This blog is about a small video I watched called "Farm to Fridge" by Mercy For Animals. This video uncovers the gruesome world of the meat market. The mystery behind the meat, so to speak. Initially, the goal seemed to be to show us the "journey" these animals go through on the way to our plates. It shows that before these animals were pork, poultry, beef, and seafood, they were sows, chickens, turkey, and cattle with families to raise and peaceful lives to live, just like we humans do.
The video revealed what happened to 4 month pregnant sows. These animals are locked up in small stalls barely bigger than their bodies and they develop open sores and other injuries due to this lack of space. Many other brutalities faced it not only by the conditioning itself but by the workers. Workers of these factory farms hit, yell, and kick the sows to move, while piglets get their testicles ripped out of their bodies and tails chopped off without anesthesia. These mutilations often cause fatal deaths. The video also revealed that sows who weren't growing fast enough were slammed into the ground, gassed and strangled. What's even more interesting is that these acts of killing were defended by the pork industry. Market weight pigs are then sent to slaughterhouses after being knocked in the heads with steal rods and hung upside down awaiting their throats to be slit; sometimes the animals were fully conscious. Some were scolded alive, again, some fully conscious.
Coincidentally the egg market deemed similar acts of mutilation and cruel acts of killing "Standard" and "acceptable". When chickens are first hatched they are sorted male from female. The males are "unprofitable" and are killed within hours after hatching. The video reveals male chicks being thrown into grinding machines while still alive. Some are thrown into trash bags to suffocate . According to the video more than 200 million unwanted male chicks are killed on their first day of life each year in the United States. While the male chicks are killed, the female chicks are in for a lifetime of endurance of cruelties and horrors of the slaughterhouse. Females undergo the mutilations of hot blades and lasers to remove their beaks to reduce pecking influenced by overcrowded living space. These mutilations cause acute as well as chronic pain. Based on the video 95% of egg-laying hens spend their lives confined in a cage with no sunlight or fresh air. These former mothers, or hens, cannot walk, turn around, or even spread their wings without pushing other birds aside. The devastation of this confinement include feather loss, open wounds, birds trapped in cage wire and premature death cause by overbearing stress. Undercover investigations show hens being stepped on, tossed into dead piles while still alive or violently tossed in trash cans. Both chickens and turkeys being raised for food are grown so large that they suffer crippling leg disorders, chronic pain, and fatal heart attacks. Their necks are broken or they are clubbed to death if they are "no good".
The treatment of these animals have a lot to do with my group's project in inspecting the traditional meat-eater" and how well they know what goes on behind the production of their foods, and if they are aware of such horrors in the food factories what their reasons are for continuing consumption. It helps to point out the continuing question of the rights of animals? When it comes to our food, why are their no emotions linked to are food choices? Is it because our food choices are already being made for us by a secretive government run by the corporations?
Seeing factory farms, rather than reading about them certainly clarified the level of cruelty all non-meat-eaters and vegans are up against. It shows that food choices go way deeper than just deciding to do something, but knowing why you're doing it and what difference it will make in our nation ethically. I certainly want to do something about my diet now after viewing the horror rather than just hearing. It's like you never really know until you witness.
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