Of the 10 billion land animals killed annually in the United States, 95 percent are birds. The overwhelming majority are "broiler" chickens raised for meat — with one million killed each hour. Additionally, nearly 300 million laying hens are raised for eggs, and 270 million turkeys are slaughtered for meat.
On factory farms, birds raised for meat are confined by the tens of thousands in barren sheds, unable to carry out many normal behaviors, including roosting and foraging.
The most significant assault on their welfare is fast growth. The poultry industry has used selective breeding and growth-promoting antibiotics to produce birds whose bodies "are on the verge of structural collapse."
To put their growth rate into perspective, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture reports, "If you grew as fast as a chicken, you'd weigh 349 pounds at age 2." As a result, 90 percent of broiler chickens have painful leg problems and 26 percent suffer chronic pain as a result of bone disease.
After only 45 days for broiler chickens and 16 weeks for turkeys, the birds have reached market weight. Workers hastily and roughly catch the animals, causing dislocated and broken hips, legs, and wings, as well as internal hemorrhages. Crammed into crates stacked one atop another on trucks, the birds aren't given any food, water, or protection from extreme temperatures during their journey to the slaughterhouse.
Like birds raised for meat, chickens in the egg industry suffer immensely — beginning right after birth. Male chicks are considered byproducts, as they're unable to lay eggs and aren't bred for meat production. Millions each year are gassed, crushed, or thrown into garbage bins to die from dehydration or asphyxiation. Most female chicks are painfully mutilated without any anesthesia. The tips of their sensitive beaks are sliced off with a hot blade, making it difficult for them to grasp food.
Ninety-eight percent of hens in U.S. factory farms are intensively confined in small wire "battery cages," stacked several tiers high and extending down long warehouses. Hens are given less space than the area of a letter-size sheet of paper in which to eat, sleep, and lay eggs. This intensive confinement makes nesting impossible — the most significant source of frustration for battery caged hens — and prevents them from engaging in other natural behaviors, including dustbathing and foraging. While many countries are phasing out the battery cage system, U.S. egg producers still overcrowd hens in barren cages so small the birds can't even spread their wings.
After two years, the hens are no longer profitable and are forcibly removed from the cages, their limbs often torn by teams working at hourly rates of up to 1,500 birds with individual workers grabbing as many as seven hens at a time. As with broiler chickens and turkeys, egg-laying hens are crammed in crates stacked on transport trucks and denied food, water, or protection from extreme temperatures during their journey to slaughter.
At the slaughter plant, the birds are dumped onto conveyors and hung upside down in shackles by their legs. In the United States, there is no federal law requiring that birds be made unconscious before they are slaughtered, as poultry are excluded from the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Their throats are cut by hand or machine. Slaughter lines run at speeds of up to 8,400 chickens per hour, so mistakes are common and some birds are still conscious as they enter tanks of scalding water intended to loosen their feathers.
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Pigs
Pigs are intelligent, highly social animals, yet factory farmers treat the more than 100 million pigs slaughtered annually in the United States as meat - or piglet-producing units.
Sows — female pigs — suffer through rapid cycles of impregnation, birthing, and nursing, all while intensively confined. During their four-month pregnancies, more than 90 percent of sows are kept in barren "gestation crates" — two-by-seven-foot metal stalls — so small the animals can't even turn around. While many countries have banned gestation crates because of their inherent cruelty, their use is still the standard practice of the U.S. pork industry.
Before giving birth, sows are moved into equally restrictive "farrowing crates" — stalls designed to separate a mother pig from her nursing piglets that are so small that the mother can only stand up and lie down. After the piglets are weaned prematurely, the cycle begins again for the mother pig. After giving birth to five or six litters in four years, sows are sent to slaughter.
Pigs raised for meat undergo painful mutilations — including castration and tail docking — without anesthesia. For six months, they're confined in filthy sheds or pens until they reach the average market weight of 266 pounds. Like birds, pigs aren't given food, water, or protection from extreme heat or cold during their transport to slaughter.
According to the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, pigs and other livestock are to be rendered insensible to pain before they're shackled and killed. However, a January 2004 report by the U.S. General Accounting Office on the USDA's enforcement of the Act found that some animals are still conscious as they are hung upside down and their throats are slit.
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Cows
Every year in the United States, approximately 35 million cattle are raised for beef, 9 million cows for milk, and 1 million calves for veal.
Most beef cattle endure painful castration, dehorning, and branding procedures without any anesthesia. For seven months, calves graze on the range before they're transported to feedlots, where they're fattened on unnatural diets. Within six months, they reach market weights of 1,200 pounds and are trucked to slaughter — with no food, water, or protection from the elements during the journey.
Dairy cows endure annual cycles of artificial insemination, mechanized milking for 10 out of 12 months (including 7 months of their 9-month pregnancies), and giving birth. The cows can be given antibiotics and hormones to get the highest possible milk yield. This rigorous cycle overburdens the cows, who are considered "productive" for only two years and are slaughtered when four years old.
A byproduct of the dairy industry is a calf per year per cow. Within their first few days of life, the calves are taken from their mothers. Females usually join the dairy line, while males are typically sold to veal farmers. Indeed, the veal industry wouldn't exist without the dairy industry. Calves raised for veal are intensively confined and tethered in individual stalls so small they can't turn around during their entire four-month lives before slaughter. Veal crates are widely known for their inherent cruelty.
As with conventional battery cages and gestation crates, veal crates are being phased out in the European Union yet are still in use in the United States.
Cows suffer the same mistreatment as pigs during both their transport and slaughter.
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Aquatic Animals
Although the number of aquatic animals killed for food in the United States goes unreported, annual estimates are at more than 10 billion.
Commercial fishers commonly use nets several miles long to trap tens of thousands of animals in one "pull," dragging them along the ocean floor for up to eight hours before they're hauled to the surface. When fish are quickly brought to the surface, many experience decompression and their organs can burst before they suffocate on the boat's deck.
The industry's nets aren't discriminating: The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one in four animals caught in fishing gear dies as "bycatch" — unwanted or unintentional catch. More than 50 percent of the sea turtles, dolphins, seals, and other nontarget animals who are thrown overboard die.
Another significant animal welfare problem is aquaculture — the factory farming of fish — which is the fastest growing agricultural industry in the world. By weight, more than one-third of all aquatic animals eaten in the United States — 800 million pounds — are now raised in settings reported to be "basically an aquatic version of broiler chicken production."
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