...or so says the Humane Society of The United States. Since 1954, the venerable animal rights advocacy organization has worked toward preventing the exploitation of creatures while promoting humane treatment, establishing habitat protection and enforcing laws that have yielded mini victories. Campaigns have run the gamut from halting the slaughter of American horses for the exotic international meat trade and targeting the cruelty of "canned hunts" of wild animals in captivity to publicizing the plight of creatures that happen to sport lush coats that appeal to the commercial fur industry. If we focus specifically on our factory farming industry - which is responsible for killing 660,000 animals every hour to feed our insatiable appetite for cheap, readily available protein -- the Humane Society feels that the creatures we consume are surprisingly better off in terms of quality of life than they were just a year ago.
PIGS: These snouted wonders are actually as intelligent as chimpanzees in terms of following directions and demonstrating impressive recollection skills and yet they are regularly slaughtered at just 6 months of age. In that short period of time, they are treated as a factory farmed commodity with little regard for their living conditions or comfort level. At just a few weeks of age, piglets experience the first taste of a cloistered existence when they are removed from their mothers and transferred to overcrowded pens with hundreds of other cohorts. Pigs naturally possess rooting instincts, but their concrete and metal homes - which are entirely crammed with other members of their species - prevent them from moving freely and indulging in simple behavioral activities. They aren't provided with straw to lay on because, according to a pork industry representative, it is "very expensive and there certainly would not be a supply of straw in the country to supply all the pens in the U.S."
As a result, they tend to demonstrate aggressive behavior (more out of annoyance and boredom than anything else) so in a preemptive measure, agri-workers dole out anesthetic-free tail dockings and castrations as well as ear-notchings. If it sounds like male oinkers have it rough, females could quite possibly have it worse since they are the key to keeping the whole industry literally in the pink. Consequently, they spend the majority of their lives in a continual state of pregnancy and nursing - producing roughly 20 babies each year - and living the majority of their days in 2 foot wide gestational crates that prohibit them from doing much more than lie down on their sides, where they exhibit deep psychological distress and coping behaviors such as bar biting and "mourning." Their victory in 2009? The states of Maine and Michigan banned gestational crates, which is surely a coup, but clearly they've got a long path ahead of them.
CHICKENS: Despite possessing distinctive personalities and an impressive mental capacity, 9 billion "broiler" birds and egg-laying hens meet their demise each year in the US. Both lifestyles leave a lot to be desired - broiler chickens are genetically manipulated so they grow abnormally large breasts and thighs, but the consequence is that they suffer from congestive heart failure and painful deformities, often before they reach seven weeks of age. Hens aren't any better off, suffering from excrement ammonia burn and "Cage Layer Fatigue" resulting in broken bones thanks to their confinement in 67 inch wire battery cages that prevent them from standing up or exercising. The system devised by the industry prevents them from engaging in any of their normal behaviors, such as pecking for food, roaming, flapping their wings, etc. and the author of Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money suggests that "it's probable that a forkful of egg comes at a cost of greater suffering than a forkful of veal."
Their victory in 2009? More major egg purchasers, including Wendy's, PF Chang's and Red Robin, are now going to switch over to cage-free sources, which while not a utopia, is a small step up. The Humane Society explains that "cage-free hens are spared several cruelties that are inherent to battery cage systems, but it would nevertheless be a mistake to consider cage-free facilities cruelty-free." Why? The birds - sourced from the very same operations that supply battery cage farms -- are still subject to beak mutilation, the males are still destroyed and some producers rely on starvation as a means to induce molting.
COWS: Our country continues to have a great appetite for beef and dairy, which is why each year 35 million cattle (slaughtered at 6 months of age), 1 million calves (slaughtered at 16-18 weeks of age) and 9 million cows (slaughtered at 4 years of age) fuel the industry as a whole. The typically docile creatures experience some of the most notorious cruelties depending on what sex they are. Those raised for beef experience anesthesia-free brandings, de-horning procedures and castrations. Artificially inseminated dairy cows, in addition to having their tails docked without anesthetic, are kept in a constant state of lactation and mechanically milked. Calves are tethered to individual veal crates by their necks and the confined space which they are incapable of even lying down in causes them to experience muscular atrophy. While these are just some of the well-known injustices, reports have surfaced in recent years that ailing, slaughterhouse-bound animals have also been mistreated. Their victory in 2009? California has decided to ban the docking of their tails.
Seriously? That's it? Seems like we could do a whole lot better.
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