We live in a vast, beautiful world teeming with life – Intelligent life. We are the most intelligent beings in our world. Does this make it right for us to be cruel to less intelligent life forms? Why must intelligent animals die in order for us to live?
Last year, around 6.4 billion land animals and sea creatures were killed in the uk for food. Around 70 billion land animals were killed for food globally in total last year. But, why worry, these animals live on bright grassy and sunny farms and enjoy life before they die? That could not be any further from the truth. Pretty much all our meat comes from factory farms, not the happy, grassy farms we normally associate where our food comes from. But what are factory farms?
“A system of rearing livestock using highly intensive methods, by which poultry, pigs, or cattle are confined indoors under strictly controlled conditions.” Factory farms are basically hell to these animals. They are reared indoors normally with thousands of others all under the same roof – there’s no space to move, only to live. This agricultural technique was invented by scientists during the 1960s in order to maximise efficiency so farms could cope with the high demand of meat from a growing population. That was 60 years ago. Only until recently have we discovered the cruelty going on behind closed doors of these corporations. Undercover investigations have shown us that these animals aren’t dancing around happily in a luscious green farm, no, they’re bred in confined spaces, and if they don’t die from the genetic tampering been done to them, they’ve got a literal clock counting to their death. Once they’re old enough, they die.
No animal in this industry has an easy life. But, chickens may have the worst lives to live. Their demand world-wide is huge. From 1996 to 2016, demand for chicken rose by 40% in the European Union, 89% in China and a staggering 183% in India. Every second, globally, 2000 chickens are slaughtered for meat. In just 45 minutes, the amount of chickens equivalent to the population of Scotland would be dead for food on our tables. But, that’s not the worst part. How they live in these factories are the saddest lives you may ever know.
The moment they are hatched, chicks are taken away into a warehouse where they will live their lives to their deaths. They will never see their mothers. With the genetic and selective breeding, this breed of chicks gains more than 50 grams a day. They live in confined spaces the size of an A4 piece of paper. They won’t get any more space as they grow. Due to the abnormal weight they keep gaining, some of the chicks’ legs buckle. At this point, they can’t move to get food and water. If they’re lucky they’ll die a quick death in the slaughter house, but to the 5% of chicks bred, they don’t even make it. They die because they cannot reach food and water. Chicks in the wild would normally be with their mothers learning about this strange new world. They’d be doing what normal wild chicks would do – explore, have dust baths, be with their mothers. They can’t do any of this in the factories. They are only brought into this world to die. I’m sure you’ve noticed me referring to the chickens as chicks, this is because they live only to 42 days in the factories. They are still young. Given that a chickens lifespan is 5-10 years, even if you use the 5 years, it works out that factory bred chickens only live to 2.3% of their potential lives. They are young. They die for us to live.
‘Dogs are a man’s best friend’, how many times have you heard of this phrase? There are 470 million pet dogs in the world. 470 million dogs get a life to live, a home to stay, a family who love. There are 677.6 million pigs in the world. 677.6 million pigs brought up only to face pain, confinement and slaughter. Recently it was discovered that pigs are as smart as dogs, pigs can use tools, be house trained, understand mirrors and even be empathetic. Yet this remarkable animal is the one that dies for us to live. Why do pigs face this fate when they show the same intelligence as dogs?
“The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?” – Jeremy Bentham, Philosopher , 1789
One question I’ve never thought whilst eating meat is: do they feel pain? Do the animals that face harsh injustice feel pain? Do the animals, who are denied a right to a real life, feel pain? Yes, they do. Every animal that we farm to eat can feel pain. With the terrible living conditions they face in factory farms, it’s safe to assume they felt a lot of pain before they were slaughtered. They can also fear. They fear for their well-being. These animals fear for their own death.
“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” – Charles Darwin, 1871
We’ve got to stop this. We can’t let this go on. We eat the products of inhumane farming. The living conditions they face are our worst nightmares yet they are a reality for those poor animals. As the most intelligent life forms in our world, we have a responsibility of care for our precious world and those on it. Fortunately, we know how to stop this – and it’s quite simple. Shop smart, buy meat from farms not factories. Products with ‘free-range’, ‘pasture-reared’, or ‘outdoor-reared’ are good to buy, whilst ‘farm fresh’, ‘country fresh’, ‘natural’ or ‘corn-fed’ labelled products are not. Find out where your meat and dairy products are coming from. If you buy locally sourced produce, it’ll be easier to find out where it’s from. Another way to stop these cruel corporations is by wasting less meat. Globally, 59 million cattle, 270 million pigs and 11 billion chicken are wasted every year. All those innocent lives taken and then wasted. Eat what you buy and eat what you need. By not buying from these factories, we tell them that what they’re doing is wrong so they better change because we won’t support this cruelty.
Change to the industry is possible, we are the consumers and they are the suppliers. We can make them change because we are the ones who buy their products. It’s been done before. Free range eggs are on supermarket shelves so why not free range chicken? Though our growing population presents a challenge for farms to cope, one thing is for sure: cruelty must never be the answer to any problem.
