On the Killing Floor

by Paul Shapiro

AV Magazine, the publication of the American Anti-Vivisection Society, Summer 2004, pages 12-13

Today more than ever before, animal advocates have focused increased attention on the abuse endured by animals raised for food, and with good reason. Approximately 99 percent of all the animals killed in the United States each year die to be eaten. As shocking as it may seem, even if we abolished the fur industry, animals in "entertainment," and the animal testing industry, but didn't change the farmed animal situation, we would have helped only about 1 percent of the animals killed every year.

The cruelty "food animals" endure on factory farms is immense—from physical mutilations without painkiller, severe overcrowding, the denial of nearly any natural habits, and more—but their slaughter is no less horrific. In the United States, approximately 10 billion land animals face violent and bloody deaths on slaughter lines each year. The killing of animals may differ by species, but the practice is always gruesome.

Birds Raised for Meat

More than eight out of every ten animals killed in slaughter plants are birds raised for meat. Despite constituting such an overwhelming majority of farmed animals dying each year, birds are excluded from protection under the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA). As such, these animals are vulnerable to virtually any level of abuse during the slaughter process without legal repercussions facing the slaughter facilities.

Once at the slaughter plant, the birds are unloaded from packed crates stacked on multi-tiered transport trucks. As the animals receive no food, water, or protection from extreme temperatures, some birds have already died. For those who survived the trip, a team of workers hangs them upside down in shackles.

Because birds raised for meat are grow at unnaturally fast rates due to selective breeding and doses of growth-promoting antibiotics, many leave the factory farm already suffering from painful leg problems. Those disorders, compounded with the trauma of catching (workers gather birds by their legs several at a time before they're packed into crates) and the stress of overcrowded transport, contribute significantly to the welfare problems during slaughter.

Once shackled, the conveyer belt passes the birds through a "bath" of electrified water. The current stuns them into paralysis but, generally, does not render them insensible to pain. The birds then pass over a mechanical blade which cuts open their throats, allowing them to "bleed out," causing them to lose consciousness. The final step in the process before evisceration submerges the birds into a tank of scalding water designed to loosen their feathers. Birds who miss the blade are scalded alive.

Pigs

Similar to chickens, pigs raised for food also suffer physical disabilities due to abnormally fast growth as well as poor housing conditions causing trauma to their legs and joints. As such, they, too, have immense welfare problems before ever reaching the slaughter plant and endure arduous journeys on transport trucks, again without food, water, or protection from the elements.

Upon arrival, the pigs are forced off of the trucks, typically through the use of intimidation and outright violence, including shocks from electric prods. Those who are too sick or injured to walk are generally dragged to the slaughter floor.

While pigs are covered by the HMSA, enforcement of the federal law is notoriously weak. In most plants, the same inspectors charged with ensuring food safety are responsible for enforcing the HMSA, and they are often placed near the end of the slaughter process, never even seeing a live animal.

Pigs are stunned either through the use of an electric current or, in some cases, with a hydraulic bolt to the brain. Afterwards, they are hung upside down by their legs and have their throats slit.

Cattle

Unlike birds and pigs raised for meat, most cattle spend part of their lives free from intensive confinement. However, most undergo painful mutilations like branding and castration, both without painkiller, and are eventually trucked to crowded feedlots.

Like pigs, cattle may face physical intimidation and even electrocution once at the slaughter plant. They are stunned with a hydraulic bolt to the brain, shackled upside down by their legs, and have their throats slit. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, recently reported that there is major concern that many cattle are not stunned properly and are the conscious when they "bleed out."

Progress

Despite the daily horrors described above, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for farmed animals. Just a decade ago, where many used to see mindless machines, more and more people now see animals raised for food as intelligent, social individuals who are capable of suffering and care about their lives as much as we care about our own. The fact is, we've come a very long way.

In July 2001, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), the longest-serving Senator in the current U.S. Senate, made an impassioned plea at the Capitol for a reduction in farmed animal suffering that led to millions of additional dollars for HMSA enforcement. Additionally, in 2002, a senior speechwriter for President Bush, Matthew Scully, penned Dominion, an eloquent description of farmed animal cruelty, along with arguments for why we ought to be vegetarian, which received acclaim across the political and social spectra. Also in 2002, Florida voters made their state the first in the country to outlaw a standard agribusiness practice: keeping mother pigs in crates too narrow for them to even turn around.

But, while great progress is being made, unfortunately, the number of animals we kill each year continues to rise. That's where we come in. The time is ripe for us to take action. Each new poll shows that more and more people, especially teenagers and young adults, are making the transition to vegetarian eating. It's up to us to foster that compassionate trend and help it flourish.

As consumer demand decreases for animal products, the seemingly never-ending number of animals suffering on factory farms will decrease as well. The amount of violence "food animals" have endured is immense. Each one of us can help end it, every time we sit down to eat.

Paul Shapiro is the campaigns director of Compassion Over Killing, a nonprofit animal advocacy organization dedicated to reducing farmed animal suffering. For COK's free Vegetarian Starter Guide, please visit TryVeg.com.