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Promoting Veganism:
Sowing the Seeds for a Compassionate Tomorrow

Factory Farming: Mechanized Madness

Life on "Old MacDonald's Farm" isn't what it used to be. The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes portrayed in children's books are quickly being replaced by windowless metal sheds, wire cages, "iron maidens," and other confinement systems integral to what is now known as factory farming. However, the industrialization of animal cruelty by factory farms and slaughterhouses is being challenged by a growing movement of animal advocates, health professionals, and environmentalists. Mercy For Animals dedicates the majority of its resources to exposing the horrors of modern animal agriculture to the public and promoting veganism as a healthy and compassionate alternative to the violence associated with the typical meat-based diet.

Simply put, the factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to produce the most meat, milk, and eggs as quickly and cheaply as possible, and in the smallest amount of space possible. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and other animals are kept in small cages or stalls, in which they often are unable to turn around. They are deprived of exercise so that all of their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. They are fed growth hormones to fatten them faster and are genetically altered to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than nature intends. 

Chickens are divided into two groups: layers and broilers. Seven to nine laying hens are kept in tiny mesh cages. These "battery cages" are stacked in many tiers. Because the hens are severely crowded, they are kept in semi-darkness and their beaks are cut off with hot irons (without anesthetics) to keep them from pecking each other to death. The wire mesh of the cages rubs their feathers off, chafes their skin, and cripples their feet. At the age of one to two years, the hens’ overworked bodies decline in egg production and they are slaughtered.

To satisfy the nation’s craving for chicken meat, more than eight billion "broiler" chickens are raised in crowded, filthy sheds each year. At the age of only nine weeks, they are killed. Since birds are exempt from both the Humane Slaughter Act and the Animal Welfare Act, it is not only standard practice for conscious birds to have their throats slit, it’s perfectly legal. 

Cattle raised for beef are castrated, de-horned, and branded without anesthetics. During transportation, cattle are crowded into metal trucks where they suffer from fear, injury, temperature extremes, and lack of food, water, and veterinary care. They then endure the horrors of the slaughterhouse. According to an April 2001 article in The Washington Post, many cattle are skinned alive.

Calves raised for veal - the male offspring of dairy cows - are among the most cruelly confined and deprived animals on factory farms. Stripped from their mothers only a few days after birth, they are chained in stalls only 22 inches wide with slatted floors that cause severe leg and joint pain. Since their mother’s milk is usurped for human consumption, they are fed a substitute laced with hormones but deprived of iron: anemia keeps their flesh pale and tender but makes the calves weak. When they are slaughtered at about 16 weeks, they are often too sick or crippled to walk.

Ninety-percent of all pigs are confined during their lives. Sows are kept pregnant or nursing constantly and are squeezed into narrow metal "iron maiden" stalls, in which they are unable to turn around. At the slaughterhouse, hogs are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned to soften the hides. As a result, a botched slaughter condemns some hogs to being boiled alive.

MFA is determined to promote the vegan diet (one consisting of no meat, dairy, eggs or other animal products) to help end these tragic injustices. Several campaigns are in progress to educate the public about the benefits of a vegan lifestyle.

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