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Abolishing the Status of Animals as Property |
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► Animals in Food |
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10-Oct-07 |
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Animals are sentient beings who deserve the right to live free from exploitation. Animals are not objects or commodities. Discrimination based on species must be challenged in the same way as discrimination based on race, disability, religion, age, gender, or sexual orientation. Speciesism is deeply entrenched in the lives of the status quo. Unfortunately, the animals suffer and die for this myopia. Factory farms are warehouses where animals are confined in crowded conditions often in cages or restrictive stalls. Whether on a factory farm or in open fields, raising animals for food is exploitation and completely unnecessary. Everyday, more people are shunning animal exploitation by adopting a vegan lifestyle. There are many reasons for going vegan, such as health and the environment. Our focus here is on the animal cruelty reasons for veganism. Worldwide, animal raised for food outnumber humans 3:1. (1) There are 18 billion animals confined and suffering unnecessarily to feed human greed. (1) References: Extrapolated from FAO, FAOSTAT Agricultural Data 2002, www.fao.org. 98% of egg laying hens in Canada, including here in Nova Scotia, are confined in battery cages stacked 4-6 rows high in giant sheds. Each shed can contain tens of thousands of birds. Before being placed in the cage, she is separated from her brothers who will be ground up or suffocated while only days old since they are useless to the egg industry and too small to be profitable for meat. Hens’ beaks are seared off with a hot blade to prevent pecking their cell mates. There are 4-6 birds per cage - each bird is given the same space as 1/2 sheet of paper for her entire life! She has no choice but to urinate and defecate on the birds below. This confinement prevents any form of natural behavior. Hens cannot spread their wings, sun or dust bath, or even nest build. They are forced to stand on metal grates which causes serious foot deformities. They remain in this condition until they are slaughtered at two years of age. |
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In 1950 in Canada it took 84 days for a broiler chicken (bird raised for meat) to reach the market weight of 1.36 kg, but by 1998, it took only 42 days to produce a 2 kg bird. The time to reach market weight for broilers decreases about one day each year and the trend is expected to continue. Currently, the production time is around 40 days. The spectacular growth rate of broiler chickens has been achieved mainly through breeding for growth in muscle, plus routine use of growth promoting drugs. The fast growth has resulted in sie effects, which cause intense animal suffering such as leg and skeletal deformities, acute death syndrome, and heart attacks. Broiler chickens live in extremely crowded, barren environments. By slaughter, each bird has only a half-square foot (465 sq cm) of space. That’s less than the size of a computer mouse pad. These unnatural, barren, and confining conditions deny animals opportunity to express natural behaviors. Massive amounts of manure accumulate in the floor litter from the thousands of birds during their six-week life. Broiler house lighting is constantly manipulated to simulate higher food consumption and faster weight gain, with lights kept on up to 23 hours straight. Upset circadian cycles cause distress, which humans know as jet lag. “Broiler breeders”, the parent birds kept to give birth to broiler chickens, suffer a deprived life. The breeders are selected to produce fast-growing offspring. To keep the parent birds’ weight manageable, they are food-deprived, and constantly hungry. The birds have their beaks seared off with a hot blade to prevent them from pecking each other from the stress of over-crowding and hunger. “Broilers”, are specially bred for efficient production of meat. The goal is to grow the biggest bird in the shortest time for the lowest cost. When broilers reach 34—42 days of age, they are grabbed by their feet, several at a time, held upside-down and loaded into crates by “chicken catchers”, who work so quickly they cannot treat each bird with care. Many chickens, which are already lame, suffer broken legs or wings or bruising during this stressful procedure. In hot weather, crowded birds in the inside cages suffocate, and in winter birds freeze to death. Pain in already-damaged limbs is an added stress. The length of journey contributes to the stress and lethality of transport. Chickens may be legally transported up to 36 hours without being fed of watered according to regulations under the Health of Animals Act. |
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The slaughter procedure for nearly all chickens is to suspend the bird upside-down snapped in metal shackles. The procedure must induce fear, as well as seriously aggravate the pain of lameness and injuries from catching. After being shackled upside-down, the chickens are supposed to be rendered unconscious by immersion in an electrified water stun bath prior to having their throats cut. Stunning is followed by a mechanical neck cutting machine and ends with immersion in scalding water to loosen their feathers. However, not all birds are properly stunned. Birds not stunned in the water bath feel their throats being slit, and some get to the scalding water bath while fully conscious Parts of the carcass, including the head, feet, entrails, blood and feathers, are dried, ground up, and sold as poultry by-products for pet food and other animal feeds. Even cancerous chickens are not thrown away; their carcasses are cut up, and the bad parts removed. The good parts are collected and sold as “chicken pieces” and “chicken wings” for human consumption. What can you do? Stop supporting this cruelty. Recognize sentient beings, such as chickens, have a right to live free from pain, suffering and exploitation. Stop eating chicken! Free range chicken is still chicken. Eating animals is not necessary for good health and is detrimental to the environment and deadly for the animals. Go vegan! Replace meat n your diet with beans and tofu...see our recipe section for delicious and cruelty free meals. |
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Beak Searing |
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The even darker side of the dairy industry—calves are taken from their mothers only a couple of days after birth to prevent them from consuming the milk intended for human use. The mal calves live in small crates until they are 4 months old and slaughtered for veal. (1) This is industry standard in NS and yet another example of unnecessary pain and suffering. Transport—Crammed together, animals must stand in their own excrement while exposed to extreme weather. According to regulations under the Health of Animal Act, cattle (beef, dairy and veal) may be transported without food, water, or rest for up to 52 hours (1). Whether beef, dairy or veal they all suffer the same fate. There were close to 25,000 calves and cattle slaughtered for human consumption in 2005 in NS. (2) References: (1) www.humanefood.ca. (2) www.gov.ns.cs.nsaf |
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While the number of Canadian dairy farms has decreased by 85% from 1970 to 2003, the volume of milk per farm has increased by 550% in that same period. Dairy cows have paid the price for our greed. (1). Dairy cows endure an annual cycle of artificial insemination, mechanized milking, and giving birth. In order for dairy cows (or any other mammal) to produce milk they have to be kept pregnant, otherwise, they would stop lactating when the baby weans (just like humans). Dairy cows are slaughtered around 7years of age when they are “dried up”. The natural lifespan of a cow is about 20+ years. Intensive milking can result in painful and swollen udders. Mastitis is also common in dairy cows—a painful bacterial infection. Humans are the only species to drink the milk of another. Humans do not need cows milk to drink! |
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Approximately 35,000 pigs are slaughtered in NS each week. That’s nearly 200,000 every year from only 70 farms. (3) Since 1951, the number of pig farms in NS has dropped from 11,552 to only 70 in 2006. During this same period, the number of pigs on farms in NS has risen by 390%. (4) References: (1) http://www.gov.ns.ca/NSAF/agaware/. (2) www.humanefood.ca. (3) www.gov.ns.cs.nsaf. (4) www.pork.ns.ca. |
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For their first 3-4 weeks, piglets live in farrowing crates which restrict movement and deny and natural behavior. The piglets end up in “grow finishing barns” before being slaughtered at 5-6 months of age. (1) Females pigs are kept in sow stalls while pregnant. When their babies are taken away (3-4 weeks) the pregnancy cycle continues until she is slaughtered at 2 years of age. Sow stalls (or gestation crates) are so small, the sows cannot even turn around. They are forced to defecate and urinate where they lay. They never see the light of day. (2). |
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All 25 of NS commercial egg farms are factory farms. (1) The average Canadian egg farm has 10,000 to 20,000 hens and can range from a few hundred to an astonishing 400,000 hens! (2) Broiler chickens are grown for meat and live on one of 84 factory farms in NS. They are housed in densely populated barns and are never allowed outside. Every two months, each farm sends 40,000 chickens to slaughter. NS slaughters over 20 million chickens every year. (3) The situation is just as bleak for turkeys. There are 21 registered turkey producers in NS. The number of producers is declining while production is increasing (4) The result is harsher conditions for the animals. References: (1) Nova Scotia Egg Producers (902) 895-6341. (2) www.eggs.ca. (3) www.nschicken.com. (4) www.canadianturkey.ca and Agriculture Canada www.agr.gc.ca |
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Foie gras, literally translated from the French as “fatty liver”, is the result of force-feeding ducks or geese a huge amount of nutritionally deficient food until their livers reach many times their natural size. Workers achieve this by pushing a metal tube down the animals’ throats and pumping four pounds of food into their stomachs daily. Their livers, which naturally weigh about three ounces, expand to one-and-a-half pounds by the end of four weeks, which is eight times their normal size. Many ducks and geese die during the process, as their bodies are not meant to withstand such feeding practices. Some die when their necks are punctured by the metal feeding tube; some die from their stomachs bursting; still others die when force-feeding fills them literally to the point of asphyxiation. These are only the accidental deaths; workers in foie gras farms have been documented pulling the heads off of live ducks, smashing them into walls, punching and kicking them, crushing and suffocating them in plastic bags, and cutting their throats while they were still fully conscious. These abuses are not mere fringe aspects of the industry, but, like often fatal feeding methods, inherent to its cruel nature. View footage at You Tube WHAT YOU CAN DO! Educate restaurant managers about the terrible abuse the animals suffer in the foie gras industry, and ask them to stop carrying this product. There are many alternatives to buy instead , such as delicious plant-based pâtés and “faux gras” delicacy, which can be made wihtout causing cruelty to animals. Prepared pates can be bought from vegan online stores such as Pangea and Vegan Essentials. Or try these recipes. |
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Veal is a by-product of the dairy industry. Dairy cows need to be constantly pregnant in order to produce milk for human consumption, resulting in many offspring. Some of the female calves replace their mothers on dairy farms, and a small portion of the male calves are kept as breeding stock. The remaining calves are taken from their mothers when they are as young as one or two days old to be shipped and raised for veal. Without human intervention, calves would suckle from their mother for nearly a year (1). A cow and her calf can develop a strong maternal bond in as little as five minutes (2) and a lifelong relationship of social contact and companionship (3). The removal of calves from their mothers causes cows and calves great stress. Cows have been known to escape enclosures and travel for miles to reunite with their young. There are three types of housing systems used for veal calves; hutches, stalls and group pens. Group pens allow the calves to live among other calves. However, they are housed inside, very often under artificial light, and may never see the light of day. In fact, Canada’s Recommended Code of Practice for veal states that light for a sufficient intensity for the calves to observe one another is recommended for a minimum of 8 hours within a 24 hour period. This means that producers following the code might have their veal calves in darkness two-thirds of the day. Because calves often live in poorly lit, crowded and stressful environments, bullying can occur. In veal stalls, calves are confined to small wooden crates with barely enough room to move. The cannot take more than one step forward or one step back, cannot stretch, nor turn around. As they grow the space becomes smaller. The normally social calves have no contact with other calves. While they may be able to see their companions, they cannot reach them. They spend their entire lives severely confined so their meat will be tender, and are slaughtered without ever having felt the sun on their backs or the grass under their feet. Hutches are not as restrictive as stalls or crates, but do not come close to meeting the natural needs of a calf. Here the calves are chained to tiny igloo-like structures. Though their leader are long enough to allow them access to the outdoors, they are not quite long enough to allow them to socialize with the calves on either side of them. The lack of stimulation and social activity must cause extreme loneliness and frustration. All of these managements systems frustrate the natural instincts inherent in calves; to suckle, frolic in the fresh air and be close to their mothers. WHAT YOU CAN DO! |