10 Alarming Facts About the Lives of Factory Farmed Animals
1. More than 80 percent of pigs have pneumonia upon slaughter
- pigs cramped into dirty conditions on factory farms results in numerous serious health problems with dangerous gases from manure, including high levels of ammonia, cause
pneumonia in over 80 percent of the factory-farmed pigs entering U.S. slaughterhouses
2. A battery chicken lives on space smaller than your iPad
- every chicken in a battery farm has to spend its entire life in a
cage that has a floor space smaller than an iPad, no room to turn around, and certainly not enough space to stretch its wings
3. Animals are forced to grow up to three times faster than nature intended
-
animals are forced to grow at an alarming rate
- chickens reach the weight desired for slaughter after just 35 days on a factory farm today, when this should normally take 90 days
- pigs are usually killed at just six months of age
4. Dairy cows are killed after just three lactation cycles
- natural lifespan of a cow is between 20 to 25 years but in factory farms, however, dairy cows are often considered to be “spent” by the time they have gone through
just three lactation cycles
- it’s more cost-effective to send them to the slaughter at this early stage of life before their milk production decreases.
5. Forced molting processes kill 5 to 10 percent of hens
-
forced molting results in higher levels of egg production, hens forced to produce beyond their natural cycles by enforced darkness without food or water for periods up to eight days
- despite huge numbers of hens die in the process, its still considered “good farming practice”
6. Newborn animals are routinely mutilated
- piglets are
mutilated within the first two weeks of life by having their teeth clipped, tails cut off, and testicles removed
- done without anesthetic and is incredibly painful for the animals
- done to prevent the pigs from damaging themselves and each other when they become agitated and distressed due to living in cramped living conditions
- chickens have their beaks clipped for the same reasons
7. Genetic manipulation has left 90 percent of broiler chickens unable to walk properly
- as many as
90 percent of broiler chickens are unable to walk properly at all because their bones and muscles in their legs are unable to cope with the sheer weight of their bodies
8. Mothers are separated from their babies at birth
-calves are taken away from their mothers at birth and are sent off to veal farms where they will spend the rest of their short lives
- calves are not allowed to stay with their mothers as they would drink their mother’s milk, which is diverted by the industry for human consumption
- the pork industry weans piglets
from their mothers after just two weeks so that the sow can be made pregnant to increase the number of litters she can produce each year.
9. Veterinary care is almost never administered to sick and injured animals
- the life, feelings, and desires of the individual animals bred on factory farms are of no consequence
- sick and injured animals to be left untreated in the hope that they will survive to reach the slaughterhouse
- disease due to environmental conditions are so common that all animals routinely receive antibiotics as a form of damage control
10. Ninety-nine percent of U.S. farm animals never get to express natural behaviors
- 99% of animals in the American food industry are now bred in factory farms
- due to current accepted regulations on animal welfare in these farms, none of there animals will get to exhibit their natural behaviors
- on factory farms, pigs are never allowed to engage in their natural instincts to bathe in the sun, snuffle in the mud, and create complex social relationships, being confined to a lifetime spent in tiny concrete pens
- chickens confined to cages so small that they can never stand straight or extend their wings can never express the natural behaviors
The rise of the factory farm has meant that billions of animals have had to endure a life that can only be described as cruel and barbaric.
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