Meet your Meat

Brianne Burton
Jing Fen Wang
Samantha Benkel
Curtis Neil
Richard Dannenberg
Gabrielle Tavasti
Down on the Factory Farm…
Thesis:

Animals raised for food lead miserable lives

full of suffering. Many people are ignorant to
the ways of the farming industry, and this
chapter describes the methods used to
produce the meat we eat.
Argument:
• Singer describes the modern life of chickens, pigs, and
cows in the farm industry

• Describes conditions they are subjected to, including

the many types of suffering these animals endure
before they become food.

• Enlighten the reader on the practices of modern day

factory farms and illuminate the fact that unless
attitudes towards animals change, they will continue
to suffer.
 CHICKENS
102 million broiler birds killed each week are raised
in factory farm conditions
Life of a Broiler Chicken
 CROWDED AND UNNATURAL

• Each shed houses 50,000-80,000 birds

• The lights are bright 24 hours a day for the first 1-2 weeks in order to
make them grow abnormally fast
• After that, they’re kept in near total darkness.
• By the end, each 5 lb bird has less than the area of a sheet of paper
“Never see daylight…nor do they breathe air which is not heavy
with the ammonia of their own droppings.” (Singer, 1975)

At 7 weeks old, chickens are stuffed into crates on a truck

and carried several hours without food and water. They
are hung upside down on a conveyer belt and killed.

Often, while they are still alive.

 Life of an Egg-laying Hen

It starts at the chick sorter: females are taken to growing

house and males are discarded
 Life of an Egg-laying Hen
• Battery cages
• US law only requires 36 square inches for each hen
• Basic instincts cannot be followed: nesting and pecking order
 Suffering and Miserable Conditions

• Confinement leads to feather-pecking and cannibalism

• Farmers employ debeaking to reduce fatal fights
• Laying hens are debeaked at birth and again at 8-12 weeks
old

“guillotinelike devices with hot blades are the preferred

instrument. The infant chick’s beak is inserted…and the hot
blade cuts off the end of it…haste means that temperature
and sharpness of the blade can vary, resulting in sloppy
cutting and serious injury to the bird”
 Suffering and Miserable Conditions
• “Piling”
• ADS (acute death syndrome): spasm and drop dead
• Crippling and deformities caused by super-charged growth
• Wire destroys their feet
• Ammonia, dust, and microorganisms are thick in the sheds
 Pig Production

Factories manufacture between 50,000 to 300,000 pigs per year

Born & suckled Raised in a
in a farrowing
unit nursery

Brought to slaughter
weight in a growing-
feeding unit

Sent to market
at 5-6 months of
age

Lifecycle of a Factory Pig

 Goals of Pig Producers
Modify
Minimize
Living Maximiz
Labor
Conditio e Profit
Costs
ns
 Additional Benefits
Early Weaning
• Sow produces 2.6 litters per year instead of the 2.0 if
piglets suckle for the natural three months
• Average of 45 piglets per sow per year, instead of 16
Pig producers are reaping the benefits

AT THE COST OF THE ANIMALS

 Pigs are highly intelligent & active
• Instinctively form stable social groups, build communal
nests & nurture their young
• Dislike monotony & require a variety of surroundings
Barren & Overcrowded Living Conditions

Confinement in cages denies comfort &

ability to follow instinctive behavior
patterns and thus:
• Causes boredom
• Induces stress
• Creates physical problems
In the
Farrowing Stage
• Piglets are deprived of
their mother
• Sow is turned into a
reproduction machine
• Sow is closely confined
for pregnancy and birth
• Breeders are kept
permanently hungry
 Further
Deplorable
Stress & reduction
Living Vices Fighting
Boredom in quality
Conditions
of life

Vices
 Porcine Stress Syndrome
• Increased dramatically as confinement rearing
has become more common
• Symptoms: extreme stress, blotchy skin,
panting, anxiety & sudden death
• Any disturbance can bring on the symptoms
“We don’t get paid for producing animals with
good posture around here. We get paid for the
pound”

•Slatted or concrete floors cause damage to feet

and legs; many acquire foot and leg deformities
•Ammonia in the air chews up the animal’s lungs
Veal
 Veal
• Perhaps, in the words of Singer, “the most
morally repugnant” industry in farming
• Veal used to be the meat from calves which
were killed before being weaned from their
mothers
• Through extremely unnatural ways, calves are
allowed to live longer
 Life of a Veal Calf
• Taken away from their mothers at an early age
• Cages are extremely small in order to prevent
excess movement
 Life of a Veal Calf
• Deprived of iron so meat stays light in color
• Desperate calves will lick metal bolts or even
lick their own urine
• The calves are chained around the neck in
wooden cages to prevent any iron
consumption (they can’t even turn around)
 Life of a Veal Calf: Unnatural Diet
• All liquid diet, no water
• Non-fat milk, vitamins, minerals, antibiotics,
and drugs which promote growth. Just
enough iron to sustain life
• Rooms are intentionally hot, causing the
calves to take in more fluid food since they
don’t have any water
 Life of a Veal Calf: No Stimulation
• The feeding of the calves takes only about 20
minutes
• Boredom can lead to the gnashing of teeth
and other activities
• As a result, many farmers keep their calves in
a dark, windowless shed with lighting only for
feeding time.
 Life of a Veal Calf: No Stimulation
• Lack of stimulation = increased incidence of
illness
• Losses of the calves can be as high as 10 to 15
percent
• This is tolerable because of the high prices
paid for the meat
 Regulations
• Minimal regulations in the US regarding
proper treatment of calves.
• Veterinarians and veal farmers have strained
relationships because of the deliberate
malnutrition brought upon the calves. Vets are
not usually brought in soon enough to be able
to help a sick calf.
 Singer’s Solution
• Singer feels that the solution is simple: STOP
BUYING VEAL!
• People can do without pale and tender meat,
the entire problem of the veal industry is
wasteful.
 Diary Cows
• Diary cows must become pregnant every year in
order to be kept in milk
• Baby calves
– Some female calves will be reared on milk substitutes
until the age of 2, when they become replacements for
diary cows
– Others sold to be reared in fattening pens or feedlots
as beef
– Remaining are sold veal producers and are fed only
milk to be kept anemic
 Lifecycle of a Diary Cow
• Most are reared indoors in individual pens with
just enough room to stand up and lay down.
• Everything is controlled including amount of
feed, temperature and artificial lighting to
maximize milk yield
• Feed consists of high-energy concentrates such
as soybeans, fish meal, brewing byproducts, and
even poultry manure, which cows do not have
the stomach to digest
 Lifecycle of a Diary Cow
• Daily milking of 2 or 3 times begins after the first
calf is taken away
• After the 3rd month, the diary cow will be made
pregnant again and will be milked until 6 or 8
weeks before the next calf is due
• Calf will be immediately removed again
• This cycle of pregnancy and hyper-lactation can
last only 5 years, then the cow is slaughtered to
become hamburger meat or dog food
 Hormonal Interferences
• BST (bovine somatotropin) is a bovine growth
hormone used to dramatically increase milk yields
• UPenn studies found that around half of the cows
injected with BST were treated for inflammation
of the mammary gland compared to none in the
control group receiving no BST
• New hype: artificial insemination, frozen embryos
 Cattle
• Compared with chickens, pigs, veal calves, and
diary cows, beef cattle still outdoors more
often
• Twenty years ago, cattle were able to roam for
about two years. Now, only the lucky ones who
get to roam at all are rounded up after 6
months then shipped long distance to feedlots
for be feed corn and other cereals for 6 to 8
months until they are slaughtered
 Cattle
• Feedlots are profitable since cattle fatten up
more quickly on grain than grass
• Feedlots are not as confining as cages for chicken
or stalls for diary sows, veal calves, and often
diary cows
• Each cow has about 50 square feet of space
• Even though restriction of movement isn’t the
problem here, boredom from the unchanging
environment is
Cattle Death From Weather Conditions
• Often there is no protection for cattle from
conditions they are not naturally suited
• During the 1987 storms, reported losses of 25%
to 30% of calves and 5% to 10% of adult cattle
• In Europe, some beef producers have started to
raise their cattle indoors
• In the US, Britain and Australia, permanent
indoor confinement is considered economically
unjustified
Dead Cows From Extreme Cold Weather
 Transportation

Common, stressful, and potentially

lethal
 Hepburn Act - 1906
• Animals transported by rail must be allowed
periodic rest, food, and water
• Loophole: transport by truck
 Transportation
• Many animals face several long journeys.
– From the place where they’re born to the pasture
– From the pasture to a feedlot
– From the feedlot to the slaughterhouse
• Some journeys are up to 2000 miles
• Often no rest, no food, no water
 “Shrinkage”
• Indicates significant weight loss by animals en
route to the slaughterhouse
• Caused by stress
 “Shipping Fever”
• Form of pneumonia often seen in cattle
• Easily resisted under normal conditions
• During transport, stress weakens the immune
system, and cattle succumb in large numbers
Where does this stress come from?
 Recent stressful incidents
• Weaning
• Castration
• Vaccination
• Branding
• Vets recommend 30-day rest prior to
transport, but this is often ignored.
 The ride itself
• No protection from extreme temperature
• No regular food or water
• The motion of the truck is a new experience,
can cause motion sickness
• Rough handling during the loading process
 Many animals die in transit
• Freezing / heat exhaustion
• Injury
• In 1986 alone:
– 16,000 cows, pigs, and chickens dead or
condemned (as a whole animal)
– 1.27 million animals had at least one body part
condemned
Slaughter houses: Is there an ethical way to
kill an animal?
 If so, we aren’t doing it…
• Stunning and killing methods are sloppy
• Humane tactics are “too expensive”
• Animals are conscious while they bleed out
• Unskilled laborers
• Religious rituals are even worse (no
stunning, hung by broken legs)
According to Singer, what major
wrongs are being done to
animals in the food industry?
1. Forced to live in unnatural ways (crowded,
dirty, unnatural diet)

2. They are denied social interactions that they

would have in the wild

3. Suffer physical pain caused to them by farmers,

their environment, and deformities from their
unnatural growth

4. Suffer mental anxiety from boredom and their

extremely unnatural life
According to Singer, why is this
happening?
1. Factory farmers view the animals as
“converting machines” and not as living
things
2. The public prefers to be unaware of the
practices that bring them their dinner,
thus they feed the agribusiness
machine.

Singer believes people don’t deserve to be

protected from the truth
Do animals deserve rights? If so,
what rights do they deserve?
 5 Basic Freedoms (Singer)
• Turn around
• Groom
• Get up
• Lie down
• Stretch Limbs

These 5 are all denied to all caged hens, most cows,

and almost all veal calves.
 Mad Cowboy

The Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat

Meat
 The Argument
The meat industry has changed from working
with nature, to trying to defeat it. The changes
that farmers are making to the cattle, the land,
and the produce are not only dangerous to the
animals and farmers, but also to the consumers.
 In the past…
• Farms were passed down from generation to
generation
• Crops were rotated
• Fields were left fallow
• Cattle were not allowed to overgraze
• Working WITH nature was the idea, not to
defeat nature
 Now
• Chemicals are added to the soil to provide the
nutrients that it is lacking
• Soil is overused
• Cattle are switched the feed which is 90%
grain, this has an effect on their digestive
systems
• Chemical enhancers
 Benefits
• Mass production of meat makes meat more
accessible to the masses
• Meat has become more inexpensive
• Meat is high in things like protein and iron
 Drawbacks
• Over consumption of meat
• Rising cholesterol
• Obesity
• Bone loss
Which is more important?
REFERENCES

Singer, Peter. (1975). “Down on the Factory Farm,” in Animal Liberation. HarperCollins Publisher Inc, New York, New York:
95-157.

Lyman, Howard F. with Merzer, Glen. (1998) “Mad Cowboy: The Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat”. Simon & Schuster,
New York, New York: 524- 529.

Photographs courtesy of:

1. http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2005/2005-03-01-10.html
2. http://chickenrescueandrehabilitation.wordpress.com/2010/03/
3. http://www.ourplanettoday.com/the-cruel-life-inside-a-factory-farm
4. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/battery-eggs-sold-supermarket.php#
5. http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/05/reduce-or-eliminate-eggs-with-these-egg-substitutes/
6. http://laura-sliva.blogspot.com/2010/04/happiness.html
7. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/grass-fed-pigs-and-human-health-safety.php
10. http://www.agseminar.com/
11. http://www.anydifference.com/petition_page
13. http://voodookitchennet.blogspot.com/2011/01/now-its-200-dead-cows.html
16. Happy Cow: http://lifegoddess.com/2010/09/01/a-quest-for-nutrition-part-3-organic-vs-conventional-food/