Animal Cruelty Research

Before my mother immigrated to America she lived on a cramped farm in Michoacan, Mexico. There, her family owned chickens, goats, and a couple of cows. These farm animals were not there as pets, not as friends to play with, but as food for the entire family of 8. Being at the age of 6, she did not understand that her favorite cow would someday be on her dinner plate sitting next to mayo smothered corn. So as a blissfully ignorant child, she became friends with one of the cows. She named her “girasol”, meaning sunflower, because she was the only animal on the farm that lied out in the sun while the others rested in the cool shade under the trees. Every morning she would wake up with a childish grin and help her dad feed and groom the animals.

The production of cows is split three ways: dairy, meat, and veal and each industry is familiar with animal cruelty. The main problem in common is overproduction thus overcrowding. While factory farming can be beneficial as means for food production, the cattle that is it overproducing undergo a tremendous amount of physical suffering. Before being sent to the slaughterhouses, hundreds of cows are confined on one feedlot forced to eat sleep and stand in their own manure. Due to the ingredients in their feeding, they are subjected to disease and other health problems that come from their excrements. A typical healthy cow’s diet is to eat grass, yet in factory farms they are being fed corn. Evidently, the corn in their feeding has evolved into an e.coli strain in their bodies and when they defecate they spread the disease to every other cow (Food Inc.). That is not to say that all cows in these farms have diseases, but it is safe to say that many of them will be subject to become ill if they are in exposed to these conditions for a long period of time and are not treated accordingly. Another problem is mutilation among the cattle. According to Farm Sanctuary, handlers cut off the tails of the cows with the argument that it improves hygiene. Yet, they need their tails to swat away flies and cutting it off causes chronic pain. Other forms of mutilations include branding, dehorning, and teeth clipping, all of which are done without anesthetic (aspca.org). To go through such mutilations is painful enough but having to endure it without any anesthetic to stop the pain is beyond