It's a Hard Knock Life:

Introduction:

We wanted to learn why some farmers refuse to send their animals to factory farms. We knew that slaughter houses treat the animals placed in their care like dirt. In reality it’s much worse then that. The ways are truly unimaginable and disgusting. We used pictures and articles from websites for our research. We recommend you take a look at them yourself.  We hope you can see how terrible it actually is.  We feel terrible because animals at factory farms are mistreated in inhuman ways that are not necessary for the slaughter of these animals.Animals at factory farms are mistreated in inhuman ways that are not necessary for the slaughter of these animals.

 Our Report:

  All over the United States animals are being abused regularly.  Not many people know because a lot of these animals live on Factory Farms with laws protecting their faming practices.  Among the abuse are their horrid living conditions.  Chickens, pigs, and cows are shoved into tight, cramped quarters with little to no sunshine or fresh air.  Many are walking in and/or covered in their own excrement.  These animals will never see light.  They will live their short and sad lives in these conditions.  Being fed chemically modified food to make them how we want them, until they are ready to go to the slaughterhouse and be chopped up into someone’s hamburger, your hamburger.  Would you really want to eat that hamburger if you knew what that cow went through?

 While doing our research we found that the most killed and possibly most abused animal out there had to be the chicken.  If you look at the graph above you can see the durastic increase of the numbers of chickens killed in the United States each year (a whopping 9,000,000,000!) Compare that to the number of cows and pigs and you can see quite a difference.  These chickens probably have to worst conditions too.  They are put in huge barns basically with no fresh air, sunlight, and no space for them to move or walk.  They are often said to not even have enough room to spread their wings.  That is quite a problem.  The problem is not enough people care to do anything about this.  No laws have been made to help the chickens.  The only laws that are out there protect the farmers and mostly, the meat companies.  We feel this is only going to get worse and it needs to change.

You’d think since discovering the abuse and mistreatment of animals in factory farms the government would be doing something about it. That, however, is not the case. After animal rights activists got employment on a factory farm in intentions of recording the abuse a new bill in Iowa was passed to not allow the undercover taping of these farms. No one is even taking the animal’s sides! On the positive side seven states have passed laws banning gestation crates. Still. That’s a start, but not enough.  We need the government to do more and support those organizations that are against factory farming and the abuse of animals.  Without them factory farms won’t be stopped.

What does all this have to do with you? You as the consumer can help a lot more than you think.  It may not seem like one person or even one thousand people can’t stop the HUGE factory food industry and meat packing industry.  The fact is if maybe one person goes against them then more and more will follow. It’s easy.  Start by just buying local food.  Buy meat that you know if from your local farmers, not shipped from some place miles away.  Or you could consider becoming a vegan or vegetarian.  While his is much more of a drastic measure, it works just the same.

 Conclusion:

Even though factory farms and brutal forms of slaughter seem to be taking over our nation, this can be stopped once and for all. It will take more then just our government to stop them. It will take the support of the American people, and we hope by reading this you may have gained information that will make you want to change and help out the animals that are in the slaughter houses too! So please, get active! Help protect the rights of animals!

Works Cited:

"Factory Farming: Cruelty to Animals | PETA.org." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): The Animal Rights Organization | PETA.org. PETA; People for Ethnical Treatment of Animals. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming.aspx>.

"Get Involved | Farm Sanctuary." Farm Sanctuary | Watkins Glen, NY. Web. 09 Mar. 2011. <http://www.farmsanctuary.org/get_involved/alert_USDA_downed_animal_protection.html>.

"Force-Fed Animals : The Humane Society of the United States." The Humane Society of the United States : The Humane Society of the United States. Web. 10 Mar. 2011. <http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/force_fed_animals/>.