Factory-Farming
Factory-Farm Workers Face First-Ever Felony Cruelty Charges
By: RaeLeann Smith
Summary: After an undercover investigator from the PETA visited a factory-farm that holds chickens and turkeys, three of the workers there were convicted and charged of animal cruelty. The investigator witnessed the workers brutally punching and stomping on the birds for practically no reason. They also saw the workers beating down the birds with pipes and boards, and in some cases twisting the birds necks. All of these cruel actions on the poor helpless birds hasn't just been witnessed this once. These incidents have been seen countless times from many other undercover PETA investigators visiting these factory-farms. Even if the birds are not being abused by the workers there, they still suffer greatly. The turkeys and chickens spend five to six months tightly compact living among each other in almost complete darkness. To prevent any pecking or clawing among the birds, a process is used where their toes and a portion of their beak are cut off. Living in their own waste, the birds breath in ammonia fumes which can lead to the burning of their eyes and lungs. Antibiotics are put in the food fed to the birds to prevent these ammonia's from taking affect but lead to even greater problems. These drugs cause them to increase in size over a short period of time, and the birds eventually cannot support their own weight. Broken leg bones are the product of this weight increase and birds have been seen using their wings to crawl to food and water. After this cruel life in these factory-farms, they are finally then sent to the slaughterhouse.
Opinion/Reflection: Personally, hearing about the harsh living conditions for chickens and turkeys in these factory-farms is very nauseating just to think about. The fact that we actually put innocent animals through that much pain and suffering leading up to the death of them is terrible in my opinion and I wouldn't see why anyone else wouldn't agree. Even the idea of the birds being tortured by workers for no practical reason in such a brutal manor is just unbearable for me. I hope to see changes made in the way things are done on these factory-farms as it is simply just sick how they are treated. After thinking about how many chickens or turkeys I have eaten before without knowing about how they got to my dinner plate is really upsetting.
Questions:
Do you think something should be done to change the ways of raising these animals on the factory-farms?
How do you feel about the ways of the factory-farms and their methods of raising the animals?
Should laws be made about how the workers at the factory-farms treat the animals?
Opinion: I think that we should not use factory farms. Unless some things are changed. They way the animals are treated isn't fair to them. We are getting more food for the demand of our population, but at the other end of things animals aren't getting treated well. If there were different conditions for farm factories my opinion would change.
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
1. Do you think if they were to change factory farms and make them better for animals, do you think they would get the same result, maybe better?
2. How do you think we would be effected if we went back to traditional farming?
3. Is there anyway we can stop factory farms and go back to traditional farming and still get the same result we want?
The expert I chose to invite to take a look at our blog is Dr. Mark Drabenstott. He is a vice president and director of the Center for the Study of Rural America at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Drabenstott is also chair of the National Policy Association's Food and Agriculture Committee and a director of the National Bureau of Economic Research at Harvard University. I think he would be a good choice because he has written many articles on Regional Economical development and Family Farming. He has a big knowledge about agriculture and rural development. Also he has been doing his job for a long time so he probably has a lot of experience about different topics. Dr.Drabenstott probably had many experiences about different situations with Family Farming and animal cruelty. Here is the letter that I sent to Dr. Drabenstott: Dear Mr. Drabenstott,
ReplyDeleteHello, my name is Bogdan and I am a 9th grade student attending Hatboro-Horsham High School. In our Environmental Science class we write interesting blogs about the topic we are currently learning in class. I would like to invite you to our blog and share your expertise on family farming and agriculture issues. Here is the link to our blog: http://elitesciencesquad.blogspot.com/2012/12/factory-farming.html
Thank you for your time and hope to hear from you soon.
Answer Questions
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: I believe it would be very hard to go back to traditional farming because we have so many humans on our planet due to overpopulation. We must produce as much food as possible to feed our hungry population, and the starving people on earth. There is nothing wrong with traditional methods, but I believe we must find better methods to produce more feed in a quicker amount of time.
Question 3: Yes we should be able to go back to the traditional farming methods. It would produce less food, but is manageable. If we did this then animals would not be abused and the result would be more humane and friendly.
Roman Dolinay