The word Humane, as defined, is characterized by tenderness, compassion and sympathy for humans and animals. As a society we expect these characteristics from everyone, whether it is toward people or animals. However our view seems to change when it comes to factory animals. It may be ignorance or lack of not caring, but factory animals are not held to the same humane standards we have for each other and other animals. Food labels have deceived the consumer into believing they are bettering the life of the animals when in fact we are hardly changing it. Food labels like Cage Free and Vegetarian Fed lead consumers into the dangerous trap of thinking they are buying better products from happier animals when the opposite is true. The term Cage
There are plenty controversial issues about bully breeds and whether they are acceptable or safe dogs to own. In July a woman was mauled in her yard and killed by a dog in Montreal. Due to this unfortunate incident the mayor Denis Coderre created a bill called BSL (Breed-Specific Legislation) which was approved by the legislation. This bill states that determined by their breed or pitbull features “American Pitbull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Terriers, American Bulldogs or any dog with strains of these breeds” will be unadoptable; they must wear a muzzle in public as well as a leash that’s 4 feet long and in most cases they will be euthanized due to their breed. BSL should be reversed because the real problem is irresponsible dog owners, the irresponsible owners will just switch breeds and any dog has the potential to hurt someone.
Many people and organizations, like PETA, are huge advocates for the ethical treatment of animals. But does it really matter if animals were treated ethically or not if they end up getting slaughtered and put on a plate for people to consume anyway? Gary Steiner wrote the article “Animal, Vegetable, Miserable” and explains his life as a strict vegan and why even eating ethically raised animals is inhumane. Eating animal products, even if treated humanely, is still considered unjustified to vegan lifestyle supporters, such as Steiner, but I happen to disagree with some of his argument.
Throughout the last century the concern of animals being treated as just a product has become a growing argument. Some believe that animals are equal to the human and should be treated with the same respect. There are many though that laugh at that thought, and continue to put the perfectly roasted turkey on the table each year. Gary Steiner is the author of the article “Animal, Vegetable, Miserable”, that was published in the New York Times right before Thanksgiving in 2009. He believes the use of animals as a benefit to human beings is inhumane and murderous. Gary Steiner’s argument for these animal’s rights is very compelling and convincing to a great extent.
Animal rights are practically non-existent in many different ways today. Factory farming is probably the worst thing they can do to the poor helpless animals. Factory farming effects chickens, cows, pigs, and many other animals that are used for food, milk and eggs. One of the biggest organizations against factory farming is called Compassion Over Killing (COK). They go to great lengths to protest and inform people about animal cruelty.
The humane society is a nonprofit organization, which is a corporation or an association that conducts business for the benefit of the general public without shareholders and without a profit motive. The humane society is also a 501c, a nonprofit American tax-exempt organization. It was founded in 1954 by Fred Myers (1904-1963), its first name was the National Humane Society, later named The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Their first mission was to decrease suffering of livestock during slaughter. The Humane Slaughter Act passed in 1958, this would change the lives of millions of animals around America. The Humane Society began investigating animal experimentation around the 1950s to gather evidence on animal neglect or suffering. Myers said,” every humane society should be actively concerned about the treatment accorded to such a vast number of animals.” In 1961 HSUS investigated dog dealers in the U.S. to gain support for a law to be passed that would prevent cruelty to animals in laboratories. The investigation lasted 5 years, then in February 1966 life magazine published an essay about dog dealers and thousands of Americans wrote to their congressional representatives and demanded action to protect animals and stop pet theft. Later that year the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 was passed, the second major federal humane law passed since world war II. Other goals they had during this time were: reduce homeless dogs and cats, reform inhumane euthanasia practices, redact abuses by pet stores and pet breeding trades, and help wildlife and marine life. The head of the humane society organization are the board of directors, which has about 15 members who are all volunteers. Then there is the executive board ...
The exponential rise in earth’s human population since the industrial revolution has put a heightened pressure on food production word wide. The global population reached approximately 7.2 billion in 2013 (United Nation News Centre, 2013) and consequentially the requirement for eggs and poultry has also substantially increased (Pluhar, 2010). As a result of this elevated demand for food, there has been a shift in the way agricultural practices operate to produce the large quantities of meat and eggs necessary to feed the population. The intensive farming method of animal husbandry has become quite a controversial issue and caused apprehension amongst many different factions of society. These concerns relate to how high density farming practices result in dangers associated with environmental impacts, human health and non-human welfare. Animal welfare/animal rights groups argue that the conditions in which the animals live are cruel and abhorrent. This notion of cruelty invites debate surrounding the complex and multi-faceted issue of the moral and ethical obligations humans have in respect to other animals. The issue of battery hen farming is further confounded by economic, social, political, and food security issues. For these reasons the issue warrants further investigation. The main focus of the essay is to explore the moral and ethical issues which humans have towards non-human animals using battery hens as a case study to highlight the topic. Ultimately concluding that public opinion seems to be growing in favour of the banning of battery hens.
It is so easy to become complacent in our sheltered world and to turn the other cheek to the violence and misery that our every life decision can perpetrate, and that the majority of the country (mostly unknowingly) buys into. The fact is that if the horrors of the meat industry were common knowledge, the business would decrease, and drastically at that. So, to keep the knowledge from becoming widespread, meat and animal factory farms are content to work quietly and discreetly in the sparsely-populated back corners of the country where no one can see what is being done without making an active effort. The problem for them is, many people have been making an active effort- as the animal cruelty cause became more mainstream, the US saw a huge increase in the investigative journalism aimed at uncovering the flaws of factory farming. These findings have been explosive, and have led to animal rights legislation , (although sadly, this legislation does not protect all animals). This boom in investigation led most factory farms to close down plants to the outside world, no longer allowing tours or photography and dramatically increasing the security during the hiring process in an attempt to eliminate undercover journalists. Representatives of the factory farm industry claim that they they work out in the middle of nowhere and have increased security for the welfare of the animals; however, this is clearly not the case. They are covering up the overcrowding, the starvation, and the misery that the world is all too happy to ignore, as long as ignoring it means that they can continue on with their lifestyle. The truth is that there is no such thing as a “happy” factory farm animal- even the supposedly “ethically treated” animals, the free ...
Animal welfare assessment has been based on the five freedoms1 concept. This considered negative aspects of mental state (fear and stress) and the compromise of physical domains (nutrition, environment, health, behavior), but did not take into account any positive states [1]. Positive welfare has been gaining importance in science [2,3,4] and among public opinion in the past years [5]. As a result, the five freedoms definition started to change and included positive experiences or emotions such as satiety, vitality, reward, contentment, curiosity and playfulness as part of animal welfare [1].
Egg-laying hens are kept in small cages, chickens and pigs are kept in jam-packed sheds, and cows are kept in crowded, filthy feedlots.” The practices that factory farms use to raise their livestock is extremely unethical and have no remorse for the animal. “Animals on these factory farms are only seen as a number or an asset, they are seen for what they can produce and not for what they truly are (Robbins, P., Hintz, J., & Moore, S. A. 2010). However, factory farming is prevailing as a rising industry in America today, the consumption of meat, fish and poultry has risen by 50 pounds per capita in the past 50 years (Bittman, M. 2008). Would everyday Americans still be buying the products produced by these unethical organizations if they knew what was really going on. Recent images and horrific videos have been brought to the public eye by many Animal rights organizations on the issue of what really goes on inside a factory farm. The large Agricultural lobbyist have tried their best to hide their unethical practices and recently proposed a law that makes it illegal, to secretly videotape large factory farms. (Editorial Board,
One objection Norcross states in his essay is that “perhaps most consumers are unaware of the treatment of animals, before they appear in neatly wrapped packages on supermarket s...
In the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author talks about, not only vegetarianism, but reveals to us what actually occurs in the factory farming system. The issue circulating in this book is whether to eat meat or not to eat meat. Foer, however, never tries to convert his reader to become vegetarians but rather to inform them with information so they can respond with better judgment. Eating meat has been a thing that majority of us engage in without question. Which is why among other reasons Foer feels compelled to share his findings about where our meat come from. Throughout the book, he gives vivid accounts of the dreadful conditions factory farmed animals endure on a daily basis. For this reason Foer urges us to take a stand against factory farming, and if we must eat meat then we must adapt humane agricultural methods for meat production.
To improve the conditions for farm animals, consumers need to be consciously aware of companies who use abusive and nonabusive treatment. By being properly informed, consumers are able to change the demands of the food industry, leading to companies like Subway to respond to consumer demands. The human societies that thrived off of animals thousands of years ago believed that “animals must therefore be treated with proper respect and consideration” (1). The farming industry needs to look back on the way early humans treated animals as a guide to how it should be
Like many other industries, the farming industry has evolved into big business, “Animals on factory farms are regarded as commodities to be exploited for profit.” In each industry from clothing to instruments, the bosses want to make a profit. The more they can supply with the least amount of waste, the more profit they make. The same goes for factory farming. However instead of humans being the ones directly affected by big bosses, the animals are. They don’t have a voice, and can’t stand up for what is right or wrong. These animals are manipulated in every way to make a better profit. Factory farms mass produce animals for ...
Factory farms have portrayed cruelty to animals in a way that is horrific; unfortunately the public often does not see what really goes on inside these “farms.” In order to understand the conditions present in these factory farms, it must first be examined what the animals in these factory farms are eating. Some of the ingredients commonly used in feeding the animals inside factory farms include the following: animal byproducts, plastic, drugs and chemicals, excessive grains, and meat from members of the same species. (Adams, 2007) These animals are tortured and used for purely slaughter in order to be fed on. Typically large numbers of animals are kept in closed and tight confinements, having only little room to move around, if even that. These confinements can lead to suffocation and death and is not rare. Evidence fr...
You’ve most likely have had a juicy steak at least once in your life. But chances are, you’ve never really thought that hard about where your delicious meal came from. The first image that comes to most people’s mind when thinking about farm animals is an idyllic pasture with cows contentedly mooing and munching on lush green grass. While this scene may be a reality for some organic, sustainable farms, when it comes to factory farms, nothing could be further from the truth. They instead, keep animals penned inside small wire or iron cages, and these animals will probably never see the light of day until they are loaded onto the truck destined for the slaughterhouse. Factory farms, though whatever they may say, are in the end, are unethical