Persuasive Essay
How Do You Like Your Beef? The Unethical Treatment of Animals In Factory Farms. Henri Benefield Senior Thesis Mr. Zontine February 16, 2021 How are the animals in factory farms being treated unethically? Persuasive Essay Henri Benefield Would you know the difference in taste between an animal treated ethically or unethically? To fear, there is no difference. If this is the case, then why are most factory farms treating their animals unethically. There are choices that have to be made when you are dealing with animals: an ethical way and the unethical way. It is hard for factory farms to treat their animals properly because there are so many animals that come and go. Even though it is hard for them to treat the animal the proper way, they still make that choice. They are hurting the animals and causing harm to the environment. Some animals are being treated the wrong way in factory farms and animal rights activists have been working to fix that problem. Factory farms have been making unethical decisions regarding the treatment of animals because no one has been able to stop what they have been doing until now; that's why animal rights activists have played an important role in the welfare of animals. The reason that most factory farms are seen as unethical is because animals are being put in captivity. “Animal rights supporters oppose keeping animals in captivity because the animals are not living their natural way of life” (“Animal Rights”). The conditions in zoos, safari parks, aquariums, and marine mammal parks are seen as prison-like. It is unethical to keep animals locked up in enclosures and not in their natural habitat so it harms the animals well being. The animals are unable to live the lives they were intended to and have no space to roam. In multiple factory farms, the pens that the animals are being held in do not have enough room to lay down or even turn around. Laying hens are put into battery cages and pigs are put into sow stalls. They are called “battery” cages because they are small cages stacked high and in many rows. The hens are unable to stretch their wings, perch, or nest; all are very important for the hens to lay eggs. When a mother pig is in her four month pregnancy she is confined into a sow stall. A sow stall, also known as a gestation crate is a concrete, steel barred stall that is only inches wider than the pig. The conditions become wet and the mother pig breathes in hydrogen sulfide and ammonia fumes (Brown). Animals in factory farms are harming the animals because they don't have the space needed. Animal rights supporters argue that anything produced with animal products has caused harm to the animals. When animals are being transported to slaughter the transportation conditions are horrible. “It is legal to transport ruminants (cattle, sheep, and goats] for 52 hours-more than two days and nights without water, food, or rest.” Most of the time those travel regulations are broken and the animals are forced to suffer (Brown). The animals suffer from short, cruel, and unnatural lives that end with their slaughter. “Some activists believe people who support animal rights should be vegetarians or vegans. Vegetarians eat no meat. Vegans eat no animal products” (“Animal Rights”). They believe that it would be more impactful if all animal rights activists went vegan because it would create less of a demand for meat and animal products. It would also free up space in the factory farms so the animals' lives could improve. “These activists believe such places have prison-like conditions for animals. Others support the research and conservation efforts at some of these places as long as the animals are treated well” (“Animal Rights”). Animals live in harsh conditions that are unethical and animal rights activists are trying to change that for the animals. The biggest problem that factory farms have to deal with is manure runoff which leads to water pollution. “Manure from factory farms often contains a variety of heavy metals, lake-choking nutrients and deadly pathogens such as E. coli 0157” (Nikiforuk). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that Escherichia coli are bacteria found in the environment, foods, and intestines of people and animals (“E.coli”). Most of the time E.coli is harmless, although there are occasions where it is very harmful to humans. The main way that E.coli is spread is through the water supply because of the manure runoff. One of the problems with factory farming is that it hurts the environment and humans use the environment for its natural things like food and water and the factory farms are contaminating that. “In fact, wherever factory farms have concentrated industrial piles of manure in small spaces, big trouble has followed” (Nikiforuk). Pesticides also cause problems for animals and humans. “The editorial laments that biotech crops get bad press whereas organic crops, when something goes awry, seem to come away unscathed” (Holdrege). Pesticides are used to control animals that carry disease, limit pests, and control weeds. Although pesticides are helpful there are some negative effects to pesticides. They are designed to kill certain things, sometimes they can go further and cause harm to the environment by getting into the air or the water and eventually ending up in our food. Factory farms have given themselves a bad reputation causing problems for everyone and the environment (“Why We Use Pesticides”). Factory farms are able to get away with a lot more things than small family farms are able to get away with. “In each case, big corporate producers have moved in, putting family farmers out of business.” The reason that factory farms have been putting small family farms out of business is that they are wasting a lot of things and have much more of an impact on the environment. They are able to make more money by keeping the animals inside their small confined spaces and have created a cheap labor system that benefits the factory style of farming. (Singer and Mason). Tyson Foods one of the biggest chicken producers also has had problems with unlawful labor. In fact, “seven Tyson workers died in industrial accidents. And as a result of the accidents, it was discovered that the company was employing under-age workers.” They were fined by the Department of Labour for violating child labor regulations. Another problem is that Tyson Foods had a history of pollution because chickens create lots of manure there was a lot of runoff and it was hard for them to stop it because they are producing so much chicken. The Tyson Food company is just one of the many factories that have been caught for violating unlawful labor practices (Singer and Mason). More often than not the unethical choices are made despite factory farms being able to choose the ethical choice. “More people have begun to regard what they eat as an ethical choice” (Singer and Mason). Most of the choices that are being made are convenient ones, they do not even think twice about the decisions that they are making. The decision that is being made brings the most benefit to the farm and there are reasons they do it. The animals well being is not even thought about when they are on factory farms. “Animal welfare, and social issues raised by corporate agriculture. In the United States, particularly, the disproportionate political influence of the rural states and the clout that agribusiness wields.” Factory farms were able to grow without being checked in on and were destroying the smaller family owned farms. The reason it has worked that way is because you get the most money out of it, and factory farms are able to produce a lot faster and distribute more food than family farms (Singer and Mason). That is why it has been hard for the factory farms to make ethical decisions, have better facilities for their animals, and create a better life for those animals. Animal rights activists have changed the ways animals have been treated. Many laws and regulations have been put into place for the proper treatment of animals. That occurred when all of the farms were starting to be exposed to the harsh conditions for the animals. There have been multiple laws that have been implemented for the protection and well being of the animals. “In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson approved the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). This was the first federal law that created rules on the treatment of animals bred for commercial use or research purposes and animals that were publicly exhibited” (“Animal Rights”). Problems have occurred when some extreme animal rights activists have tried to break into factory farms and attempted to get videos of the harsh conditions. “The companies that run them have lobbied for ‘ag-gag’ laws that criminalize dissemination of video and photos from within their walls” (Greenberg). Nonetheless, animals’ lives have improved drastically because of animal rights activists. The factory farmers finally are understanding that there is no difference in taste; that treating their animals in an ethical way does not change the outcome of the product. The ethical treatment for animals has improved a lot ever since the start of factory farming. Animals are now being helped and protected from harm because of the fight that animal rights activists have put up. Though there is still the unethical treatment of the animals, the conditions have improved. Even though the animal rights activists know factory farming is needed to provide food for the United States and other countries, they know the lives of the animals are horrible. Multiple laws have been created and factory farms are slowly starting to improve. Bibliography "Animal Rights." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2020. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints. Accessed 21 October. 2020. This talks about how tough factory farms are on their animals. It describes the conditions and some of the laws created to help improve the conditions for the animals. It also talks about how the animal rights movement has played a role in fighting for the rights of animals. Brown, Stephanie. "Do They Not Bleed? Industrial Agriculture and the Cruel Fate of Farm Animals."Canadian Dimension, vol. 45, no. 4, July-Aug. 2011, p. 23+. Gale In Context: High School. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020. This helped describe some of the conditions that the animal had to go through and how the animals’ conditions were in the small animal pens they were couped up in. “E. Coli (Escherichia Coli).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease \ Control and Prevention, 10 Nov. 2020. Talked about how E.coli harms your body and what kinds of ways to prevent it. It showed how the disease can be prevented and what you should do to avoid it. Greenberg, Andrew. "To Be An Animal." Wired, vol. 28, no. 1, Jan. 2020, p. 82. Gale In Context: Global Issues. Accessed 10 Sept. 2020. They showed a lot of the problems that occur at factory farms. They had installed cameras to see how the animals were being treated and in transportation that was put into a VR video so you were there as the animals. Holdrege, Craig. "Blame Factory Farming, Not Organic Food." Nature Biotechnology, vol. 25, no. 2, 2007, p. 165. Gale In Context: Science. Accessed 10 Sept. 2020. This talked about the pesticides that were being sprayed on food that some of it was being fed to the animals and it had caused the disease to spread if you ate the meat. Nikiforuk, Andrew. "When Water Kills: The Dangerous Consequences of Factory Farming are Being felt all Across the Country." Maclean's, 12 June 2000, p. 18. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints. Accessed 10 Sept. 2020. He talked about how the farms in Canada are causing problems in the environment. The pig farms there are also creating lots of problems for the people that live close by to them. Singer, Peter, and Jim Mason. "Are we What we Eat?" Soundings, vol. 34, 2006, p. 67+. Gale Literature Resource Center. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020. This recommended that because of what the animals are going through we are like them when we eat meat. It talked about some of the problems that are caused by when the animals are unable to go anywhere and some diseases that come from eating the meat. “Why We Use Pesticides.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 27 June 2017. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020. This source talked about the reasons that pesticides were used. It also talks about what are the outcomes from pesticides and what diseases come from them. |