Factory farms aren’t just
awful places for animals; they also hurt people. Here are just six reasons
that human and animal rights are undeniably and deeply linked:
1. Sexual Abuse
Last year, PBS’s Frontline aired the hard-hitting
documentary “Rape in the Fields,” which offered a harrowing look
inside the sexual abuse, including frequent rape, of undocumented immigrant
farm workers in the United States.
2. Global Hunger
To put it simply, there
are over 800
million people who do not have enough to eat, while 90 million acres
of land are currently used to grow corn to feed factory-farmed animals.
3. Slavery
Men who come to Thailand,
America’s second-largest seafood supplier, from bordering countries in search
of work are tricked into lives of slavery on fishing boats, where captains
subject them to horrific brutality. Those who resist are often
murdered. Read the full story here.
4. Unsafe Working Conditions
Factory farm workers are
exposed to countless workplace hazards, including injuries, respiratory
illness, PTSD, and exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In fact, a recent
issue of the journal Occupational
and Environmental Medicine found
that 10 out of 22 workers who were tested carried potentially deadly
bacteria.
5. Environmental Injustice
Waste from factory farms pollutes
air, contaminates streams and rivers, jeopardizes our water supply, and compromises
the quality of life for families who live nearby.
6. Child Labor
Federal officials fined House
of Raeford, one of the largest poultry processors in the country, when a
2008 immigration raid uncovered more than 300 undocumented workers and six
underage employees, including a 15-year-old girl, working 10-hour shifts
slaughtering chickens.