Animal Welfare: Slaughterhouses In The United States

The fast food industry abuses the fact of animals not having the same right as humans. Factory farming mistreat many animals such as calves by taking them away from their mothers and leaving them all alone. According to “9 Fact About Factory Farming That Will Break Your Heart” from Huffpost states, “ The calves are also kept in near or total darkness and suffered from forced anemia, for no reason other than to keep their flesh pale and attractive.” This shows that workers didn’t care about calves by leaving them suffering in darkness and not being feed well which forced them to have anemia. If workers at factoring farming cared about these animals they wouldn’t treat them like this.

“Industrial agriculture characteristically proceeds by single solutions to single problems: If you want the most money from your land this year, grow the crops for which the market price is highest.” - Wendell Berry Many people question whether or not the morality of treating animals in a humane way outweighs the morality of cheaper food for a nation where 1 in 6 people are facing hunger, and/or starving in any way. Back in the day, a while after World War II, industrial agriculture was applauded as a technological success that permitted an ever growing population to practically feed themselves. Now, many farmers and scientists see it as a blind alley, rather made for factory work.

The issue of whether we should eat meat has been widely debated in our community recently. It is an important issue because it addresses ethical principles, environmental problems, and health benefits. A variety of different arguments have been put forward about this issue. This essay will critique Mathew Lee’s argument of “Should We Eat Meat?” as well as gives an argument in support of eating meat.

unable to move. In close captivity, it is a feeding ground for disease and other illness that can contaminate other animals and consumers. Those individuals who are exposed to this environment are at risk of dangerous bacteria such as E. Coli. Factory farming is a method where animals are kept in an unnatural environment to stimulate more meat and egg production. Per Journal of Animal Ethics written by Drew Leder, Leder introduces the topic of animal cruelty found in factory farms.

The inhumane killing of animals has become a universal problem in which, according to Farm Animal Rights Movement, “Tens of billions of land and sea animals are killed every year just for U.S. food consumption” (FARM). Though mainly killed for food production, there are many instances of animal slaughter due to overpopulation and disease control. The bison population, a victim of the latter, has experienced an extreme decrease in numbers in the United States. Native to North America, bison once covered much of the continent. However, the population tremendously decreased during the 19th century because, according to National Geographic, “Settlers killed some 50 million bison for food, sport, and to deprive Native Americans of their most important natural asset” (National Geographic).

Every year over 10 billion animals suffer and are slaughtered in factory. These animals are crammed into cages and suffer through their whole life never knowing another world. They live on the hard stone and wire floors until the day they are taken to be slaughtered in an inhumane way. Most people read things about factory farming and for a few minutes want to make a change. However, no one really does.

Even through things might not happen as bad as once was but still it happens today where and how we slaughter the animals are not always done in a sanitary way. In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan also talks about slaughterhouse in the United States in chapter twelve. He mentions how the slaughterhouse that he visited made sure that there killing was clean because the buyer could come and watch them kill the animal. They then discuss that they how most factories don’t have people that allow to see them kill the animals.

Nowadays, most of our food are produced by industrial farms. They use high levels of technology to produce huge amounts of meats annually. However, Utilitarianism proves that eating factory meat is immoral because it is increasing the killing and suffering for the animals. Utilitarianism is defined as people should always act to produce the greatest number of happiness for the greatest number of people. Everything that cannot lead it to a greater result, then it must be destroyed.

More than 650 million animals are slaughtered for food in Canada, every year, most of them poultry. Most Canadians think the government ensures the humane treatment of farm animals and when told that that’s not the case they are shocked to discover the lack of monitoring of farms across the country. Canada doesn't have regulations on how animals should be treated on farms other than federal and provincial animal cruelty laws. These laws are only used to prosecute livestock producers in cases of rare and egregious abuse, such as when animals are neglected to the point of starvation.

Industrial farming is intensive animal farming it’s also called factory farming. Animals are stuck in cages all day. More than 9.3 million cows were used to produce milk in the United States in 2008. More than 2.5 million dairy cows were slaughtered for meat. Usually just within hours of birth, calves are taken away from their mothers.