If Pets Are Protected From Animal Abuse, Why Not Farm Animals?

The Atlantic Food Channel:

Most people know NFL quarterback Michael Vick jeopardized his career and went to prison for violating animal cruelty laws. What they likely don't realize is that unlike dogs and other pets, farm animals are virtually unprotected against cruelty, no matter how extreme. While every state in the country has animal anti-cruelty statutes on the books, most explicitly exempt farm animals. We think that should change.

Read the whole story: The Atlantic Food Channel

Comments

[liquidzen]

I wonder how many people in this CIVIL society would really eat flesh if they had to do the actual killing and gutting??

[ScottWynn]

they all should be protected. human are not predator, but we're animal protector.

[patiencepatriot]

Money trumps morals.

[rocketman69]

Should we protect the poor animals from themselves too? Those zebra's aren't treated very humanely by those lions.

[HHUA]

Are you suggesting that you have no more intelligence or conscience than a "lion"?

Actually, it would appear that lions have more decency than you... Lions DON'T abuse the animals they eat... They kill them as quickly as possible with a fatal blow to the jugular.

There is NO excuse in the world that can justify cruel treatment to animals... Just because we eat them does not mean we have to abuse them in the process of raising and s/aughtering. There are HUMANE methods for doing both... But then "humane" does not seem to be a word in your vocabulary!

[Freesia2]

Absolutely. However people feel about the ethics of eating meat or not eating meat, there are so many things that go on in industrial farming and processing that don't need to be. Pigs laid like vegetables in cages so small they can't roll over and baby calves kept in stalls so small they can't lay down and fed to keep them underweight and anemic so they'll make soft pink veal chops. (I told a rural family farmer about that once and he was shocked. He'd never seen anyone treat a cow like that. It wasn't decent.) Agribusiness is so lax and so under regulated. There's no excuse.

I read about a woman once who wouldn't eat meat from a grocery store. Yes, she ate meat but she wouldn't buy that. She said she "could taste the misery in the meat". She was right.

[ILibertine]

I must've had a verrry happy cow earlier tonight. But I totally agree with the need for some regulation of the industrial aspect of farming - that isn't farming, per se.

[truthartbeauty]

there is no difference between a pig, a cow , and a dog or a cat.....ALL are innocent creatures who just want to live their one life like everyone else. All have feelings, All are individuals, just like people and it is WRONG to treat them so heartlessly. No one who eats meat has morality....period You can try to justify your ignorance and cruelty through your worthless bibles as you try to justify every other abomination with that worthless book but you cannot be moral and commit immoral acts. you cant have it both ways and anyone who attempts to justify this reprehensible pointless cruelty, is a hypocrite. you cannot defend the indefensible. reject cruelty in your life, in your hearts, have compassion and stop the ugliness performed on innocent animals by weak cruel hypocrites!

[ILibertine]

"No one who eats meat has morality". What a crock of self-righteous blather. One might strike a blow for eliminating cruelty to others by refraining from this stuff. The article is about industrial treatment of animals, not against the joys of meat. Viva PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals).

[Progressiveama]

I cry at night fairly often if I read or see or think of what is done to farm animals. It is hideous.......hideous. How do we think that we should be exempt from pain but that animals aren't, and they do NOTHING to deserve it. Vegetarianism IS an issue with many religions. I do not undestand how we kill one animal, honor a pet, honor ourselves and torture another. Farming harms our environment, in fact it is the biggest cause of greehouse gases. Cancers come from eating animals..........I mean.....animals do not exactly get physicals before being killed, how do people know that they are not eating a disease, or the medication given an animal, or the sickness of an animal. There is excellent food that is not made of animals. Animals are so incredibly special, we humans think that we are the center of existance and I do not believe that we are. I also believe that the harm that we are responsible for when we eat animals, we will pay for later..........karma.

[Vickster]

Most fruits and vegetables are also grown on industrial farms.

[bunnyv]

.........and your point?

[Vickster]

The problem goes beyond meat.

Oranges, bananas, pineapples and lemons all year long, to name of few. Also winter tomatoes, strawberries, grapes and so on. And that's just the beginning.

[Fabini]

Why not insects?

[thundermummy]

Why not amoebas?

[LADawson]

Cruelty enforcement on animals kept as pets is lax as well. While it's pretty easy to determine if a cat or a dog is kept improperly or treated cruelly, the people tasked with enforcing such laws simply don't have the training to deal with most other kinds of animals. I was involved in a cruelty case involving pet reptiles a few years ago (small captive bred snakes, nothing that could be considered dangerous). Police flat out refused to respond to the cruelty complaint until after the media was called to get them involved, and once there, the police had no idea what they were looking at - even whether the animals were actually being treated cruelly, despite the fact that the animals were living in their own filth, had no water, and had inadequate temperature controls in the shed they were kept in. In the end, the police confiscating the animals as evidence in the case, and entrusted them to a local "zoo". Once again, with people not trained and had no clue how to properly care for them, which resulted in animal deaths and the whole situation just disappeared without a real result.

I'm sure someone will say "well, snakes shouldn't be pets anyway" ... but that is completely beyond my point. If we're going to have cruelty laws, they need to be enforced, and the people enforcing them need the proper training to do the job, and then they need trained people to care for the animals after

[globalwarmingisafraud]

Um...because they are FOOD! To do so would prohibit branding, castration and other practices that are common and have been common for hundreds of years. But mostly because they are FOOD!

[poomplet]

Ummm...castration, spaying, declawing and insertion of subcutaneous ID chips are not only allowed with pets, but with the exception of declawing, they're actually ENCOURAGED.

[bunnyv]

are pets spayed/neutered w/o anesthesia? If a friend of yours were to stand on his/her dogs stomach until it's intestines came out it's anus, would you be ok with that? How about sticking his/her fingers in the dogs anus/vagina? These animals maybe be considered food, but that doesn't mean people should be able to treat animals that way. And, yes it does happen, everyday, multiple times a day.... anytime someone goes undercover, it shows something appalling.

[regulargal]

Jeffrey Dahmer felt same about people. Didn't make it right to eat them.

[HHUA]

Sooo, because we eat them means they should be TORTURED too? What does one have to do with the other? In fact, all the more reason they should be treated "humanely" (if you understand the concept of the word)! FYI, animals that are mistreated and kept in poor conditions before they are slaughtered are not even healthy to eat.

Please educate yourself as to the full extent of the problem before you post senseless comments.

[regulargal]

Numbers of Animals Slaughtered for Food in US:
Number of cows and calves slaughtered every 24 hours in the US: 90,000
Number of chickens slaughtered every minute in the US: 14,000
Food animals (not counting fish and other aquatic creatures) slaughtered per year in the US: 10 billion
Slaughterhouse:
Transcript of New York Times full page ad published June 22, 2001 detailing the horrors of our modern-day slaughterhouses. With 309-330 cows per hour coming by on the "disassembly" line, there are many who are still fully conscious with eyes wide open when skinned and cut apart. They die literally piece by piece.

[regulargal]

Partially compiled by Rainforest Action Network
Excrement:
Production of excrement by total US human population: 12,000 pounds/second
Production of excrement by US livestock: 250,000 pounds/second (including 25 pounds of manure per cow per day)
Sewage systems in US cities: Common
Sewage systems in US feedlots: None
Amount of waste produced annually by US livestock in confinement operations which is not recycled: 1 billion tons
Where feedlot waste often ends up: In our water
Gallons of oil spilled by the Exxon-Valdez: 12 million
Gallons of putrefying hog urine and feces spilled into the New River in North Carolina on June 21, 1995, when a "lagoon" holding 8 acres of hog excrement burst: 25 million
Fish killed as an immediate result: 10-14 million

[truthartbeauty]

people are hypcrites. nasty ugly evil hypcrites. people say that they want and expect their god to be merciful to them yet, when given the same power over the innocent animals who can only look to us for compassion what do we do? we treat them like prisoners, lock them up and show them no affection at all, then unmercifully slaughter them for a crime they did not commit. and you think you have moraltiy because of your religion???? think again. religion only justifies mans weaknesses and his basest and lowest instincts. be the god to the animals that you want for yourself or stop assuming you have morality. animals are innocent creatures who only want to live their lives like you do.. hypocrites!

[regulargal]

Numbers of Animals Slaughtered for Food in US:
Number of cows and calves slaughtered every 24 hours in the US: 90,000
Number of chickens slaughtered every minute in the US: 14,000
Food animals (not counting fish and other aquatic creatures) slaughtered per year in the US: 10 billion
Slaughterhouse:
Transcript of New York Times full page ad published June 22, 2001 detailing the horrors of our modern-day slaughterhouses. With 309-330 cows per hour coming by on the "disassembly" line, there are many who are still fully conscious with eyes wide open when skinned and cut apart. They die literally piece by piece.

[iworshipthedoggod]

the problem is religion,and gods,the sorry fact that alot of people think that animals are here for us to use,no matter the suffering.i am in no way affiliated with peta,they are extremists,at the same time no animal should suffer for my nourishment,animal skin should not be worn,animal testing is not necessary,etc,etc.animals are gifts and should be treasured.

[thundermummy]

Keep the "should nots" to yourself. I am an atheist so I don't think god put animals here for our use. I think that we evolved as animals that get nourishment from the other living organisms on the planet. That we are in different circumstances from our ancestors doesn't sway me. Nor does it change the fact that bacon tastes good, pork chops taste good.

[Paul108]

Let's please distinguish between genuine religion of Divine origin and false, human-created religion. In fact, Srimad Bhagavatam states that meat-eaters cannot know God (SB 10.1.4: http://vedabase.net/sb/10/1/en) and that instead in future births they will be forced to suffer the same fate as the animals they are responsible for killing http://vedabase.net/sb/11/5/14/enn).

SB 11.5.14: "Those sinful persons who are ignorant of actual religious principles, yet consider themselves to be completely pious, without compunction commit violence against innocent animals who are fully trusting in them. In their next lives, such sinful persons will be eaten by the same creatures they have killed in this world."

It is the greatest tragedy that religion has been hijacked by unscrupulous men for so long.

[scottyknows]

You have gone off the deep end, and I hope you stay there.

God gave us all the animals for food (Peter's vision in Acts). You can choose to be a vegetarian, but Paul refers to those who do as those with weaker faith.

[iworshipthedoggod]

im pretty sure your god didnt mean for them to be tortured,and i am in no deep end.

[JScott]

For that matter wild animals, we don't to a very good job at that either.

[JScott]

Include the rest of the planet for that matter

[ChaiKat]

I agree. Just because these animals are considered a food source, doesn't mean they should not be treated with kindness and respect.

[TigersEye]

I agree, the way animals are mass marketed and inhumanely treated before they end up at the grocery store makes me ill. And so much meat goes to waste!