The suffering of animals and the environment

Meat eating and violence toward humans

Some researchers defend that there is a casual relationship between the cruelty, torture and death of human beings and the ongoing slaughter of millions of pigs cows, fowl and sheep, not to mention whales dolphins and seals they say that it is obvious to anyone aware of the interrelation of all forms of existence and of the karmic repercussions of our actions. They explain that by our consumption of meat we allow this carnage to continue and are part perpetrator. And because of the cause-effect relationship, we are also part victims. They question: How is it possible to swallow the carcasses of these slain creatures, permeated as they with the violent energy of the pain and terror experience them at the time of their slaughter, and not have hatred aggression and violence stimulated in oneself and others?

It is pointed out by several observers that factory farms deny animals many of their most basic behavioural and physical needs. They are mobilized in crates and cages, or overcrowded in feedlots and buildings. All factory-farmed animals are denied normal social interactions. Such artificial conditions cause animals to suffer from boredom, frustration and stress, which often lead to abnormal behaviour, including unnatural aggression. The livestock industry claims that productive animals are by nature healthy animals. The reality is that drugs, hormones, and other chemicals are routinely administered to animals in intensive confinement systems to mask stress and disease and to speed up growth. In addition, farm animals have been selectively bred for productivity at the expense of their well being and are worn out in a fraction of their natural life spans. Hundreds of thousands of these animals die every day. Physical disorders brought on by exhaustive production demands are common. Dust and toxic gases accumulate in crowded, enclosed systems, causing respiratory diseases and death. Losses are high yet the industry considers these acceptable because factory farm profits depend on the optimal use of space and equipment and not on the well-being of individual animals.

In a farm of the United States investigators filmed an employee driving thirteen one or two day old calves to a remote part of the property. The employee pulled and kicked the calves from a truck, tossed them into a five-foot pit filled with several inches of water. And shot them in the head with a small calibre pistol. Some of the wounded calves fought to get out of the pit; some could only struggle to keep their heads above water. Many of the calves were shot several times and still trashed and kicked for more than ten minutes.

Researches tell us that a dairy cow must give birth every year if she is to keep producing milk. Every year the dairy industry produces more than one million unwanted calves as a by-product of its intensive- production techniques. The female calves are often kept alive to be put to work as dairy cows. The male cows are usually killed at one or two days or end up in the veal industry, which is dependent on dairy farms. Female calves often replace their mothers or are slaughtered soon after birth for the rennet in their stomachs (an ingredient of most commercial cheeses).

The life of a dairy cow on a factory farm is harsh. She is reduced to a virtual milk machine. Often they are milked three times a day. After approximately four years, a dairy cow is considered used up and sent to slaughter.

They tell us that the dairy industry is responsible for the majority of animals that cannot stand or walk on their own are sold for slaughter. Cows who are physically used up by dairy industry and calves who are too young to walk on their own are often dragged or shocked with electrical cattle prods. They may be left without food, water, or medical care four hours or days. Owners will not humanely euthanize these sick and suffering animals because they are more worth alive.

They explain that with genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it is common for modern dairy cows to produce 100 pounds of milk a day…10 times more than they would produce in nature. To keep milk production as high as possible, farmers artificially inseminate cows every year. Growth hormones and unnatural milking schedules cause dairy cows’ udders to become painful and so that they sometimes drag on the ground, resulting in infections and overuse of antibiotics.

Harmful results to the environment

Health researches affirm that cow’s milk is an inefficient food source. Cows, like humans, expend the majority of their food intake simply leading their lives. It takes a great deal of grain and other foodstuffs cycled through cows to produce a small amount of milk. And not only is milk a waste of energy and water, the production of milk is also a disastrous source of water pollution. A dairy cow produces 120 pounds of waste every day. In California, where one fifth of the country’s total supply of milk is produced, the manure from dairy farms has poisoned vast expanses of underground water, rivers and streams. In the Central Valley of California, cows produce as much excrement as a city of 21 million people.

Health

According to several health researches, dairy products are a health hazard. They contain no fibber or complex carbohydrates and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol. They are contaminated with cow’s blood and pus and are frequently contaminated with pesticides, hormones and antibiotics. They affirm that dairy products are linked to allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease, cancer and other diseases.

Cows like all mammals make milk to feed their own babies – not humans.

Egg laying chickens

Observers tell us that egg-laying chickens are kept under what are called “intensive” or “factory farm” stoking systems. In one common type four hens are squeezed into what are called battery cages. In this confined area they spend most of their brief lives. The cages have no perches and are made of wire mesh to allow the feces to fall through the bottom. With no solid floor to scratch on, their toenails grow very long and sometimes become entangled with the wire mesh, even causing the toe flesh itself to grow around the wire. In addition, lights in these places are kept on 18 hours a day to encourage the hens to lay constantly. Each hen averages an egg every 32 hours for 14 months and then is slaughtered.

They alert that with no room to scratch the ground, build a nest, dust-bathe, stretch their wings or even move about, the chickens every instinct is denied. The inevitable stress arising from such wretched conditions drives the stronger birds to attack the weaker ones, who, with no way of escaping, may become victims of cannibalism.

To combat cannibalism, birds are de-beaked, a mutilation process whereby the beak, a complex of horn, bone and sensitive tissue- and the chickens most important member is severed with either a hot knife or a guillotine like device. Sometimes in the course of the animal’s life this is done twice. This method is also used on turkeys.

Pigs

Observers say that pigs that are kept in unsuitable, overcrowded conditions, on the factory farms, respond by biting each other’s tails and fighting in general. Because this causes a reduction in their weight, farmers take oppressive remedial measures, like cutting off the pig’s tails. All this brings about the Porcine Stress Syndrome, described as rigidity, blotchy skin, panting anxiety and sudden death.

According to observers sows (female pig) are first mated when they are 6-8 months old. Most of them are artificially inseminated. Pregnancy lasts 16.5 weeks and a sow will give birth to between five and twenty-five piglets. Piglets are prematurely weaned (start feeding with solid food) after 2-4 weeks (weaning would naturally occur at 12-14 weeks) and a week later the sow will be serviced again.The natural life span of a pig is 10-150 years. Sows spend at least two thirds of their life in pregnancy.

Farrowing crates are metal crates barley larger than the sow, giving no room for turning around. Any attempt to movement means the sow will unavoidably rub herself against the crate bars causing sores, abrasions and swellings. Lameness, other leg, back and hip problems are common. Sows also show stereotypic behaviour such as gnawing and biting stall bars.

The strong instinct to build a nest out of leaves, grass or straw is completely frustrated. The floors are concrete or slatted and do not have any bedding.

Intensification has lead to increased disease problems, particularly amongst piglets. Viral pneumonia, meningitis, swine vesicular disease, blue-ear disease and scours are some of many diseases that can affect pigs. 

Some male piglets are also castrated without anaesthetic. This is to avoid a strong flavour in meat from sexually mature male pigs. However, pigs are generally slaughtered before reaching sexual maturity.

Modern pigs have been selectively bred for fast growth, leading to lameness and other leg problems. The pigs are unable to support their own rapid weight gain. Mothering pigs have the added problem of coping with rapidly growing suckling piglets. This can cause the sow a loss of bodyweight and loss of bone tissue leading to hip or spinal bone fractures.

Cruelties

Observes tell us that nearly all cattlemen dehorn, brand and castrate their animals.This inflects severe pain on the animals. Even worse than dehorning and branding is castration, which most farmers admit causes shock and pain to the animal. In the United States, where anaesthetics are usually not used, the procedure is to pin the animal down, take a knife, and slit the scrotum, exposing the testicles. Each testicle is then grabbed in turn and puffed on, breaking the cord that attaches it.

Male lambs are castrated before three months old. The method consists in the application of a tight rubber ring cutting off the blood supply. This causes severe pain. The use of a knife is also common.

Ewes (female sheep) generally lamb once a year. If an ewe has only a single lamb it may grow too large to pass through the narrow birth canal. Many farmers choose to cut the front legs off the live lamb whilst still in the womb. This is carried out to avoid having to pay a vet to perform a caesarean. This practice is very common and many lambs are killed this way during the lambing season. 

Transportation to slaughter

Observers tell us that one of the greatest sufferings inflicted on farm animals takes place during their transportation to the slaughterhouse. Their mistreatment begins with the loading, a task often done roughly and hurriedly. Animals that fall off the loading ramp are sometimes left unattended to slowly die of their injuries. Inside overloaded trucks the animals suffer from crushing and suffocation as a result of pile-ups. Many times the tucks travel at high speed, some animals succumb to motion sickness.    

 They explain that cattle often spend twenty-eight to seventy-two hours inside a truck without food or water before being unloaded. To their despair of thirst and hunger is often added the bitter winds and cold of winter that can cause severe chill, and the heat and direct sun of summer exacerbate the dehydration caused by lack of water. 

Methods of slaughter   

Observers explain that farm animals are stunned by electricity or percussion and killed by cutting the blood vessels in the neck, causing exsanguinations. Other methods involve cutting the neck without stunning the animals

Stunning is also used it consists in producing unconsciousness of head in carbon dioxide, gas, electrical shock, all of them aiming to allow the animal to bleed out while it is still alive. An animal that is dead before it has bled out will be unsuitable for marketing.

In some countries carbon dioxide stunning is used, this is strongly criticised by scientists as inhumane, pigs suffering from breathlessness and hyperventilation while trying to escape.

They inform us that large numbers of animals are slaughtered rapidly in an assembly line. They leg lift chickens and turkeys when they are fully conscious. Their heads are immersed in water to make electrical contact, but some flutter and are not stunned. Chickens, turkeys and pigs are subjected to scalding water to remove their feathers and hair. When stunning is not done properly or exsanguinations has not progressed enough, a significant proportion of animals are burnt before going unconscious.

They point out that the slaughter of fish has received little attention. Fish die by asphyxia when they are taken out of the water, or when they are ground up in vacuum fishing. If they have been caught in nets, they may be exhausted from the attempts to free themselves. Sometimes fish are gutted while their hearts are still beating, and the beating is prolonged when they are put into ice. Fish feel pain, and suffer stress in the nets and during asphyxia.

Sometimes fish is thrown back after withdrawing the hooks, fish may then die of the inability to eat, or microbial or fungal infections.

Meat and fish production is damaging the environment

Researchers point out the harmful effects that meat and fish production cause on the earth:

Livestock contribute massively to the ”Greenhouse effect” and global warming as they emit high levels of methane.

Aquatic and plant life are destroyed by acid rain that result from ammonia in animal waste and agricultural fertilisers.

Livestock farming uses limited resources inefficiently. Millions of people suffer from hunger and thirst in the developing world while grain and water are used on rearing animals to be slaughtered for food in the developed world.

Millions of hectares of life sustaining rain forest are destroyed each year to create grazing pasture putting at risk animal species and indigenous human populations.

Intensive grazing causes soil erosion and nutrient depletion. 

Over fishing has decimated fish populations to the point of near extinction of many species. Dolphins and whales are killed by drift nets while massive amounts of dead fish are thrown back into the sea or used as pig and sheep feed.