What You Can Do

Support legislation that abolishes battery cages, veal crates, and intensive-confinement systems?.

NO!

What you can and should do is stop and think for yourself.

Instead of blindly following peta's propaganda trail, stop and think why animals are farmed the way they are.

Peta and other AR organisations like to glorify small family farms the like of which have largely disappeared except as hobby farms kept by people who have an alternative income.

Were drafty sheds with no electricity or water really better than custom built, temperature controlled buildings?

Were a stressed, overworked, dawn to dusk, jack of all trades farmer and his wife and children really better caretakers than a trained, possibly university educated, 8 hour day stockman?

Was it really better to supplement pig and chicken feed with kitchen scraps and dead animals (did you know that if one of the pigs or chickens died it would be left for the others to dine on along with the crows and the coyotes) or to feed a scientifically formulated ration?

Was it really better to have pigs living on solid floors? Farmers hadn't the time, the money or the energy to clean them out every day, so they invented something better. The slatted floor. Slatted floors may not be perfect but they're better than living ankle deep in slurry, which is how most pigs lived. Straw is fine when it is fresh and clean but it can only absorb so much urine and feces.

Was it better for sows to be loose when they were raising their young? Not only did mortality run at about 40% due to piglets being crushed to death by their large cumbersome mothers, but many of the "luckier" piglets were left with broken or deformed limbs, cuts and abrasions that became infected or brain damage, all of which affected their ability to suckle, so they failed to thrive. Many piglets died of hypothermia before they even made it to the udder for their first suckle.

Farmers wanted something better for their piglets so they invented the farrowing crate which not only dramatically dropped mortality (to about 10%)due to the piglet being warmer and safer, it also made life safer for the stockman who was no longer attacked by an irate sow.

Is it really better for chickens to run loose round the farmyard, where they could be picked off at any moment by a fox or coyote, chased by the family dog, have their chicks eaten by rats and barncats, have to put up with all types of weather, be raped several times a day by the rooster, be subject to nasty parasites, infections and injury all of which affected a birds ability to forage for food, or to be indoors, safe from predators, where adequate food and water is delivered at regular intervals?

As a stockman I know which I prefer. I like to be warm, dry, healthy and safe and because I care about my animals I like to see them comfortable and well fed.

Livestock farming isn't perfect, for the stockman or the stock. Likely it never will be, but to blame the system is wrong. It doesn't matter what type of system an animal lives in, intensive, semi-intensive or non intensive, what matters is having a dedicated, skillful, compassionate stockman who knows his animals and their needs and works to constantly meet or exceed those needs.

Livestock farmers are still the hardest working and least appreciated sector of society. We produce FOOD folks. Contrary to peta propaganda we actually do it because we like animals. You have to like animals a lot to put in the hours and the energy, we certainly don't do it for the money, often as not there's more money going out than there is coming in, which means you are having dinner on us.

Quote of the day

By Chelsea, peta supporter

"You eat rabbit food?"
"You eat vulture food?"

"Where do you get your protein"
"Where does a cow get its protein?"

"Is that all you are going to eat?"
"Are you going to eat all that?"

"Are you going to eat all that (tons of lettuce, fruit)?"
"You are just going to eat that (sandwich, hot dog, etc)"

"Where do you get your (nutrients)?"
"Everything I eat - where do you get yours?"

"What you are eating is nasty"
"And the inside of a cow isn't?"

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Pigs

Sows on a North American "factory" farm.

Pigs

Pigs are very clean animals who take to the mud primarily to cool off and evade flies.

Very true for once we agree on something.

They are just as friendly and gregarious as dogs, and according to Professor Donald Broom at the Cambridge University Veterinary School, “They have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly three-year-olds.”

They are also aggressive, towards both humans and each other. Boars (males) will fight till one of the combatants dies, and sows and gilts (mothers and young females) will fight to maintain pecking order.

Mother pigs in factory farms in the U.S. live most of their lives in individual crates that are 7 feet long and 2 feet wide.

Not a perfect system, I agree, but one that is being gradually phased out in favour of loose housing.

It should be noted, however, that loose housing isn't perfect either. Pigs have a complicated social heirarchy, and will fight to maintain dominance.

Sows can be so aggressive towards each other that some smaller weaker sows become afraid to eat, drink or seek a comfortable spot to lay.

Fighting causes lameness and is also a potential source of infection, as disease causing organisms get into cuts and abrasions, compromising the health of the animal.

Sows have an exceptionally unpleasant habit of biting the vulva of their victims, causing a very painful injury which can ultimately result in death.

Fighting can also cause abortions.

Loose housing also allows for the transmission of parasites necessitating the use of deworming and mange medication.

They display signs of extreme boredom and stress, such as biting the bars of their cages and gnashing their teeth.

What rubbish. As a general rule pigs usually chew on the bars of their crate when its coming close to feeding time and they are hungry. For there most part sows are like cats and they sleep.

Their piglets are taken away three weeks after birth and packed into pens until they are singled out to be raised for breeding or for meat.

Weaning age varies worldwide from 10 to 35 days, 21 days being the norm. By this time the mother pig is glad to get away from her brood, who, having become the equivalent of teenagers are beginning to drive her nuts.

The piglets are moved to a specialised nursery room where they are.kept in groups. (large or small)

Like chickens and turkeys, pigs are genetically manipulated and pumped full of drugs, and many become crippled under their own weight.

Good grief! There you go again talking about genetic manipulation. Where do you get this nonsense? No. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Pigs are no more "pumped full of drugs" than a child who gets ear infections and takes a course of antibiotics prescribed by a doctor. Drugs for pigs have to be prescribed by a veterinarian, and what's more, they have to be paid for. As you keep pointing out, farmers want to produce their pigs at the lowest possible cost. Why would they pay for unnecessary drugs?

And that last bit about pigs being crippled under their own weight is sheer fantasy.

Although pigs are naturally affable and social animals, the confinement of these crowded pens causes neurotic behaviors such as cannibalism and tail-biting, so farmers use pliers to break off the ends of piglets’ teeth and cut off their tails without any painkillers.

Cannibalism and tailbiting are just things pigs do. They have nothing to do with confinement in a pen, crowded or otherwise.

Farmers do indeed dock pigs tails, and some farmers clip a piglets eye teeth, although this practice has been discontinued by many farmers.

Pigs are transported through all weather extremes, often freezing to the sides of transport trucks in leading pig-slaughtering states like Iowa and Nebraska or dying from dehydration in states like North Carolina.

No one would deliberately transport pigs during such weather extremes, but weather changes, and once pigs are on their way to their destination they have to keep going. Or would you like the truck driver to stop and book them all into a motel for the night?

According to the industry, more than 100,000 pigs die en route to slaughter each year, and more than 400,000 arrive crippled from the journey.

According to the industry, 109,000,000 pigs were slaughtered in the US in 2007. So according to your figures less than one in a thousand died, and less than four in a thousand arrived lame. I reckon that's a pretty good safety record.

At the slaughterhouse, improper stunning means that many hogs reach the scalding-hot water baths—which are intended to soften their skin and remove their hair—while they are still conscious.

No. Pigs are rendered unconscious instantly.

U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection records documented 14 humane slaughter violations at one processing plant, including finding hogs who “were walking and squealing after being stunned [with a stun gun] as many as four times.”

14? Out of how many million?

A PETA investigation found that workers at an Oklahoma farm were killing pigs by slamming the animals’ heads against the floor and beating them with a hammer.

Its called blunt trauma. It may not sound nice but it is a quick and painless method of euthanizing a sick or terminally injured. It's more trsaumatic for the person who has to do it than it is for the piglet

Piglet. Note. PIGLET. I defy anyone to slam the head of even a half grown pig against the floor.

Quote of the day
“Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic- and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal.”
Ingrid Newkirk, peta president

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Cattle

Yes, these really are cattle not sheep, free range cattle, enjoying the sunshine after the Colorado blizzard of Spring 2007

Cattle raised for beef may be born in one state, fattened in another, and slaughtered in yet another. They are fed an unnatural diet of high-bulk grains and other “fillers,” which can include expired dog and cat food, poultry feces, and leftover restaurant food. They are castrated, their horns are ripped out, and they have third-degree burns inflicted on them (branding)—all without any painkillers. During transportation, cattle are crowded into metal trucks, where they suffer from trampling, temperature extremes, and lack of food, water, and veterinary care.

What a load of red herrings!! The truth is you really couldn't find anythi9ng bad to say about raising beef cattle so you had to throw in a load of totally irrelevant information.

Most beef calves are raised by their mothers on pasture until they are six months old. Depending on the climate the mothers may be kept on pasture year round or moved to corrals for the winter and calving seasons.

Weaned calves may continue to be fed on pasture or may be moved to a feedlot.

There are huge differences among feedlots, in the weight of the cattle and the types of feeds fed. Feedlots tend to have very specialised management practices depending on the type of beef produced. Their market may be other beef producers who will finish the cattle, or it may be directly to processors or consumers. The size of a feedlot may range from a few animals to operations of 40,000 head. What is important is not the size of the operation but the dedication and skill of the stockman.

Wherever the cattle live, whether in a feedlot where they are fed automatically from a truck, or out on the range where they munch on grass and drink from a creek, they are checked every day by a competent and experienced stockman who checks them for signs of injury or illness, (and treats them accordingly) makes sure they all have access to feed and water and checks the fences to make sure they cannot stray onto nearby roads or farmers crops.

Most cattle are now tagged for identification purposes instead of branded. They are indeed castrated and dehorned without the use of painkillers. However, castration only takes a few seconds and quickly heals. A little pain can go a long way to promote healing as it encourages the calf to protect his rear end and not go fighting or rough and tumbling too much with his mates. It is also important to not here that only male calves have to be castrated.

Horns are not "ripped out" they are either cut or burned off when the animal is young and the horns are still small. It should be noted that not all cattle have to be dehorned. The ranges aren't dominated by Texas Longhorns any more, most breeds are naturally polled, which means they never grow any horns in the first place.

Lack of food water and veterinary care during transportation is irrelevant as most journeys are short. Trucks are well ventilated and their is adequate movement of air over the animals while the truck is in motion (imagine yourself sitting next to an open window on a car journey.

Calves raised for veal are the male offspring of dairy cows. They’re taken from their mothers within a few days of birth, and they are chained in stalls that have slatted floors and are only 2 feet wide and 6 feet long. Since their mothers’ milk is used for human consumption, the calves are fed a milk substitute that is designed to help them gain at least 2 pounds a day. The diet is purposely low in iron so that the calves become anemic and their flesh stays pale and tender.

I don't like the idea of raising veal calves any either, but lets face it, until such time as dairy farmers can get their cows to produce only heifer (female) calves, they will continue to produce at least 50% bull calves and something has to be done with them. Dairymen could kill bull calves at birth, and in fact some do, but if such practice were to become widespread it would attract equal criticism from peta as raising them for veal does.

So the dairymen make the best they can of a bad situation and raise bull calves for veal.

Some veal calves are now raised in group pens with an automatic feeding system. However, this is a trade off as the pens tend to be dirtier and wetter. This allows for the spread of disease-causing organisms and it is more difficult to identify and treat a sick animal.

The meat remains light due to the milk diet not because the calves are anemic.

Just as a point of interest it should be noted that in England where veal production is almost non-existent. Consumption of veal has continued to increase (imported from France)

Quote of the day

"We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of
livestock produced through selective breeding. ...One generation and out.
We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are
creations of human selective breeding."
Wayne Pacelle
President of HSUS
Animal People  May 1993

Chickens

Chickens are inquisitive animals, and in their natural surroundings, they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another and develop pecking orders, love and care for their young, and enjoy full lives that include dust-bathing, making nests, and roosting in trees. In factory farms, however, chickens are denied these activities and suffer because of it.

How do you know that they suffer? Have you ever asked one how it felt?

Have you ever stopped to wonder why poultry, that had in years past always been seen pecking around the farmyard, laying their eggs in old tyres, between straw bales or under sheds, were put into barns? The farmyard is a perfect resevoir for disease. Vehicles, visitors, dogs, vermin, predators and the weather all have the potential to harm the flock. So yes, free range birds might have had freedom, but they had equally short lives marred by infections, wounds, predatory animals, little boys with pellet guns, and the farmers wife with the stewpot in one hand and a hatchet in the other. Poultry kept indoors, are free from these and other dangers.

Laying hens live in battery cages stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. Confined seven or eight to a cage, they don’t have enough room to turn around or spread even one wing. Conveyor belts bring in food and water and carry away eggs. Farmers often induce greater egg production through “forced molting”: Chickens are denied food and light for days, which leads to feather and weight loss.(4)

From birth to 18-20 weeks of age chicks are loose housed in barns with deep bedding. It is only when they reach point of lay that they are moved to battery cages.

Keeping hens in battery cages may not be the prettiest sight, but it is efficient, cost effective, minimises labour requirements and keeps the eggs clean.

Hens moult naturally, usually at the change of the seasons, but not necessarily all at the same time. "Forced molting" should really be called synchronised molting because it makes all the birds molt at the same time.

Is not detrimental to the hens as it increases production.

To prevent stress-induced behaviors caused by extreme crowding—such as pecking their cagemates to death—hens are typically kept in semi-darkness, and the ends of their sensitive beaks are cut off with hot blades without any painkillers. The wire mesh of the cages rubs their feathers and skin off and cripples their feet. Chickens can live for more than a decade, but laying hens in factory farms are exhausted and unable to produce as many eggs by the time they are 2 years old, so they are slaughtered.(5,6) More than 100 million “spent” hens die in slaughterhouses each year.(7) Ninety-eight percent of the egg industry’s hens are confined to cages in factory farms.(8)

Hens pecking their cage mates to death has nothing to do with close confinement, it is just something hens do regardless of the amount of space they have.

Semi darkness? Hens need 14 to 16 hours of good light a day in order to lay. They also need dark for the other 8-10 hours.

Beaks are made of the same material as human fingernails, I don't know about you, but I don't take painkillers when I cut my nails. Chickens don't need them either. Only the sharp tip is removed to prevent excess damage due to pecking. If hens were as loving and friendly as you claim beak trimming would not be necessary. It is done because of the hen's natural tendency to peck each other, it has nothing to do with close confinement.

All birds lose their feathers from time to time. Although battery cages might exacerbate this, it is not uncommon to see free range chickens with feathers missing.

Yes, sad as it may sound once egg production drops to around 80% the hens are usually euthanised and replaced with new stock. Not only does this allow the producer to increase his production but it also enables the barn (yes it's a barn not a warehouse) to be cleaned and disinfected, thus reducing any chance of disease.

More than 9 billion “broiler” chickens are raised in sheds each year.(9) Artificial lighting is manipulated to keep the birds eating as often as possible. To keep up with demand and to reduce production costs, genetic selection calls for big birds and fast growth (it now takes only 6 weeks to “grow out” a chick to “processing” weight), which causes extremely painful joint and bone conditions.(10) Undercover investigations into the “broiler” chicken industry have repeatedly revealed that birds were suffering from dehydration, respiratory diseases, bacterial infections, heart attacks, crippled legs, and other serious ailments.

Well I'm glad peta that you acknowledge that broilers are raised in sheds not warehouses.

What is wrong with a producer wanting to keep production costs to a minimum? This is the accepted practice in every industry throughout the world, why should farming be any different?

Occasionally birds will be seen with the conditions you mention but by no means are they the norm, if they were no bird would ever make it into the food chain.

At the slaughterhouse, chickens are hung upside-down, their legs are forced into metal shackles, their throats are slit, and they are immersed in scalding-hot defeathering tanks. They are often conscious throughout the entire process. Click here to read more about an undercover investigation at a KFC supplier’s slaughterhouse, where workers were caught on video stomping on chickens, kicking them, and violently slamming them against floors and walls.

Nonsense, once the birds throat is cut the blood pressure drops and the bird loses consciousness immediately. I'd be very interested to know why the workers were kicking chickens and slamming them against walls. In no way is this normal behaviour. These people were either paid to behave this way, so they could be videod, or they were coerced into doing it some other way.

Quote of the day

Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler
chickens will die this year in slaughter houses.
-Ingrid Newkirk
(_Washington_Post_, Nov 13, 1983)

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Factory Farming: Mechanized Madness

Intensive livestock farming: Specialized efficiency

I thought it might be an interesting exercise to look at some of peta's propaganda and debunk some of the myths.

The test in black is taken directly from their factsheet. The text in red is the truth.


The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past, which are still portrayed in children’s books, have been replaced by windowless metal sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems—what is now known as “factory farming.”


First, lets get one thing straight. The term, "Factory Farm" was coined by the media in the mid 1970's it portrays an image that the animal rights movement has manipulated and exaggerated to the extreme in order to shock the public into believing all livestock farmers are evil animal torturers. Second, children's books and movies are the only places those idyllic barnyard scenes, where all the animals lived together in clean knee deep straw, under perpetual sunshine, ever did exist. The real lives of both farm animals and farm families was harsh and cruel. Ask any senior citizen who farmed during the thirties forties and fifties which they prefer and I doubt a single person will tell you it was better then.


Farmed animals have no federal legal protection from horrific abuses that would be illegal if they were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilations and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and inhumane slaughter.

Yes they do, at least in western countries. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, USA, EU countries and Scandinavian countries all have excellent animal welfare laws and codes of conduct for intensively farmed animals. Scandinavian laws are particularly strict. What economic benefit would there be in not treating the animals well? There would be none. Profits are tiny enough without deliberately damaging the product. To treat the animals as you suggest would be the equivalent of General Motors leaving some engine parts out, then slashing the seats and chipping the paint before shipping the cars to the showroom. They just wouldn't do it, and neither would a livestock farmer.


Yet farmed animals are no less sensitive, intelligent, or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs or cats whom we cherish as companions.

As a general rule farmed livestock are not kept as domestic pets. Unlike dogs and cats they are large and cumbersome, expensive to keep and cannot be housetrained.



Deprivation and Disease
The factory-farming system of modern agriculture strives to produce the most meat, milk, and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible—and in the smallest amount of space possible.

Exactly. Less space leaves more of the countryside available for crops,wildlife and recreation. Tiny profit margins per animal, and often a loss per animal, means we must produce large numbers of animals in order to make any money.


Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and other animals are kept in small cages or stalls, where they are often unable to turn around.

Nonsense. Cows and calves normally range in open pasture, dairy cows may be kept indoors in open barns, poultry are normally kept in open barns, with the exception of layer hens that are sometimes kept in battery cages, but this is increasingly not the case, Rabbits may be kept in open barns or cages, but the cages have plenty of space for movement, and raising young. Sows In North America are sometimes confined to stalls but this practice is increasingly being phased out in favour of housing pigs in large open barns with bedding (loose housed). Loose housing is the normal practice for sows in Europe and Scandinavia.


They are fed drugs that fatten them faster, and they are genetically manipulated to grow faster or produce much more milk or eggs than they would naturally.

"Genetic manipulation" as you put it has been going on for millenia. It is more accurately called selective breeding. By continually selecting only the most productive animals the standard is constantly improved. It has nothing to do with drugs. Even Noah selected the best animals to take on the Ark.



Because crowding creates an atmosphere that welcomes disease, animals in factory farms are fed and sprayed with huge amounts of pesticides and antibiotics, which remain in their bodies and are passed on to the people who consume them, creating serious human health hazards. The industry simply could not continue to raise billions of animals per year in such extreme conditions without the drugs that allow animals’ bodies to survive conditions that would otherwise kill them.

Gosh, wherever did you dredge up this nonsense?

No, nothing could be further from the truth. Animals are treating with antibiotics if they develop a bacterial infection. This helps the sick animal return to a normal state of health and helps prevent the spread of disease through the herd.

All drugs have a "withdrawal period" this is the number of days after the last treatment that all traces of the drug are cleared from the animal's body. The animal or its produce (milk,eggs) cannot be used for human consumption until after the withdrawal period has passed. In many cases, animals that have been given any drug are tagged (with a strikingly coloured tag) so that they can be easily identified at slaughter. These tagged animals may be processed separately or even sent to a different facility. It is rare for animals to be treated with any drug within 30 days of slaughter, this is way longer than any withdrawal period. Carcases are routinely tested for drug residues and there are large fines for those whose animals test positive.

With some animals, poultry for example, or if disease becomes endemic, antibiotics may be administered through the feed or water system, in this way the stockman can be assured that every animal is treated. Withdrawal periods still apply. Antibiotics do not promote growth. However, an animal that is in good health will eat more and therefore grow more than one whose health is compromised. Antibiotic resistance in humans does not come from antibiotic use in food animals, it comes from the over use and incorrect use of antibiotics in humans. I.e.. Not completing a course of prescribed antibiotics and using antibiotics when not necessary, for the common cold for example.

All livestock are periodically treated with anthelminics to control parasites, but this is no different to using Revolution or flea spray on your dog or cat. Not using these products would result in the possibility of parasites being passed into the food chain.








Quote of the day


What we must do is start viewing every cow, pig, chicken, monkey, rabbit, mouse, and pigeon as our family members.
Gary Yourofsky
- The Toledo Blade (June 24, 2001)

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Peta (pronounced petta not peeta)

People Euthanising Terrified Animals

Why No Animal Rights?

Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved, nor should we. The world cannot function without the inter-relationship between man and animal.

* Animals Are Ours to Eat
* Animals Are Ours to Wear
* Animals Are Ours to Experiment On
* Animals Are Ours to Use for Entertainment
* Animals Are Ours to love and be loved by
* Animals Are Not Ours to Abuse


The main characters


President and founder Inbred Nukehead, the woman who loves to kill, standing in front of a picture of one of her relatives








Senior vice President and Chief Hypocrite Maybelline Sweetmeat


Over the coming weeks (months, years,) I will explore the potty world of peta where hypocrisy, shock-value and sex are the order of the day.

From peta's 97% kill rate for "rescued" pets, and their naked protests, through livestock farming, hunting, circuses, zoos, to their symbiotic re3lationship with celebrities and their shameful promotion of veganism.


Quote of the day

There is no hidden agenda. If anybody wonders about -- what’s this with all these reforms -- you can hear us clearly. Our goal is total animal liberation.
- “Animal Rights 2002” convention (June 30, 2002)

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com