Better Treatment Regulations Protecting Slaughter Animals

Approximately three billion ducks, cattle, lamb and turkeys are slaughtered to feed the hungry mouths of Americans each year . Unfortunately, while we Americans sit back and enjoy our hearty dinners, these animals are being subjected to conditions in farms and slaughterhouses that are harsher than us humans could even begin to imagine. If our society desires to pile our plates with the best poultry and meats, then the livestock that provides us with these delicacies deserve the best treatment. It is necessary for the government to enforce harsher regulations protecting animals raised for slaughter. It is necessary for the animals and it is necessary for us.

Although the United States government has implemented a great deal of laws regarding the meat industry, very few of these laws have been regarding the treatment of animals. Since 1967 and the passing of the Wholesome Meat Act, it has been required by law that all meat produced in the United States be inspected to set federal regulations. Today, the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture succeeds at their job of testing samples of U.S. meat for microbial and chemical contaminations, but they do not succeed as well at enforcing the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act of 1978. This act made it in accordance that all livestock slaughtered in the U.S. be “made insensible before they are killed”. Slaughterhouses’ attempts at numbing the animals, though, often fall short, and each day hundreds of chickens are dunked alive into scalding de-feathering tanks and cows are still conscious while they are cut open. Arguably, the slaughter is not even the harshest treatment received by the animals; their entire lives, lived in captivity, are worse.

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...nd the meat that comes from these cows is much leaner and lower in saturated fats that can be attributed to heart disease in humans. Additionally, a serving of grass fed beef has about 92 calories less than an average cut of beef, saving the average American about 16,642 calories a year. It is the healthy choice and it is the right choice.

Why wouldn’t the government make humanely raised meat, the only meat produced and sold in America? It is wrong to raise animals in an unnatural way. It is wrong to force innocent animals to suffer. It is wrong for meat eaters to be subjected to health risks that they may not even be aware of. And lastly, it is wrong for the government to ignore these problems found in the meat industry. The right thing to do? Enforce harsher laws that regulate the treatment of livestock in America, and this treatment’s affect on the meat we eat.