Veganism Explained

Many of us living in the United States trust the government to ensure our food is ethically produced, including prohibiting mistreatment of animals raised for food. But is the government really doing this for us?

The Facts

It’s tempting to believe that practices which are legal must also be ethical. We’re taught from a young age that laws exist to ensure everyone abides by universal morals. Unfortunately, this isn’t always true; federal welfare laws regarding farmed animals in the United States are very minimal. The Animal Welfare Act, the most prominent piece of legislation protecting animals from mistreatment by humans, excludes farmed animals. (Seem weird?) Further, the few federal regulations that do exist to protect animals raised for food don’t actually apply while they’re on the farm—only after they leave. This is baffling considering that animals spend almost their entire lives on farms before they’re sent to slaughter. Further, many of these laws exclude a large fraction of farmed animals.

Because the federal government doesn’t protect animals on farms, this responsibility is left to the states. However, most states have yet to ban even the most cruel practices on farms. For example, cutting animals’ tails off with no anesthetic is legal in all but three U.S. states. Killing animals with blunt force—smashing their heads on the floor or wall—is legal in all states. Only California has banned the production of foie gras, which includes force-feeding ducks by putting tubes down their throats while they’re conscious and aware. This is still legal in 49 states!

Life on the Farm

More common practices include putting pregnant pigs in gestation crates, which are just barely large enough to fit the pigs’ bodies, for almost four months until they give birth. This means the pigs can’t walk or even turn around for four months, plus the very short amount of time that they are in cages to nurse their young but otherwise are not allowed to interact with them. Then, the babies are taken away, and the mother pigs are almost immediately reimpregnated—at which point they undergo the whole process all over again. This practice is legal in 40 US states.

Tail docking, where animals’ tails are either cut off with a knife or iron, or removed by putting a tight rubber band around them until circulation is completely cut off from the tail and it falls off, is an excruciating process that is legal in 47 states and is typically done without anesthetic. When cut off with a knife, the animals are usually left to bleed with no medical treatment, not even first aid. A similar practice is commonly performed to castrate male pigs and sheep, in which rubber bands are wrapped tightly around their testicles until they fall off. A former animal farmer recalls animals being in so much pain during this process that they would “spend maybe three or four hours rolling around on the floor.”

These agony-inducing practices are just a select few of the many horrors that take place every second of every day in animal farming. According to the Animal Welfare Institute, “throughout a majority of their short lives, farm animals are closely confined and deprived of the chance to exhibit natural behaviors. Common practices on factory farms include confining pregnant pigs to crates so small they cannot turn around, confining hens to cramped, barren cages, castrating male pigs without anesthesia, and killing sick and injured animals with blunt force.” Footage of these practices is shown in YouTube videos, documentaries, and much more.

Transport and Slaughter

Once animals are off the farms on which they have endured so much misery over the course of their entire lives, they are finally “protected” by federal legislation. However, the regulations that protect them are weak and minimal; they’re incredibly vague and leave excessive discretion to inspectors. This is dangerous because inspectors can be biased or have agendas of their own. They also aren’t required to have any education or training on zoology, so they can have little to no knowledge about animal sentience and needs.

Transport Laws

As they leave the farms on which they have endured so much misery, animals are prodded, electrocuted, slapped, and otherwise pressured to mount the trucks that will take them to the slaughterhouse. Once moving, animals are allowed to be held in trucks with no food, water, shelter, or space to sit down or move around for up to 28 hours at a time, or longer for sheep. This period can be extended if the farm simply requests it. Loading and unloading the animals also doesn’t count as a part of the 28 hours. And these rules don’t even apply to poultry!

It’s also important to consider that transport legislation is especially difficult to enforce—and farmers know this—so it’s likely that animals are actually held on trucks for much longer than they’re allowed to be. Farmed animals suffer immensely during transport, and millions die during transport every year from disease, starvation, exposure to extreme weather conditions, and more.

Slaughter Laws

There is little federal legislation when it comes to slaughtering animals.

As animals await slaughter, they are only required to be given access to food if they are being held for more than 24 hours. Per the law, they only need space to lie down if they are being held overnight—meaning they can be forced to stand up all day long. Keep in mind that this is usually happening immediately after transport, so animals often are actually being deprived of food and rest for 52 total hours or longer.

One law says animals must be stunned before they are cut (unless being slaughtered for religious purposes), but undercover footage shows animals still conscious as their throats are slit. Many animals are not properly stunned, meaning they’re still conscious while they’re bleeding out or being boiled alive.

Why the Laws Don’t Really Matter Anyway

Despite how minimal welfare laws are for farmed animals, they are still violated every single day. An ex-farmer named Mark on Ed Winters’ Disclosure Podcast describes how his farm would regularly and knowingly violate welfare regulations. They would also violate health regulations when they knew an inspector wouldn’t be around anytime soon. He says, “You knew they’d test one day, but definitely not the day after or the day after… so for a few days, you could put milk that you knew might have penicillin in it into that tank to get paid for that milk as well. You knew it wouldn’t be tested.” The same is true of animal welfare inspections—if the inspectors have come recently, farmers know they won’t be back anytime very soon, so they don’t need to follow the law when it comes to how they treat their animals.

These violations have been filmed and photographed time and time again by undercover investigators, especially on industrial farms. For example, dragging disabled and injured animals while they’re still conscious is illegal, but there are plenty of accounts of disabled animals being beaten, dragged and shocked. Other footage shows cows being tied to vehicles and dragged on the ground, and newborn calves being dragged by one leg across the ground, away from their mothers. Because it’s impossible to have inspectors on every farm at all times, these acts of cruelty and abuse will continue as long as animals remain a part of the agriculture industry.

We’re always hearing new stories about industrial farm employees beating, electrocuting, and otherwise abusing animals. It’s important to remember that these are not isolated incidents. These horrific events happen every day; they’re just not always caught on camera and sent to news outlets.

What We Can Do about It

The current agriculture industry indisputably fills farmed animals’ lives with pain and misery. We can combat this by contacting our local politicians about our concerns, taking quick and easy actions online, volunteering for animal rights organizations, spreading awareness among friends and family, and much more. The most effective way to help the animals, though, is to go vegan and stop paying for animals to be bred into these abusive situations. Every vegan makes a difference, and we can each do so much to make the world a better place for nonhuman animals.

Have other ideas about how we can help farmed animals? Let me know in the comments!

_{Featured photo by Jo-Anne McArthur.}