1. Each year over 25 billion innocent animals are slaughtered for human consumption
2. You, as a meat eater, are responsible for the deaths and abuse of 2,400 animals including approximately 2,287 chickens, 92 turkeys, 31 pigs, and 12 cows and calfs.
3. The industry of animals slaughter for food is highly unregulated.
4. Cows are inhumanely slaughtered. They are crammed into trucks and often only stand because they are packed in so tightly. The cows are unloaded at the slaughter plant, but if a cow is unable to get off the truck one end of a rope is tied around it's neck, and the other is tied around a pole. The truck then drives off and the down cow is dragged off the truck. This causes broken bones. The cow is often left outside for many hours before being "dealt with" without food, water, or shelter. Inside, cows are led into kill stalls using electric prods. The panic in their eyes is undeniable. They can smell the blood and often know they are going to die. A bolt is driven into their heads to knock them unconscious. Sometimes it takes several blows to knock the cow out. Then, the cow's neck is slit and it is hung upside down to bleed to death while still alive!
5. Don't think the kosher killing is more humane! In fact, in most cases it is worse. The cows are led into a kill stall with eletric prods. They instinctively stick there heads out the window and instantly are trapped. The "window" raises causing the cow to be completely stuck. Then, someone with a knife cuts the jugular veins and windpipe while the cow is still conscious. The window is then raised another 6 inches so the blood will gush out faster. In all, the cow is conscious through the entire death process which takes approximately 4-7 minutes!
6. Chickens have it bad too. Most chickens never see the light of day, except on the short ride to the slaughter house. They are crammed into warehouses containing up to 100,000 chickens! This is way too many birds to establish a pecking order, so at birth, the chicks have there beaks chopped off with burning hot knives while fully conscious. Many chicks die from shock. Every year 280 thousand baby male chicks who can't lay eggs are thrown into garbage bags and meatgrinders to suffocate or be ground to death. A very painful and slow death.
7. Pigs have a rough time also. They're kept in cages no bigger than their own bodies and the cages are often stacked so the pigs on the bottom are drenched in droppings from the pigs living above it. At the slaughter house the pigs are jabbed in the eyes, mouths, and rectums with metal hooks to encourage them to move faster. They are then knocked unconscious by the same method used on cows and hung upside down while still alive to let the blood drain out of there bodies. |
