Many people choose not to think about or are not aware of all the suffering animals endure in order to bring us our daily helpings of beef, poultry, and pork. The reality is small family farms are being replaced by large factory farms, which have literally no concern over the well-being og their animals.
"These large slaughtering operations are primarily concerned with productivity and profit. They don’t care about the effects on the animals. It’s as if they’re not even killing animals. They’re "disassembling" them, processing raw materials in a manufacturing operation." Dave Carney, Chairman, National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals as quoted in Slaughterhouse, 1997.
Of the 8 billion animals slaughtered annually in the U.S. alone, 90% of them live in cages too small for them to turn around. This often leads to aggressive behavior towards the other animals kept for slaughter. The factory farm's solution to this is to de-horn, de-beak, de-tail, and castrate all animals without anesthesia. Environmental controls are also used to keep the animals in a state of monotony.
Animals in slaughterhouses can smell the stench, hear the sounds, and often see the slaughter of those before them. As the animals struggle from fright, the human workers, who are pressured to keep the lines moving quickly, often react with impatience towards the animals. Dr. Temple Grandin reported numerous cases of "deliberate cruelty," including workers who "enjoy killing and … torment animals on purpose," taking "sadistic pleasure from shooting the eyes out of cattle," striking them in the head, and electrically shocking them in sensitive areas of their bodies (Meat & Poultry, 9/87).
According to Steve Cockerham, a USDA inspector at Nebraska slaughterhouses, and former USDA veterinarian Lester Friedlander, some U.S. slaughterhouses routinely skin live cattle, immerse squealing pigs in scalding water, and abuse still-conscious animals in other ways to keep production lines moving quickly. The men stated that the federal law requiring slaughterhouses to kill animals humanely has been increasingly ignored as meat plants grow bigger. Cockerham related that he often saw plant workers cut the feet, ears, and udders off cattle that were conscious on the production line after stun guns failed to work properly. "They were still blinking and moving. It’s a sickening thing to see," he said (Reuters, 4/2/98).
