Animal Welfare in American Farming Practices As a human, we possess certain rights that protect us in society, however the animals we raise for food live under a much more complicated system that constantly changes. Americans have recently begun to protest animal treatment, especially in the meat industry. Many animal rights groups claim that animal farming is an inhuman practice that violates the rights of all living creatures. Farmers believe that animal right shouldn't change as any changes could cost them millions in new technology to safely care for the animals. The American farming industry poses several moral issues about animal rights which possess no easy solution, however new alternatives appear to have answers for this growing dilemma. America focuses heavily on its livestock and crops earning us a major role in global trade as a farming nation. Unfortunately this has led to some poor choices in treatment of our animals. Many farmers who believe in animal rights say that it started back when farmers only tended to fewer animals, “Ownership of farm animals became concentrated in fewer hands, and flocks and herds grew larger. As a result, the individuality of animals was lost to their owners and they began receding from most people's everyday life” (Namit 29). When people lost their connection to the animals that provided their food, the quality of the animal's lives began to dramatically decrease. Consumers constantly pushed farmers to their limits with high quotas. To keep up with demands agriculturalists turned to some unorthodox practices to keep costs low and still maintain their annual quotas; “To raise efficiency and cut costs, farm animals began to be engineered for abnormally rapid weight gain, fed unnatu... ... middle of paper ... ... concept. An animal cannot follow our rules of morality, “Perhaps most crucially, what other species can be held morally accontable” (Scully 44). As a race humans must be humane to those that cannot grasp the concept. Animals do not posess human rights but they posess the right to welfare and proper treatment by their handlers. The moral responsibilities of America's agricultural industry is an issue that posess no current solution. The only current solutions are the creation of cheap synthetic meat or a change of how Americans veiw animal morality. Synthetic meat only appears as a distant solution on the horizon. The only current solution to animal morality is a change in how we veiw animals. They posess no ablilty to be moral so it falls upon humans as the intellegant race to be humane to animals and treat them with kindeness we bestow upon other humans.
Factory farming is often a sore spot for American and other first world consciences. Even those that are ethically comfortable with consumption of animal products are often discomfited by the large-scale maltreatment of living creatures that is present in contemporary agribusiness. Writings that are similar to Peter Singer's “Down on the Factory Farm”, which depicts the multitude of unnatural horrors and abuses that billions of farm animals undergo before they are ultimately slaughtered for our use, make up the majority of the commentary on the subject. There seem to be few writers with the audacity to dispute the popular outcry that there is something morally reprehensible in our systematic exploitation of other species. Yet, as Stanley Curtis shows in “The Case for Intensive Farming of Food Animals”, a less emotionally charged examination is likely to be necessary if we have any aspirations of revising the current model into one that is not only more humane, but also sustainable for the environment and for the growing human population. Though our sympathies are immediately swayed by Singer's work, we must remain cognisant that, as Singer himself said, “We can't take our feelings as moral data, immune from rational criticism” (The Lives of Animals 89). Though Curtis's work seems at times overly cold in its utilitarian views, it provides an undoubtedly useful contrast to the call-to-arms of Singer's work. Evaluating them in tandem is likely the best approach to deriving a model that placates our moral dissatisfaction while meeting the requirements set forth by reality.
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.
Breeding sows are confined in gestation stalls, pigs have their tails cut off without anesthesia, calves are tethered by their necks in veal crates, and egg-laying hens are debeaked and kept in cages too small to spread their wings in; in a factory farm, animals are treated as commodities. This vivid imagery depicts the facts pertaining to animals. The search for solutions has focused on two paths; one reforming the system and instituting more humane standards, and the second promoting veganism so that fewer animals are bred, nurtured, and slaughtered. While few animal activists disagree with promoting veganism, some believe that campaigning for reforms, and humane labeling is counter-productive. Humane standards can either be required by law, or instituted voluntarily by farmers. Farmers who voluntarily agree to higher humane standards are either opposed to factory farming, or are trying to appeal to consumers who prefer meat from humanely raised and slaughtered animals. There is no single definition of “humane meat,” and many animal activists would say that the term is an oxymoron. Different meat producers and organizations have their own humane standards by which they abide. Humane standards might include larger cages, no cages, natural feed, less painful methods of slaughter, or prohibition of practices such as tail docking or debeaking. In some cases, campaigns target retailers or restaurants instead of the actual producers, and pressure the companies to purchase animal products only from producers who raise the animals according to certain voluntary standards. Societies individuality is split by advocates and opponents; is there a fine line between truth and falsehood, or is animal slaughter for diet always inhumane?
Did you know that over fifty-six billion animals, all over the world are being slaughtered for meat production yearly? This is caused by the high demands for meat, since the consumption of meat has increased annually. To accommodate the meat demands the agricultural farming has turned to factory farming. An intensive animal farming or industrial livestock production, also called factory farming. Factory farming is a large, industrial operation that cultivates large quantities of animals to meet the food consumption of humans. In the United States, Over ninety-nine percent of farm animals are raised in factory farms, these factories were invented to focus on profit and efficiency. They do this by sacrificing the animals’
As can be seen throughout history with events such as the industrial revolution, a desire for high production and high profits often times leads to conditions that are unsafe and inhumane. Today we have realized this and made many reforms to abolish this kind of callous behavior, yet these reforms have not been extended to apply to the animals that are daily abused at factory farms. In order for these operations to have the high amount of output they do they must train their workers to desensitize themselves to the plight of the animals. At a typical slaughterhouse approximately 250 cows are killed every hour, this rush forces workers to shift their view of the animals to become mere objects of production, and in effect promotes inhumane treatment to force cooperation (Factory Farming: The Truth From Behind The Barn Door).
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 ...
No one will disagree that livestock industry in America has its flaws in the processes in which we treat animals before they are slaughtered. The industry is littered with inhumane practices still being used on livestock. The overcrowding of cattle and trimming the beaks off of chickens to prevent them from harming each other are common practice in the factory based livestock farming. I’m not here to argue that these practices are morally correct, only that they are a necessary evil. I’m arguing that converting all of the livestock industry in the United States from factory meat farming to free range farming techniques would have a significant negative impact on the United States economy as well as the wellbeing of the American citizen.
Billions of animals are being slaughtered, abused, and harmed every year; causing enormous amounts of pain, suffering and distress upon them. It is wrong for humans to cause extended harm to animals for no compelling reason, for the fact that they have moral statuses. We have obligations to animals, and these are not simply grounded in human interests. However, the issues of moral status and equal consideration are far more fundamental and far-reaching in practical impact as DeGrazia have stated. (38) Animals have as much moral status and rights as humans do, and are most definitely worthy of our consideration in their lives.
Ever since we developed farming, we have locked up our animals. We have impregnated sows and fattened piglets for the slaughter. The technique of farming is just different and on a larger scale. Because of innovations, farming methods have changed. There are also more people to feed in the United States. The prices of meat have to be kept low so that every family, even the poorest family can afford to have meat protein in their diet. Now that meat is available to poorer people, their diet has been better overall than it had been in the past (Deane, 2004). The activists who are against factory farming have blown the cruelty out of proportion. Yes, there have been factories that have deplorable conditions but those are few and far between. Legislation has been passed to protect the animals in the factory farms. They are not housed in the same ways as humans, because they are not human. Humans have always eaten animals and they always
Along the list of ‘rights movements’, the animal rights movement has its place. Just as the internet has helped further the cause of the protesters of of wall street in the 2000’s and the “Black Lives Matter” movement in 2015, Animal Rights activists has flourished in the readily available spreading of information. Earthlings, an informative documentary on the suffering of animals, has more than half a million views on YouTube alone. Animal suffering stems from regions such as the industry and research and testing. The meat industry is a billion-dollar industry. Not only is it a billion-dollar industry, it’s also slaughters upwards of 10 billion animals a year. In recent years, top poultry producer Tyson has faced
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 ...
There are many debates around the world about the topic of animal abuse. Animal abuse in the food industry has become a major problem due to the cruel treatment of animals. Most of the world's population might think that animal cruelty is only found in homes and on the street, but they forget about the other forms of animal abuse that affect the food industry. Large contributors to animal abuse are due to fishing methods, animal testing, and slaughterhouses. "Animals have always been a major part of our society in history and they have played huge roles in agriculture" (ASPCA). Factory farming is a system of confining chickens, pigs, and cattle under strictly controlled conditions. Slaughterhouses are places where animals are killed
In the past two decades, the rapidly growing society has come up with new techniques and methods to grow food more efficiently. Today, a shocking 87 percent of the population owns products that are tested on animals or come from companies that promote animal cruelty. Every day in countries around the world, animals are fighting for their lives. They are enslaved, beaten, and kept in chains for entertainment; they are mutilated and stuck in small cages so that we can kill them and eat them; they are blinded, burned, and cut up alive for “science”; they are strangled and skinned alive so that humans around the world can wear fur coats and shoes.
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...
It is despicable as a human being to believe that animals have no rights. Today, eagerness to meet the high demand for meat, dairy, and eggs in a record amount of time is the cause of deplorable conditions and animal cruelty. Whistleblowers have helped in making public the inhumane treatment of these animals. Proving that there is a need to direct attention to the animal welfare. On the contrary, the animal agriculture industry is making an effort to protect themselves from whistleblowers. They have passed Ag-Gag-Laws to suppress whistleblowers and investigators from making public the deplorable conditions and routine cruelty that animals endure. They pretend like animal cruelty does not exist. The reality is that it makes no sense for the industry to deny abusive conditions. Then pass a law that punishes those who expose animal cruelty. Their intention is to keep their atrocious practices secret from the public. Animal welfare is not a priority for the industry and with such laws animals will continue to be victims of harm. In this paper, I will discuss how the moral theories of