There is a large amount of debate regarding animal interests, and what kind of rights they are entitled to. Cruelty and mistreatment of animals are seen in slaughter houses with cows, chickens, and hogs. These farm animals are kept in unsanitary conditions, being starved due to lack of care, and are accumulating diseases daily. Thousands are packed into tiny spaces, and treated in extreme inhumane ways. Everyday, animals are being sacrificed and mistreated for the “betterment” of human lives, whether it’s for our food, monetary gain, or our own entertainment.
Please keep in mind, it is the cruelty that I am focusing on. In my opinion, most of the things I am talking about would be completely okay if the animals were treated right in the process. It is the neglect of these animals, the absurdity of which they are treated, that I really want to take a look at.
According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, it is federal law that all mammals be stunned prior to being slaughtered. Vegan Outreach states that the methods used to stun animals include using an electric current to induce a heart attack and/or seizure; or a captive bolt gun to deliver a blow to the skull or shoot a rod into the animal’s brain. Though this may sound reasonable, it is not uncommon that animals suffer from two or three failed stuns during this procedure.
These are not the only unsettling facts. We kill and eat approximately 56 billion land animals a year according to Gary L. Francione and Robert Garner, writers of The Animal Rights Debate. Smaller animals, including chickens, account for about 95% of the animals slaughtered for food in the United States. Yet, there is no law such as the Humane Slaughter Act to help protect smaller animals and birds such as chickens.
Hogs on factory farms are castrated and have hunks of flesh ripped from their ears, bits of their teeth torn out with wire cutters, and their tails chopped off—all without painkillers. Not only is this kind of mistreatment witnessed with Hogs, it is also seen with chickens as well. To increase profits, farmers drug and genetically manipulate broiler chickens; as a result, many birds suffer from painful, crippling bone disorders and spinal defects.
It is important for people to become aware of these cruelty issues because in my opinion, the more people who know of these problems, just means more people to fight the cause. I plan on writing this paper as if I were a writer for PETA, the largest animals rights organization in the world. Their audience is considered as general public, seeing as they work through public education, cruelty investigations, and even legislation. It doesn’t take a scientist to recognize that a life is in danger, whether it be a human or an animal. It takes people just like you and me, to face this problem head on and do something about it.
Works Cited
"If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls | Why Vegan? | Vegan Outreach." Vegan Outreach | Working to End Cruelty to Animals. Vegan Outreach, 04 Oct. 2001. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. <http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/slaughterhouses.html>.
Marcus, Erik. Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, & Money. Boston, MA: Brio, 2005. Print.
"Animal Legal Defense Fund : Farmed Animals and the Law." Animal Legal Defense Fund : Index. Animal Legal Defense Fund, 2011. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. <http://www.aldf.org/article.php?id=1027>.
Pollan, Michael. "Slaughterhouse - Inside The Slaughterhouse | Modern Meat | FRONTLINE | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Public Broadcasting Service, 31 Mar. 2002. Web. 08 Oct. 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/slaughter/slaughterhouse.html>
No comments:
Post a Comment