Are farm animals treated humanely?

“But Adam, it’s ok that we eat animals bred for food because they’re treated humanely and given great lives before they’re killed, right?” Well if we ignore the fact that humane slaughter is an oxymoron, let’s look at industry standard procedures in the animal agriculture industry:

• Castration without anesthesia: “In the USA virtually all males are physically castrated at a young age (predominantly) with no anesthesia or analgesia (pain relief)”

• Tails cut off without anesthesia: “Tail docking is a common practice in UK pig farms and causes extreme suffering to pigs. It is carried out without anesthetic by farmers, often when the piglet is only 1-3 days old”

• Battery cages: “Battery cages are extremely cramped. Typically, each one contains 4-5 chickens, and each chicken has around 67 square inches to herself — less than the surface area of an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper. Hens in battery cages do not have enough room to fully stretch their wings or extend their necks, let alone walk, fly or do any number of other things that chickens do in their natural habitats.” “Forced molting is the practice of intentionally starving hens for weeks at a time, causing them to lose feathers, drastic amounts of body weight, and in some cases, their lives.” “A human’s bones become brittle if they don’t maintain a minimum level of physical activity, and the same is true for chickens. Because of how little movement they’re afforded, hens in battery cages frequently develop osteoporosis, a painful condition that weakens their bones and makes them more susceptible to fracture and breakage.” “For instance, caged chickens often develop hyperkeratosis, a thickening of the pads on the bottom of their feet that can lead to painful inflammation and open sores.”

• Forced impregnation on a device the industry calls “the rape rack”: “The “rape rack” is a narrow, chute-like device in which female cows are restrained while they undergo a process the dairy industry euphemistically refers to as “artificial insemination.” During artificial insemination (AI), a dairy worker inserts one of his arms into the rectum of a restrained cow and, with his other arm, inserts a rod-like device called an Al gun into her vagina. The Al gun, which contains bull semen, is pushed in further until it reaches the cervix (the entrance to the uterus). The semen is then injected into the uterus”

• Gestation crates: “The crates are standard practice in the pork industry even though, according to a supreme court brief filed by 378 veterinarians and animal welfare scientists, they “cause profound, avoidable suffering and deprive pigs of a minimally acceptable level of welfare”. According to a brief by the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and other groups, they can also contribute to disease spread to humans”

• Farrowing crates: “Scientific research shows that gestation crates cause physical and psychological suffering to sows, including lameness due to weaker bones and muscles, abrasion injuries, cardiovascular problems, digestive problems, and urinary tract problems. Gestation crates also increase abnormal behavior such as sham chewing and bar-biting, indicating severe frustration and stress, and sows in crates can exhibit behavior likened to clinical depression.”

• Horns burned off: “Young calves experience pain and distress during the hot iron procedure. Research from the Journal of Dairy Science shows that cows feel pain and fear from the handling associated with the procedure, the procedure itself, and the postoperative pain and discomfort.” “During dehorning, farmers expose the calf’s sinus and increase the risk of infection. Because dehorning results in a larger wound, there can be issues around bleeding. Sometimes flies lay eggs in the cow’s exposed sinuses, leading to disease”

• Branding: “To show ownership of the calves, workers on a cattle ranch that supplies JBS used hot irons to brand them on the face - without any pain relief and counter to the minimum animal-welfare recommendations by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. Older cattle were also forced into chutes, where they panicked and kicked as workers branded them on the back”

• Beak trimming: “Beak trimming is an invasive procedure that is performed without pain relief and can cause stress, as well as acute and chronic pain in birds. Beak trimming can damage the sensory receptors in the bird’s beak leading to a loss of beak sensation and function, which can affect the bird’s ability to feed and perform other normal behaviors such as foraging and ground pecking. Birds can also develop neuromas after beak trimming, which is where the nerve fibers in the beak begin to regrow and result in chronic pain”

• Toe trimming (amputation): “it has been demonstrated that toe trimming of poults does cause pain and, as such, is a welfare concern for the industry. As no positive impacts were found in the toms as a result of toe trimming, this procedure should not be a recommended practice for the heavy tom industry based on the results of this research”

• Teeth clipping: “Pigs are likely to experience long-term pain from the tooth abnormalities that occur following clipping, and that this pain is likely to last until the milk teeth are lost and replaced with permanent teeth – a period of 50–120 days”

• Bolt stunning failures are very common, causing them to feel pain when they die: “The proportions of assessments in which there were no failures were 28%“

“But Adam, I only buy grass-fed pasture-raised organic free-range small family-owned meat and dairy, surely this doesn’t happen on those farms?” Let me first point out that in the US 94% of animals are factory farmed, and worldwide that number is 94%, so these small family farms represent such a small subset of where animals come from anyway. But that aside, unfortunately, these are industry standards, even on small farms. You may see better treatment of animals to a degree on small farms, but there’s no guarantee. Some allow their animals to graze instead of being confined in small quarters, but much of what is described here is still occurring on small farms. And of course, an animal’s life on all farms ends the same way, with the animal being killed for food.

And since we already know that there is no reason to eat animals, all of this is unnecessary, and therefore morally wrong.