Factory Farms

The insanity of these high production monstrosities known as factory farms

Massive animal factories using intensive confinement have replaced more and more family farms.

The factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to produce the most meat, milk, and egg as quickly and cheaply as possible, and in the smallest amount of space possible.

The largest numbers of animals are raised in the tightest possible quarters, and at the lowest possible cost to maximize productivity and profits.

Bernard Rollin of Farm Animal Welfare was quoted as saying, "Chickens are cheap, cages are expensive".

It is more economically efficient to put a greater number of birds into each cage, accepting lower profitability per bird but greater productivity per cage.

Overcrowding animals in unnatural conditions causes many of them to die, but as a group, the return of production is higher.

Over 90% of farmed animals in the U.S. are raised on factory farms in intensive confinement.

The animals are mere commodities. They are treated like machines with no concern for their pain or suffering.

They are deprived of exercise so that all of their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption. They are fed growth hormones to fatten them faster and are genetically altered to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than nature originally intended.

The Animal Welfare Act does not apply to animals used for food.

There are no laws requiring farmer to provide them with spacious environments, clean surroundings, fresh air, or sunlight.

The animals spend their entire lives in tiny cages and stalls where they are often unable to even turn around or lay down. They live on concrete, slatted metal, or wire mesh floors.

They are forced to live in their own and other animal's wastes. The ammonia fumes burn their sinuses and cause respiratory disease.

A quote from Hog Farm Management states, "Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory".

Sows (known to be very intelligent and social animals) spend their lives in narrow crates shackled by girth straps to metal slatted or concrete floors, where they cannot walk or even turn around.

Hog-factory workers wear ear protection against the din of frustrated, squealing animals banging against their metal cages.

Factory farmed animals are fed and sprayed with antibiotics and pesticides that remain in their bodies and are passed on to the people who eat them.

Factory farmed animals are genetically engineered through selective breeding and gene splicing to grow larger or to produce more milk or eggs than nature intended.

Factory farmed animals are fed growth hormones and antibiotics to fatten them faster.

Bacteria that harm humans are developing resistance to antibiotics as a direct consequence of antibiotic use in animals, leading to more deadly and untreatable infections.