**Factory Farm Aff** Farm Animals Subject to Abuse and Exploitation Now

**Factory Farm Aff**

Farm Animals Subject to Abuse and Exploitation Now

Robyn Mallon, Attorney, 2005, Journal of Medicine and Law, Summer, 9 Mich. St. J. Med. & Law 389, p. 390-1

Also since Sinclair's book, animal cruelty statues have become more broadly accepted. Statues such as these were promulgated in Sinclair's time but were not frequently used. Animals should be more protected than ever against intentional infliction of unnecessary pain, but again this is not the case today. In many influential animal cruelty statutes such as state anti-cruelty statutes and the Animal Welfare Act, livestock is exempted from protection. The agriculture industry gets a legal pass in their treatment of animals. The result of this is that animals used in the food supply which are raised on factory farms (mostly cows, pigs, and chickens) are subject to unrelenting cruelty. This cruelty is fueled by mass producing factory farms which process millions of animals a day for slaughter and often do not have the time to abide by humane slaughter statutes because of self imposed output requirements. ⁿ¹¹ This is coupled with lax enforcement by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors who distance themselves from the slaughterhouse floor so that the pain and suffering of factory farmed animals goes unnoticed. ⁿ¹²
FACTORY FARMING EXPLOITS ANIMALS AT ALL COSTS IGNORING AND DENYING THEIR SUFFERING AND BASIC NEEDS

Joyce D’Silva, Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming, 2008, The Future of Animal Farming: renewing the ancient contract, eds. M. Dawkins & R. Bonney, p. 39-40

So there’s Fast-track Farming for you. A series of methodologies and practices designed to exploit the potential of different species of farm animals – at any cost. Never mind that the animals may never get to walk or fly, never get to live in natural social groups, that the young may never get nurtured by their mothers, or have only a highly abbreviated nurturing period, that daily life may be intensely boring – dare I say soul-destroying – and may often be a life engulfed in pain. Fast-track farming, factory farming, or whatever euphemism you wish to use, is based on the premise of utility: animals are there to be exploited to their maximum physiological potential in order that maximum profit can be had. There is no true husbandry.

Fast-track Farming is in denial of animals’ capacities as sentient beings. It often fails to recognize their capacity for physical pain and suffering. It totally fails to acknowledge that farm animals, like their wild ancestors, have psychological and social needs too. Calves want to be with their mothers – cows want to be with their calves; the same goes for lambs and ewes, piglets and sows. Young animals want to play; older animal often want to be in a family or social grouping of some sort. Fast-track Farming prides itself on being modern and up-to-the-minute in its use of the latest technology or feed ingredient or breeding method. In truth it is old-fashioned. It’s old fashioned because it hasn’t kept up with new research showing the amazing range of farm animals’ abilities. It has not embraced new research showing the capacity of chickens – and fish –to feel pain. It is in denial of research showing states of neuroticism in crated sows or bereavement-type behavior in cows deprived of their calves.

Farm Animals Subject to Abuse and Exploitation Now

Gaverick Matheny & Cheryl Leahy, Professor Agricultural Economics U. Maryland & General Counsel, Compassion over Killing, 2007, Law and Contemporary Problems, Winter, 70 Law & Contemp. Prob. 325, p. 329

The changes in farm animal production have created a number of welfare problems on the farm, during transport, and during slaughter. Contrary to the image of Old MacDonald's Farm, ninety-nine percent of U.S. farm animals never spend time outdoors; ⁿ²² they spend their entire lives overcrowded with tens of thousands of other animals, living in their own manure, in barren sheds. Most farm animals cannot engage in natural behaviors such as foraging, perching, nesting, rooting, and mating, and many are not even able to turn around or fully stretch their limbs.


CAFOs INCREASE SUFFERING – PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DEPRIVATIONS

Bernard E. Rollin, Professor of Philosophy, Colorado State University, 1995, Farm Animal Welfare: social, bioethical, and research issues, p. 11