce enough feed, and these toxic substances often end up in
waterways, polluting rivers and oceans. Also the clearing of land for animal
feed is having a catastrophic effect on our planet's biodiversity, particularly
in forest and tropical regions. According to scientists who studied the
clearing of land for farming in the developing world between 1980 and 2000,
intensive agriculture, rather than family farming, was
the major reason for this loss of biodiversity.
Several major human health concerns
are also associated with intensive farming, including: increased transfer of
infectious agents from animals to humans, antibiotic resistance, food-borne
illness, and the generation of novel viruses. The sheer number of animals
raised within confinement operations increases the transmission of infectious
agents within flocks and herds and, by extension, between animals and human
workers. Also, Factory farms, where large numbers of livestock are raised
indoors in conditions intended to maximize production at minimal cost,
affect all of us. Huge meat
companies have
steadily driven down the prices farmers receive for the livestock they raise,
forcing farmers to get big or get out. Small farms have been replaced by factory
farms
that pollute nearby air
and water, undermine rural economies and reduce the quality of life for
neighbors. The meat industry tells consumers that factory farms are modern,
efficient and produce cheap food. But factory farms leave consumers with fewer
choices and make them pay more for meat, poultry and dairy products, while
farmers get paid less. This bad practice on factory farms affects not only
humans but also the environment, economy and animals too.
Human concern for animal welfare
is based on the awareness that animals are sentient and that consideration
should be given to their well-being, especially when they are used for food, in
animal testing, as pets, or in other ways. Not only about ensuring an animal is
treated cruelly or caused by unnecessary pain or suffering. These concerns can
include how animals are killed for food, how they are used for scientific
research, how they are kept as pets, and how human activities affect the
survival of endangered species. By supporting the legislative actions, more and more producers are raising animals in a more
natural setting, allowing animals fresh air and more room to perform natural
behaviors. Even by refining our diet by choosing products from humanely raised
animals instead of conventional products from intensive farm operations
helps ensure animals live a better life. Also the Grocery stores now have a
large assortment of delicious products to replace those traditionally obtained
from animals who are intensively confined. These vegetarian alternatives
include veggie burgers, soymilk, tofu, tempeh and even fake chicken fingers and
sandwich meat like bologna, and many more choices. Even If we reduce the
consumption of animal products by just one meal a week, approximately one
billion animals would be spared the suffering that occurs with intensive
confinement operations. 
Consumers choosing foods from environmentally
sound, humane farms hold the greatest promise for positive change. But
governments can and should be addressing this mistreatment, too. Here are
reforms like State laws should protect farm animal welfare because polls show
that about 90 percent of Americans believe farm animals deserve
humane living conditions. Narrow metal cages for pregnant pigs, crates for veal
calves and cramped cages for egg laying hens should be outlawed. Congress
should prohibit overusing antibiotics in animal farming. About 80 percent of
antibiotics used in the United States each year is in the daily feed of farm
animals, mostly to enable keeping animals in densely crowded conditions, which
reduces costs. Government should better enforce environmental laws.
Environmental laws like the Clean Water Act cover animal agriculture. Farm
subsidies should foster grass. Grass is a happier, healthier habitat for farm
animals. It also is the core of ecological farming, even offering the promise
of major carbon sequestration. Yet current federal farm policies encourage
plowing grasslands while discouraging grass-based methods, like crop rotations,
that safeguard soil, water and air. Farm subsidies should contain incentives
for grass and require farmers to follow good conservation methods.
WORKS CITED
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