| Ethics
Animals have an inherent
right to exist for their own purposes and not to satisfy the wants
of humans. Ethics in practice includes not eating animals or animal
byproducts, not wearing products made from the skin or hair of animals,
including leather, fur, wool and silk, and not supporting the use
of animals for entertainment.
Factory Farms
- 10 billion land animals, including pigs, turkeys, chickens,
cows, calves, ducks and sheep, are bred and slaughtered for food
each year in the U.S. (1).
- 98 million pigs are slaughtered for food each year. Sows, 500-pound
pregnant pigs that were inseminated by machines, are forced to
live in pens only 7 feet long and 22 inches wide (1-2).
- 269 million turkeys are killed for food annually; 45 million
are killed for Thanksgiving alone. Before slaughter, turkeys spend
five to six months in dark sheds that hold 15,000 turkeys each,
with only 3 square feet of space per bird (1,3).
- 9 billion chickens are killed for food annually. Packed in
stacked cages that hold 5-6 birds each, with an average floor
space the size of a standard computer monitor, hens are debeaked
with a hot blade without anesthesia so they won't peck each other
to death (1,4).
- 37 million cows and calves are killed for food each year. They
are fattened and readied for slaughter in feedlots, where as many
as 50,000 are sequestered. To ensure they don't injure each other,
they are dehorned with a burning chemical paste, an electric dehorner
or a saw, without the use of anesthetics (1,5).
Fashion Industry
- The skins of cows and calves are the main source of U.S. leather.
The skins of other animals used for fashion include: bison, boars,
cats, crocodiles, deer, dogs, dolphins, eels, elephants, frogs,
goats, kangaroos, lambs, lizards, pigs, seals, sharks, snakes,
walruses, water buffaloes and zebras (6-7).
- 8 million animals, including beavers, bobcats, chinchillas,
coyotes, fishers, foxes, martens, minks, muskrats, nutrias, opossum,
otters, raccoons, skunks and weasels, are killed each year for
their fur. Neck-breaking, gassing and anal electrocution are the
most common forms of killing caged animals. Animals in the wild
are captured in steel traps (8).
Entertainment
- Rodeo tricks such as calf roping, steer wrestling, bareback
horse and bull riding, saddle bronco riding, steer roping and
wild cow milking are performed by inciting animals with spurs,
tail-twisting, bucking straps, electric prods, neck-twisting and
yanking to create the spectacle of humans conquering allegedly
wild animals (9-10).
- Circus trainers routinely whip, muzzle, electrocute, blowtorch
and use metal bullhooks to force animals to perform inane and
unnatural acts, including forcing bears to ride bicycles, tigers
to hop on their hind legs, and elephants to stand on their heads
(11-12).
References
1
www.farmusa.org/archives/Reports/industryspring02.pdf.
FARM Report, Winter/Spring 2002, p. 7.
2 Matthew Scully, Dominion: The Power of Man, the
Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy. (NY: St. Martin's Press,
2002): 29.
3 http://www.eatthewhales.com/r-fact11.html
(page no longer active)
4 http://www.peta.org/mc/facts/fsveg3.html
5 Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall
of Cattle Culture. (NY: Dutton, 1993): 12-14.
6 http://www.theanimalspirit.com/leather.html
(page no longer active)
7 http://www.cowsarecool.com/sport.html
8 http://www.hsus.org/ace/12031
9 http://www.bucktherodeo.com/
10 http://www.peta.org/mc/facts/fsent1.html
11 http://www.circuses.com/ta-quickfacts.html
12 http://www.circuses.com/ringling.html
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