Factory Farming
By: Hannah Ross
What is a Factory Farm?
• The term factory farm can be defined as “a large,
industrial operation that raises large numbers of
animals for food” (What is a Factory Farm).
• The main goal behind factory farming lies within
profit and regards no concern to the well-being of
the animals that are forced to pass through.
• The conditions these animals face induce extreme
mental and physical distress. It has even been
observed that animals born into factory farms and
that know no other life still resort to their natural
instincts.
What Conditions do
Animals Face?
• The animals raised in factory farms most
commonly include cows, pigs, and chickens.
• These animals face unimaginable cruelty
before they are slaughtered for meat.
• Chickens turn to cannibalizing their cage mates
due to the stress they face from not being able
to move, and it prevent this have their beaks
cut off with hot knives.
Conditions cont.
• Piglets are weaned at 10 days compared to 13 weeks
• This leaves adults pigs with an overwhelming need to chew.
• To satiate this need, pigs gnaw on the tail of the pig that is
packed not even inches in front of them.
• The confinement cause them to become depressed which
leads to a ''learned helplessness’’, meaning they do not
even bother stopping other pigs from chewing their tails to
the point of infection. (Pollan).
• To prevent this workers chop off the tails of pigs. The
removal of the pig’s tail is not even to stop the chewing,
but to make it so painful once bitten that the pig is forced
to react and make the other stop.
Regulations?
• Over 10 billion animals are raised and killed for
food in the United States every year and there are
no federal laws that regulate the conditions in
which these animals are farmed and raised
(Farmed Animals and the Law).
• The minor regulations are often ignored since the
United States Department of Agriculture claims
that most do not even apply to birds, which make
up nearly 90% of the animals that are slaughtered
for food (Farmed Animals and the Law).
Why is this Tolerated?
• Species and equality seem to be the main
reasons why this practice takes place.
• Most people view the interest of animals to be
of less moral importance since they are a
different species than us.
• People tend to turn away from the reality of
the situation since they often have no
connection to the animals being farmed.
What Can be Done?
• Fortunately factory farming is not the only way
that meat is produced.
• “Cruelty free” farming is a method that allows
animals to lead a “natural” life before they are
killed and sold.
• Polyface Farm is a farm where animals are raised
naturally and in smaller numbers. Naturally raising
an animals means that the animal is given the right
to live its life exactly how it would on its own and
is killed quickly and efficiently when its time
comes.
Personal Beliefs
• With conditions the way they are in factory
farms I find eating meat produced at one to be
intolerable.
• A human’s want to eat an animal is not more
prominent than the animal’s want to not be
tortured merely because they are of a different
species.
• Factory farming is a practice that should be
entirely outlawed worldwide. Instead, people
should turn to cruelty-free farming or meat-free
life styles.
Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kipdLxzT
w4g
Works Cited
• "Farmed Animals and the Law." Animal Legal Defense Fund.
N.p.. Web. 6 Apr 2014.
<http://aldf.org/resources/advocating-for-animals/farmedanimals-and-the-law/>.
• Pollan, Michael. "An Animal's Place." New York Times. N.p.,
10 Nov 2002. Web. 6 Apr 2014.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/magazine/10ANIMAL.ht
ml?src=pm&pagewanted=1.
• "What is a Factory Farm." ASPCA. N.p.. Web. 6 Apr 2014.
http://www.aspca.org/fight-cruelty/farm-animalcruelty/what-factory-farm.
Works Cited cont.
• http://www.farmsanctuary.org/photos/f
actory-farming/eggs/
• http://www.stopsmithfieldfoods.com/
• http://courtneyscott.org/beyond_produc
tions/id5.htm