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What you are about to see is beyond your worst nightmares. But for animals raised on modern
intensive production farms and killed in slaughterhouses, it is cold, inescapable reality. Once you
see for yourself the routine cruelty involved in raising animals for food, you'll understand
why millions of compassionate people have decided to leave meat off their plates for
good.
Chickens are probably the most abused animals on the face of the planet. They are crammed
into filthy sheds by the tens of thousands, immersed in their own excrement among the
corpses of other birds who died of heart attacks or stress. Some even die of starvation brought
on by becoming crippled from growing so large so fast that their legs canít withstand the
weight, which makes them unable to reach food. After being genetically manipulated and fed
antibiotics to promote unnaturally rapid growth, their hearts, lungs, and legs often break
down under the added weightóheart attacks and crippling leg deformities are far too
common.
A PETA investigation found this farmer killing sick and injured turkeys by beating them with
a metal rod and then tossing them aside, leaving them still conscious and suffering. This was
deemed legal and standard by the industry. This undercover video shows the standard method
of gathering chickens for slaughter.
After enduring weeks in filthy, crowded conditions, the animals are loaded onto trucks and taken
through extreme weather conditions, without food or water, to slaughterhousesó
where they are snapped into shackles by their fragile legs and have their throats slit,
often while still conscious.
Many are scalded alive in the feather removal tanks.
If you thought it couldnít be any worse, think again. Between five and 11 hens are
crammed into tiny, wire cages during egg production. The animals might go insane from the oppressive
conditions and attack one another, so their beaks, which are filled with nerve endings,
are painfully seared off with a hot blade.
These hens are so crowded that they are unable to spread even one wing during their entire
miserable lives. They are unable to do anything natural, such as dust-bathing or foraging
through the grass. It takes an average of 34 hours in these conditions to produce just
one egg. When egg production drops, producers often shock the bodies of the worn out birds
into another laying cycle by withholding food for up to 14 days. Many die of starvation.
Because their bones are so weak and their bodies so worn down, up to 90 percent of hens
have broken bones or are hemorrhaging by the time they make it to slaughter.
Cattle are castrated, have their horns chopped off, and are repeatedly brandedóall without
painkillers. At auctions, electric prods are used to torment the frightened animals into
going where the workers want them to go.
The USDA allows meat from animals with cancerous lesions and pus-filled wounds to be certified
as ìUSDA Pure,î so injuries and illness often go untreated. After enduring close to
a year crammed into feedlots, cattle are loaded onto transport trucks and shipped through
all weather extremes. At slaughter, their throats are slit open, and many are skinned
and dismembered while still fully conscious.
Dairy cows have it even worse. Even though they give milk for the same reason that humans
doófor their babiesóon todayís dairy farms, mother cows are treated as nothing more than
milk machines. Forty percent of dairy cows are lame by the time they reach the slaughterhouse.
They are hooked up to machines a few times per dayómachines that often injure them.
At the end of their lives, they are either sent straight to slaughter or are sold for
slaughter at cattle auctions.
More than 100,000 cows are unable to walk off the transport trucks every year, yet they
are slaughtered for human food anyway.
At a fraction of their natural life span, theyíre shipped to slaughter. Most hamburger
in this country comes from spent dairy cows.
Cows give milk for their offspring, not for human beings. These mother cows are impregnated
annually to keep the milk flowing, and their babies are torn from them shortly after birth,
which causes both of them profound distress. Many of the males are sold to veal farmers,
who cram them into tiny crates where they cannot turn around or even comfortably lie
down. If youíre consuming milk, youíre supporting the veal industry. Veal calves, who can barely
walk because their muscles have atrophied from a lack of use and an anemia-inducing
diet, are also often sold at auctions.
Confined to tiny stalls that donít even allow mother pigs to turn around for most of their
pregnancy, the first time that these animals will breathe fresh air is when they are on
the back of a truck headed for the slaughterhouse. Many will go insane from the complete lack
of stimulation.
Shortly after birth, baby pigs have their ears mutilated, the ends of their teeth chopped
off, their tails cut off, and they are also castratedóall without any painkillers.
Pigs who arenít growing quickly enough, called ìfall-behinds,î are killed by being slammed
head first against the concrete floor, as you see here. Like chickens, pigs grow so
quickly that many canít walk normally; their limbs simply canít sustain their drug-induced
bulk. Many pigs become ill or injured but are not put out of their misery because as
long as theyíre still alive, they have a chance of generating profits for the company
if they can make it to slaughter.
Those who obviously canít make it to the slaughterhouse are shot with a captive-bolt
gun so that they donít waste the companyís money by eating feed.
Moving pigs by beating them with gate rods is one of the more common forms of abuse.
Pigs are often packed so tightly together on unventilated trucks that their limbs snap
under the weight of other terrified animals, and they sometimes freeze to the sides of
the trucks or die of dehydration. In fact, 400,000 pigs who are unable to walk off the
truck arrive at the slaughterhouses each year; 100,000 arrive dead. These are industry figures.
Some speculate that the real numbers are much higher.
After being electrically prodded and forced onto the killing floor, improper stunning
causes pigs to endure having their throats slit while they are still awake. Some are
burned alive in the scalding tank that is used for hair removal.
Please think about what youíve seen. Every time we sit down to eat, we make a choice:
Please choose vegetarianism. Do it for the animals. Do it for the environment, and do
it for your health. To find out more check out PETA's vegetarian website for a free vegetarian
starter kit and share this with a friend. Thank you.