Factory Farms
r Feb.6,2006
Factory Farms and Animal Rights
Most of the millions of four-footed animals and the poultry that furnish
part of our food supply spend their lives suffering in what must be painful
living conditions. More public awareness and more reminders of this
shameful situation are needed In order to get Congress to adopt
legislation to remedy their suffering.
The Facts
Nearly all of our food and eggs now come from “factory farms.” What were
at one time family farms are now agribusinesses. The methods adapted to
get the maximum production at the least cost have resulted in crowded
conditions and painful practices that have become almost universal in these
factory farms as illustrated in the next paragraph.
Laying hens are confined throughout their lifetime with up to four or five in
a cage so small they cannot walk or stretch their wings. Nearly one-half of
male dairy calves are raised in restrictive crates so small they cannot turn
around and live in total darkness. Pigs are raised on concrete floors which
bar their use of their natural rooting instincts. Broiler chickens are not
individually confined but they are in such crowded conditions that their
beaks are clipped to avoid injuring each other.
Due to overcrowded and stressful conditions, the practice of feeding
antibiotics and growth hormones is becoming increasingly common. As
consumers we subsequently ingest small amounts of these antibiotics and
thereby become more immune to their needed help when our doctors
prescribe antibiotics for our ailments. In July,2008, the FDA agreed to end
this use of antibiotics in farm animals but later reversed its position,
porobably because of pressure from the farm lobby
In the days before factory farms, when livestock was raised on small farms,
and were allowed to spend their lives outdoors, animal manure was an
asset as a fertilizer. I remember the regular spring job of spreading horse
and cow manure on our fields in the spring before plowing. With factory
farms animal manure is collected in lagoons which have become a major
problem. But with today's technology and adequate funding,,this problem
can be eliminated.
What can be done?
The obvious remedy is government regulations to eliminate as much of the
above abuses as seems warranted. We should start by advocating
legislation similar to that being enacted in Canada and Europe that
eliminates some of the most inhuman practices. Of course this would raise
prices and to make decisions about added regulations we would need much
more information than is now available on the cost involved in making
specific improvements.
And by promoting less eating of meat and more of grains, vegetables and
fruit, we would correspondingly decrease the amount of animal suffering
even if no changes were made in factory farms. Can technology develop
tasty substitutes for steaks?
Any steps we take to establish more humane conditions for our food
livestock would need to be extended to imports. And meat imports are
also a disadvantage in other respects—the danger from avian flu and the
use of energy in freight transportation. It should be practical to regulate
the use of antibiotics and drugs fed to food livestock by controlling their
distribution. And if regulations force better conditions on factory farms the
need for their use would be greatly diminished.
Notes:
In Canada the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals (CCFA) is promoting
the welfare of farm animals by public education and proposing legislation.
They advocate group pen facilities that provide adequate bedding such as
straw, plus ventilation and separate resting and exercise areas- more
humane than the crate system.
=20% of breeding sows die prematurely from exhaustion and stress due
to confinement and accelerated feeding schedules.0
The European Union requires a minimum of space for hens amounting to
about a third more than is common in the U.S. And by 2012, it intends to
completely eliminate battery egg production. Germany intends to
eliminate all chicken cages.
Several U.S.organizations include concern for food animals as one of their
objectives. But as far as I can determine, only the Humane Farming
Association concentrates on the welfare of farm animals and the situation
in factory farms.
Almost half of all the antibiotics used in the U.S. go into animal feeds.
.The food and drug administration has warned that one out of every ten
calves slaughtered contains illegal levels of drug residues.
In 1995, 25 million gallons of animal waste spilled from an 8-acre
“lagoon” into a North Carolina river. This killed 10 million fish and closed
364,000 acres of coastal wetland to shell fishing.
Animal-rights activists seem to pay more attention to the use of animals
for testing. But one expert in the field says that “an improvement in the
lives of 1% of farm animals would do more to reduce animal suffering
than eliminating all of the testing.In 2008 California enacted legislation
that will do much to lessen overcrowding on CA factory farmsn