Livestock
I grew up outside a small Ontario town north of Toronto. My family lived in a big, rambling house on 3 acres of land. All the kids along the highway played together – so I spent a lot of time at the farm across from my home. They had 2 cows – Onlucker a lovely, red Guernsey and Susie Q – a beautiful Holstein. When they had calves they all grazed in the fields together, and tried to make friends with Maude, a laid back Clydesdale mare.
NOTE: Some Pictures or Content May be Graphic or Disturbing To Younger or Sensitive Readers
They each had a stall with fresh straw – were hand milked every day and would follow us around in the paddock. They always came whenever we called “coboss – coboss”. They were sweet and affectionate and loved to have their foreheads scratched. A beautiful picture of idyllic farm life for cows. I’m sure such farms still exist somewhere in the world – where caring people treat their animals with dignity and respect.
Let’s fast forward to today. Food is big business – big, ugly, greedy business – discussed in boardrooms in most countries around the world. Animals are a huge money making profit machine. That is all – a mass produced, horribly confined, neglected, abused, bottom line corporate entity.
Factory Farms produce and slaughter millions upon millions of birds and animals every year for financial gain and human consumption. No creature is beyond the reach of these barbaric and unethical henchman.
Egg Producing Chickens
Broiler Chickens
Beef Cattle
Dairy Cattle
Goats
Lambs
Pigs
Sheep
Turkeys
Turtles
Veal Calves
After a hellish life – these animals are shipped to the slaughterhouse for a terrifying and unimaginable death. There is not a moment of compassion or kindness it the life of a factory farmed creature. The next thing we know – they appear on our supermarket shelves wrapped in cellophane. The cattle have become beef, hamburger and steak and calves have become veal. We humans don’t like to think about this. It offends our tender sensibilities. I was having a conversation with a friend last fall about the appalling conditions on factory farms. She put up both hands and said – “No, don’t tell me this. I don’t want to hear – I don’t want to know.”
As long as people don’t know – they can sit in blissful ignorance – pretending that these farms of abject misery don’t exist. Fortunately the atrocities committed in these hell holes are coming to light. More people are aware of and are speaking out against this corporate greed and cruelty.
Australia’s – Make It Possible Campaign with the little flying pig is making huge headway in exposing the tragedy of factory farming and live animal shipment in that country.
Did You Know That A Breeding Sow Lives Her Entire Life In A Gestation Crate?
In future posts I’ll share animal and bird specific factory farming information.
For now perhaps you’ll think about where your food comes from and at what cost to the animals!
