Animals killed worldwide by the
meat,
dairy, and egg industries
since you
opened this webpage.
These numbers
do not include billions of sea animals
& bycatch killed every year.
How can people love their pets ...
yet still eat farm animals?
The lives farm animals endure
are incredibly horrific.
It is extremely difficult for us to face
the truth.
Imagine how difficult it must be
for the animals to live it.
Why Care?
If, by some terrible change in circumstances, we were to find ourselves in the same death
camps all farm animals live in, we would have the ability to reason; we could use our
intellect in order to help us adjust and try to make sense of our situation.
Animals are biologically programmed by strong instinctual drives that they are powerless
to overcome. Their instincts are constantly motivating them into action. Closely confined
and with no ability to fulfill their natural instincts, they develop psychological aberrations
like steriotypies repetitive behaviours. Pigs continuously gnaw at their cages and rub
their heads on the bars trying to get out. Mink repeatedly and rapidly circle their cages.
Hens, despite not having room to even move, urgently seek a safe nest for their eggs.
Calves desperately try to suckle everything within their reach. These are behaviours that
they continue to do their entire short lives ... almost every minute of every day.
They never find relief. Instead of mercy at the end of their young and miserable lives,
they are treated with ridicule, hatred and cruelty ... then killed in the most horrific ways to
end up beautifully packaged on supermarket shelves.
The least we can do is to bear witness to the pain they endure and acknowledge their
suffering.
Take some time to share the lives of farm animals.
Become fully conscious of the consequences of consuming animal products.
Make an informed decision to go vegan and not be a part of the pain and suffering.
Acknowledge their plight, share their burden and help lighten their load.
Allow peace and compassion into your heart - it will change the world you live in.
"We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies."
— Gretchen Wyler
:: The Suffering of Animals on Farms
Unfortunately the 5 freedoms aren't as altruistic as they appear: they were created by WSPA to assess
husbandry practices in the farming industry.
We believe that an animal's welfare, whether on farm, in transit, at market or at a place of
slaughter should be considered in terms of 'five freedoms'. These freedoms define ideal
states rather than standards for acceptable welfare. They form a logical and
comprehensive framework for analysis of welfare within any system together with the
steps and compromises necessary to safeguard and improve welfare within the proper
constraints of an effective livestock industry
— Farm Animal Welfare Council
If these freedoms were sincerely, authentically and generously applied then the following routine farming practices
would not continue:
All farm animals end up at the slaughter house where it is a physical impossibility for them not to be terrified.
The words "distress", "discomfort" and "fear" pale into insignificance compared to the horror these animals
experience for human consumption. Heightened senses allow the animals to smell the blood and excrement,
and hear the screams of their fellows doomed to terrible deaths. Death is the greatest "injury" one can inflict on a living being.
Live transport where animals are without food and water for days and subjected to extreme weather
conditions with no protection.
Lay hens are intentionally starved to induce moulting and increased egg production.
Spent end of lay hens are left for days in crates open to the elements until sold to disadvantaged
communities.
Cows and their calves are separated at birth, causing intense suffering, fear and distress; and this is a routine practice if humans are to continue drinking their milk.
Live calf auctions sell calves who are barely a day old, still wet from the womb, shivering, terrified and
extremely hungry, they urgently try to suckle the hands of their captors. They will often starve to death in
their new "homes" from the inadequate nutrition they receive while they wait to be slaughtered by
inexperienced laymen.
Not providing hens with nesting material to build safe homes for their eggs creates much distress, as does
removing the eggs from a mother hen's possession for human consumption.
Hanging cows, pigs, sheep and chickens upside
down by one leg on the slaughter line can never be
anything other than uncomfortable. They want to
live and they scream and struggle, fighting for their
lives; dislocating their hips and wings, and breaking
their legs in the process. There is no dignified way
to gloss over the horrors of the slaughter process.
No animal gives their life willingly so that we may eat
them.
In South Africa, sow gestation and farrowing crates
are standard practice. At least 95% of all female pigs live their entire breeding lives in metal bar prisons where they cannot
take a step forward or back, lie down properly to sleep, or reach their piglets to nurture them, nor can they
get away from their voraciously suckling piglets.
Piglets removed from their mother at four weeks old, still have an urge to suckle everything they touch. Lack
of nurturing is as stressful to the young as is abusive treatment.
All intensive farming of animals requires close confinement resulting in discomfort, psychotic behaviour and
cannibalism.
All chickens have their beaks and some of their toes cut off at birth, pigs have their tails docked and holes cut
in their ears, while calves are branded and have their testicles and horns cut off. These injuries are routinely
administered without anaesthetic.
All male egg layer chicks are killed at birth by suffocation, crushing or just discarded in dumpsters and left to
die of starvation.
All milk production relies on mechanical milking machines which cause severe discomfort to the cows'
udders. Selective breeding, food additives and other best farming practices result in swollen, distended,
painful and often infected udders.
Some hard to digest facts: If it takes you five minutes to read this essay more than 250,000 animals will have been slaughtered for food in the United States alone; that's about 27 billion a year. Countless others (one million pigs in 2006), called "downers," will have died on their horrific journey to slaughterhouses. After their shameful trip to the slaughterhouse it takes less than 30 minutes to turn
a cow into a steak, during which time these sentient beings continue to suffer interminably, and they also see, hear, and smell other cows on their way to becoming a burger. One slaughterhouse worker notes of food animals,
"They die piece by piece."
— Prof Marc Becoff
View Pictures from a confidential source of a farm near Cape Town in South Africa where, for the past 10 years, pigs have been slaughtered and packaged for human consumption in an "unhygienic processing area ... The method of labeling the product was also questionable with regard to sell-by dates and history trail of the product."
Not one mention is made in the entire confidential document of the horrific living conditions these animals endure.
If the food production industry can have so little regard for basic human health requirements, can you imagine how little consideration is given to the suffering of the animals involved?
Looking into this dear mother pig's eyes, the despair and desolation is obvious. Her life of misery and painful death needs to be remembered so that we can bring this terrible industry to an end.
:: Animal Sentience
Animals are sentient beings, they are capable of subjective awareness. They can feel mental and physical pain
as well as pleasure. They are aware of hierarchical structures and remember faces. They understand their
environment and their place in it. They are capable of learning from experience. They are capable of holding
grudges, as well as expressing lifelong loyalty.
Animals experience emotions very similar to ours. People who deny this are usually involved in their
exploitation.
:: Animals as Property
Farm animals fall through the gaps in the Animal Protection Act as they are classified as commodities. Animals
have their own intrinsic value and right to life; they exist for their own purposes and their lives matter to them.
Yet the "needs" of humans to eat animals is seen to supercede the needs of farm animals to live a full life. The
agricultural industry is permitted to do whatever it has to do to put food on the table at the cheapest price to the
consumer and the highest profit for the producer.
Many activities that are “normal” in animal agriculture are “cruel” as we use that term in non-legal
contexts. The injury of hens in battery cages, their inability to get food and water, and the presence
of dead birds in cages are all part of “normal” animal agriculture as it concerns egg production.
— Gary Francione, Abolitionist Approach
:: Factory Farming
Humans have developed an addiction to the rich, pungent flavours of animal flesh and secretions. One hundred years
ago, meat might have been consumed twice a week, society now expects 3 square meals a day that include
excessive amounts of animal products and will even add additional snacks of animal meats or dairy products
during the day. This huge demand has to be met in some way.
Factory farming is the industry's answer to an overinflated demand. Factory farms pack as many animals into as small a space as possible, they utilise minimal labour by relying on mechanisation, and they avoid high
veterinary bills by routinely dosing their inmates with antibiotics to fight infections in the crammed and filthy
conditions.
Factory farms constitute the most intense cruelty that the human race is capable of. They are, in fact, concentration camps in which sentient, sensitive beings live out their all-too-brief lives deprived of fresh air, sunlight, space in which to move about and stretch their legs or wings, and the ability to live in social communities suited to their natures. Their suffering is so intense and unrelieved from birth to death that insanity is a regular consequence of life in an animal factory. The helpless animals’ minds are simply crushed by pain and deprivation.
... Suffering matters, and I cannot turn my back on it. I hope you can’t either.
— Norm Phelps
:: "Humane" Animal Farming
Unless society drastically cuts its demand for animal products, it will not be possible to farm in any other way but
factory farms. There are not enough fields to "humanely" farm the animals needed for the projected
human consumption of meat and dairy in 2050. As such, the whole concept is unrealistic and no more than a fairy-tale that helps consumers alleviate their own guilt.
The term "humane" animal farming is an oxymoron in the same way that "humane" slavery, rape and murder would be if applied to human beings. The specifications tend to focus on very small improvements to the animals' living conditions and seldom have anything to do with the horrendous impregnation and reproduction routines that bring the animals into their tortured existence, nor the transport and slaughter of the animals at the brutal end of their lives.
"Dear Friends and Fellow Activists,
At a time when most animal rights organizations
are actively promoting,
advocating and rewarding "humane" animal products and farming methods,
I am writing to you on behalf of three of the recipients
of that mercy.
To the industry, they are known as
production units #6, #35, and #67,595 ...
To each other, they
are known as mother, son, sister, friend..." — Letter From a Vegan World Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary
There is a growing trend towards free-range eggs and chicken. People feel
relieved that their chickens were happy and allowed to express normal
behaviours while laying eggs for human consumption, or fattening up their
breasts and thigh muscles ready for the abattoir. Many people do not know that
the difference in welfare is minimal - from the viewpoint of the chicken:
— All the male egg layer chicks are killed at birth. They have no value as they
will never lay eggs.
— All egg layer and broiler chicks are debeaked at a few days old and some of
their toes are cut off, without anaesthetic. To the chicken, her beak is her eyes and fingers. The mutilation
interferes with her ability to feed. As the beak has to be cut off at the nerve, it is thought that the hens
experience phantom pain similiar to amputees who have lost a leg.
— A chicken's natural lifespan is over 10 years, yet end of lay hen's are discarded at 1-2 years of age, which is when their productivity declines. Their spent bodies are left in cages exposed to the elements
in disadvantaged communities. Without food or water, they hope for mercy and wait for their lives to end by
machete.
— Many so-called "free-range" chicken farms sail very close to the wind by merely using chicken wire on one
side of a fully crammed shed - the resulting sunlight is considered to be the chicken's access to the great
outdoors. Other farmers will leave a door open at the end of a shed the size of half a rugby field, but the
overgrown chickens barely make the journey to the feed dispensers on their weak baby legs ... a trip to the
door would be impossible. Bred to have unabating appetites, the chickens are unwilling to make the journey
away from their feed.
Please go vegan to save animals from untold stress.
:: Organic Animal Products
The organic movement is wonderful: at last we are taking responsibility for the precious, living soil that covers
our Earth.
Yet, organic animal products remain a misnomer. Intensively farming animals for the overwhelming human
demand can not be achieved without wasting insane amounts of water, as well as contaminating water tables
and entire beaches with excrement and blood.
Animals farmed on organic farms are not routinely given antibiotics. However, they will be given antibiotics if
they are suffering from infections or diseases that cannot be cured by other means...
Is the organic farmer's motivation to heal the planet, save the lives of animals and heal our health? Or is the
organic farmer's motivation to jump on the bandwagon of the organic movement and make as much profit as
possible?
These animals are still confined against their will.
The mothers are raped using artificial insemination
Female bodies are pushed into producing beyond what is naturally possible
Their young are taken from them for human consumption
The majority of chickens have never met their mother, or their child
All male chicks born to egg-layers, are killed at birth
All organically farmed animals are slaughtered for human consumption.
Visit Humane Myth to learn the truth about so-called "humane" animal products.
Take the time to visit the farm you receive your animal products from.
Would you allow your dogs or your children to be kept under those conditions?
Is the suffering the animals endure worth the small pleasure you attain from the taste of their flesh?
:: A Life Worth Living
At the very least give the animals a life worth living:
the autonomy to choose where they live
the freedom to find a mate and remain loyal to them for life
the joy of birthing their young and being free nurture them
teaching them how to forage for roots or take dust baths
taking pride in them as they grow into maturity
becoming the nanny to watch over the next generation
always having the sense of peace and security that their young will have a fair chance of survival
each day a new adventure as they explore nature, build homes or interact with their family
and at the end ... being allowed the dignity of a natural death in their old age, surrounded by the family they love.
Can anyone honestly say that consumption of animals allows animals a life worth living?
Do these labels not have more to do with the human wish to salve their own conscience and hide from the horrors
the animals experience, than they have to do with reducing the horrors themselves?
Animals have a right to live free from human brutality. Our brutality cannot be excused by our provision of a short happy life. David Cowles-Hamar puts it this way: "The suggestion that animals should pay for their freedom with their lives is moral nonsense."
— Animal Rights Network
"In that day the wolf and the lamb will lie down together, and the leopard and goats will be at peace.
Calves and fat cattle will be safe among lions, and the little child shall lead them all. The cows will
graze among bears; cubs and calves will lie down together, and lions will eat grass like the cows. .
. Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so shall the
earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord."
— Isaiah 11:6-10
The animals that have been brought into existence through selective breeding and genetic experiments, are our
responsibility. We need to take care of them and cherish the lives they live. We need to lay aside our
arrogance and be willing to share this beautiful planet with the animals that populate it with us.
How is it possible to bring about a world like this? Where animals roam free and humans live in peace?
A paradigm shift. Nothing as it stands is the way it should be. All life is precious. Ego, materialism,
greed and aggression have taken over our hearts and minds. Until we release these negative thought patterns
we will never find peace.
Reducing the suffering in the world by Going Vegan is a very necessary first step.
Consumer demand for animal products gravitates gradually towards vegan alternatives
Farmers have time to diversify into growing crops like quinoa and lentils
All killing and confinement of animals ends
Animal sanctuaries are established to care for the domesticated farm animals
Nature Reserves become places of refuge for wild animals and hunting ends
Surplus grain and water becomes available to feed the starving nations
Global warming slows as pollutants decrease
Human relationships are mended as we enter a new era of peace on Earth.
Go Vegan it is the single most important thing
YOU as an individual
can do to save our environment
free farm animals and heal your health
Copyright 2007 www.elated.co.za All rights reserved.
Elated does not purport to be a medical or dietary authority.
This site collates knowledge for information purposes only. Graphics c/o farmsanctuary.org
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