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What if there was TRUTH on labels? How about buying a dozen eggs stamped, "destroying the planet," or some corn that stated, "I am a plant that has been genetically modified and no one is sure that I am safe for you to eat"? or a package of bacon that said, "caused Swine Flu"? How about a pound of hamburger that said "I was confined & abused my whole life, & I have a virulent organism that could possibly kill your family"? ? Would you still buy it ? |
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| This is NOT about meat, it is NOT about eggs, and it is NOT about plants. The facts are clear, and this is the single most important subject you could make a choice to understand. You have the power to make positive changes that can improve almost every issue that exists on Earth today. |
| A modern-day industrial pig farm |
| Sensitive and intelligent beings, pigs are treated as nothing more than machines. This pig collapsed in a pool of his own vomit. In an issue of the journal Hog Farm Management, John Byrnes advised: "Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory." |
| "Dead piles" are a constant presence in factory farms. While pigs are fed massive amounts of antibiotics to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them, hundreds of thousands succumb to the stress of violent mutilations and intensive confinement. |
| Living their entire lives in what are called battery cages, these chickens don't have enough room to turn around or even spread out their wings. |
| Veal: Baby cows that have been ripped from their mothers are horrifically confined, then intentionally malnourished to make the meat "desirable." They live in isolation, in their own waste, completely neglected and abused, unable to move around, then slaughtered. An increasing number of gourmet and world renowned chefs are refusing to use veal in their restaurants, recognizing it is shameful & cruel. |
| This bird choked to death on his own vomit during the cruel production of foie gras. The "delicacy" known as foie gras is one of the most sickening examples of cruelty promoted as "luxury." Workers shove pipes down the birds' throats two or three times a day and pump enormous quantities of grain and fat into the animals' stomachs so that the birds' livers will become diseased and bloated. The birds are then killed, and their livers are sold as foie gras to diners in fancy restaurants. |
| Broiler Sheds With tens of thousands of chicks packed into each building, the sheds become increasingly crowded as the animals grow larger. Chickens often have to walk on top of one another—and over the bodies of others who have died—to get to food and water. Many chickens in factory farms get sick and die because of the cramped and filthy conditions. Instead of giving their birds more space and a cleaner living area, farmers mix large quantities of antibiotics into the birds’ feed in an attempt to stave off disease, but many of the birds still die. |
| Male chicks are of no economic value to the egg industry. These chicks pictured were found dead and dying in a dumpster behind a hatchery. Typically they are gassed or just ground up alive. |
| After about six months, the animals are grabbed by their delicate legs and slammed into crates on transport trucks, where they will travel for many miles through all weather extremes without food or water to the slaughterhouse. Many animals die before they reach their final destination. There are no laws regulating the transport of farmed animals on trucks. People who live near factory farms or slaughterhouses often report seeing dead or dying animals who have fallen off the trucks on the side of the road. |
| Fish die by the millions in North Carolina's Neuse River Watershed, largely as a result of runoff from pig factories. |
| Do you think "free-range" chickens are better off? |
| Gestation Crates In factory farms, mother pigs are intensively confined and forcibly impregnated. A mother pig (sow) spends her entire adult life confined to a metal crate so small that she can't even turn around or lie down comfortably. Forced to live lying in her own feces and urine, she and millions of other pigs like her will not be allowed to step outdoors until they are forced onto trucks headed for slaughter. Pigs are social and intelligent animals who often go insane from their intensive confinement and complete lack of mental stimulation in factory farms. With nothing to do and nowhere to go, many pigs spend their days compulsively chewing on the metal bars of their stalls. |
| A modern-day feedlot. Cows of today rarely see grass or pastures, are intensely confined, and are generally living in horrible conditions, covered in feces. They are also given an array of chemicals including, but not limited to: pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones. |