Many people consume factory raised meat every single day, however, what people don´t understand is the torment that each of these animals must endure in order to make it on their plate. Livestock cruelty has increased so dramatically, that it has created health problems for the animals. Factory raised animals are amongst the most brutally treated animals, and these animals are prone to catching a variety of diseases because of their terrible living conditions. In addition to horrible living conditions, some livestock animals are given abundant amounts of food in order to fatten them quickly, leading to a faster sell. Some animals, when not useful to the meat market, are killed brutally because they do not contribute to the factory in any way. Many of these livestock facilities butcher their animals´ body parts without painkillers and deny their animals the ability to see a veterinarian. All of these horrible mistreatments cause the livestock to contract different health issues, and in some cases, these health issues may harm the meat consumers of America.
From the moment these animals lay a foot on the factory ground, they are treated horrendously. Approximately 95% of U.S. farm animals are raised on factory grounds, and these factories mainly focus on the profit and efficiency of their meat, without taking into consideration of the animals´ well being. Of course, these animals will eventually be eaten at someone’s dinner table, however, it is ethically wrong to treat any animal in such a horrible way (ASPCA). Many of these livestock animals are pushed into crowded cages, and almost never given the chance to lay foot on actual ground. According to the ASPCA, ¨Up to 10 hens are packed together in one wire cage roughly the size of a file drawer.¨ (ASPCA) These living conditions don’t allow the animals room to live a decent lifestyle. Most of these animals, mainly pigs, must live in their feces, inhaling nothing but ammonia fumes that their feces produces. Ammonia fumes can cause the animals to contract nose, throat, and many different other respiratory infections. Ammonia fumes can lead to lung damage, blindness, and in severe cases, death.
It isn’t uncommon for meat production factories to over feed their animals in order to a have fast and efficient meat production. In modern factories, it is extremely common to over feed the livestock, and allow them to develop much faster than normal. In addition to that, these animals grow disproportionately because they are growing faster than they naturally would. Chickens are the most targeted animal to enhance growth. Chicken breast is always on high demand in the meat industry, so factories will add different steroids to the chickens’ food, making their breasts grow faster than most other parts of their bodies. These steroids cause a multitude of hardships for the chickens. For example, they can suffer from leg weakness, trouble breathing, heart failure, and chronic pain. In some cases, the chicken cannot support all of the extra weight they have, and they eventually become crippled, struggling to reach food or water. Not only does overfeeding affect the individual animal, but it also affects the animals around them. According to ASPCA, “ As they grow, meat chickens become crowded together, competing for space.” (ASPCA) These animals begin to fight for space, so factory workers must butcher some of the animals’ body parts without anesthetic to keep them from killing each other.
Not all livestock is used for the meat production, some animals are killed because they do not serve a purpose to the factory inventory. In the meat industry, there isn’t a market for the male chicks, mainly because they aren’t the right breed for meat, “so shortly after they hatch, they are killed by grinding, gassing, crushing or suffocation.” (ASPCA) After a hen becomes a slow producer of eggs or can no longer produce eggs, meat factories tend to starve the hen in order to adjust their body to the final stages of life.
