My goal in my public opinion piece is to raise awareness about the treatment of animals in animal agriculture farms. I want people to know what is really on their plates and how animals are treated throughout the meat and dairy production processes. I began by telling a narrative story of how I became vegan after seeing animal abuse in the documentary Food Inc.. I then go into more detail about how chickens and cows are treated because these animals are most commercially consumed by the average American. By going into detail about the abuse and cruelty that these animals face until it is time for slaughter, I hope to draw out empathy from my target audience of the millennial generation and inform them that this treatment is unethical. The image of the cow that I used is strategically placed to show rather than explain the physical pain that these animals go through each day. The image of the male chicks being thrown into a grinder further shows how the animals are treated like trash and can be disposed when they are not considered useful. The image of the cow lying down in pain shows how farmers only care about the product that the animals produce and not about the animals themselves. After describing the gruesomeness of the livestock industry, I introduce a solution, which is not participating in the industry through the adoption of a vegan diet. I then disclose the benefits of veganism other than the protection of animals, such as the positive health and environmental effects to persuade my audience to go vegan. My conclusion makes a call for action and encourages everyone to try or go vegan for the sake of animals, the environment, and health.
From Cow to Cheeseburger
When I was around fifteen, on one of my Netflix binging days, I stumbled upon a documentary called Food Inc. It intrigued me because it exposed the truth about the animal agriculture industry. Immediately, as I started watching, my eyes were opened about the animal abuse that goes on behind the closed doors of animal farms. Seeing how animals are treated in the slaughter houses and the conditions they live in forever changed my views on the animal agriculture industry. After finishing the documentary, I instantly went vegetarian. A few years later, I decided to go vegan and have never regretted my choice of switching to an herbaceous diet.
Due to global population growth, meat production has skyrocketed. Livestock farming has been transformed into a mass production system versus the small scale farming systems of the past. Currently, over 9 billion chickens, 113 million pigs, and 33 million cows are slaughtered each year in the United States for food production and these numbers are rapidly growing as the demand for meat increases (Animal Cruelty Is the Price We Pay for Cheap Meat). Because of large increases in the demand for meat, there is not a lot of space to properly house such a large amount of livestock. So, many farmers squeeze hundreds of thousands of animals onto their farms in small pens and cages. The small enclosures that the animals are kept in leads to disease and many animals die before they are even slaughtered.
Chickens in particular are kept in large numbers in dark enclosures where they will never see the sunlight during their lifetime. The animals also stay in their own feces, which leads to disease and death. The chickens that die stay in the enclosures with the live chickens until they are collected and thrown away. In the documentary Food Inc., farmer Carole Morison talks about her experience with animal agriculture and states, “When they grow from a chick and in seven weeks you’ve got a five-and-a-half- pound chicken, their bone and their internal organs can’t keep up with the rapid growth. A lot of these chickens here, they can take a few steps and then they plop down. It’s because they can’t keep up all the weight that they’re carrying” (Food Inc.). Chickens are fed antibiotics and hormones to make them grow faster and larger for commercial consumption and are usually birthed and slaughtered within forty-five days. There is a separate market for egg-laying chickens, in which male chicks are automatically discarded (See Fig. 1). These male chicks are thrown in garbage bags to suffocate or are ground up in a machine soon after birth (ASPCA).
In the United States livestock production, cows are treated differently than chickens most likely due to the size difference. However, the beef industry is just as gruesome as the poultry industry. Cows that are grown for slaughter are also horded in large groups, but live outside unlike chickens. They are branded, castrated, and not protected from the elements (ASPCA). The cows are also fed large amounts of corn and grass to gain a lot of weight in a short amount of time, so many of the cows lose the ability to walk and either crawl or just lay in their own feces until it is time for slaughter.
Dairy cows are also severely abused due to the milking process. Female cows are artificially inseminated repeatedly and as soon as they give birth to a calf, the calf is snatched away from the mother without ever being able to drink her milk. Cows have emotions too, so this process is extremely traumatizing to both mother and calf. Farmers also force the dairy cows to store more milk than they are capable of holding in their udders. This causes pain, swelling, and infection (see figure 2). After the five-year period in which the dairy cows are considered valuable (even though a cow’s average lifespan should be twenty-five years), they are then picked up by a tractor and taken to the slaughterhouse in which they are killed and turned into burgers (Newkey-Burden, Dairy).
Livestock are not only abused during the food production process. They are also sometimes abused by the employees of the meat production companies. Over the years, companies like Tyson and Perdue have had many incidences where videos leaked of their employees abusing animals. For example, slaughter houses that supply KFC have been caught engaging in severe animal abuse. In one of the worst videos from 2004, employees at a West Virginia slaughterhouse were recorded tearing off the heads of birds alive, spitting into their eyes and spray painting their faces (Newkey-Burden, Let’s). There have also been other cases in many other slaughter houses where workers have been seen kicking, stomping on, and throwing the chickens. In other farms, workers use cranes or plows to hit, injure, and make cows fall over.
The abuse of animals in the food production industry is unethical and cruel. One way to solve this issue is to not participate in the industry. Going vegan can help save animals because it decreases the demand for meat in the consumer market. The decrease in demand for meat and dairy helps to decrease the number of animals that are raised for slaughter and abused in the process. According to the documentary Cowspiracy, “Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 sq. ft of forested land, 20 lbs. CO2 equivalent, and one animal’s life” (Cowspiracy). So, going vegan helps protect animals against abuse, but also has various health benefits and positive environmental impacts.
By going vegan and therefore not consuming any meat or dairy, you will save countless amounts of animals over time as well as your own health. It has been discovered that a vegan diet due to no animal products and an increased intake of veggies and vitamins can prevent or lessen the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and can lower LDL cholesterol (Winston 1627s). Lower risks for disease can increase lifespan and help you to live a more enjoyable and healthy life. The environmental benefits are also numerous because,” A person who follows a vegan diet produces the equivalent of 50% less carbon dioxide, uses 1/11th oil, 1/13th water, and 1/18th land compared to a meat-lover for their food” (Cowspiracy). This saves land for wildlife and increases the amount of water that can be consumed by humans. So much of the world’s grain is used to feed livestock, but if you followed a vegan diet, grain can be distributed to developing countries and to food banks in our nation. The world’s greenhouse gas emissions decrease when you switch to veganism because cows in the beef and dairy industry are the leading producers of methane emissions.
I challenge all of you to go vegan or simply give veganism a try. For the sake of the animals, the environment, and your own health – why not? You can save one animal’s life each day while also benefiting your well-being and helping with the current climate change crisis. Because of increased population and growing demand for meat, the amount of animal abuse and cruelty is rising each day. We can help these animals by not participating in the industry. It is important as the millennial generation that we help educate and spread awareness to future generations about how animals are really treated before they end up on our plates. Animal cruelty in the food production industry is normalized in our society and is often a topic that is either hidden, avoided, or only discussed at a surface level. It is time that everyone truly knows about what goes on behind closed barn doors.