Every Piece Of Animal Flesh example essay topic

Whenever you eat or drink something, do you really think about what it is you are consuming? For example, for breakfast, you stop at McDonald's to grab a pork roll, egg, and cheese sandwich before school. Do you realize that you are eating part of a pig, a chicken and a cow? The chickens that are raised for McDonald's eggs and meat are treated horribly before they are brutally killed. The chickens are crammed into filthy, overcrowded, cold, drafty warehouses where each bird has less space to stand than the width of a standard sheet of paper. Every piece of animal flesh that you eat is most often achieved in a sick and twisted way.

The people that raise animals for food are in it for the money, not the welfare of the animals. And not only are the animals killed for their flesh, they are also murdered for their skin and fur. Every time you see a person that you see walking down the street with a mink coat on is wearing, think of the 3,600 hours that those 60 defenseless animals had to spend in a trap. Think of the terror and pain that each animal went through as the metal claws dug deeper into its leg as the blood rushed forth. The fur farms are not any better. The animals there are confined in small crates without suitable water and food.

Many people believe that animals don't have thoughts and feelings and that they don't really care what is going on and that they don't feel pain. That is perhaps one of the worst lies ever created by man. Animals shouldn't be treated like that. Animals deserve as much respect as humans and they should be treated as equally.

Unfortunately, trappers / fur farmers and slaughterers do not feel that way. They will kill whatever they can just for money. Did you know that trappers kill approximately 3.5 million fur bearing animals every year for their fur? And besides that number of target animals killed each year, hundreds of thousands of dogs, cats, birds, and other domestic animals, and some endangered species, are "accidentally" crippled or killed.

These "trash" animals are considered useless by trappers and their bodies are left to rot. When the trappers catch one of their "target" animals, they will usually beat or stomp on the animal until it dies, instead of slitting its throat or shooting it with a gun to avoid damaging the fur, even though it means the animal will usual suffer for awhile before it dies instead of it having a quick, painless death. A common stomping method is for the trapper to stand on the animal's ribcage while he concentrates his weight near the animal's heart. The trapper then reaches down, grabs the hind legs, and yanks (web). One out of every four trapped animals manages to escape this death by chewing his or her foot off because they mentally and physically cannot handle being held captive. After they escape, though, they will probably die of blood loss, fever, gangrene, or predation.

Most animals that are killed and used for their fur are animals that have been trapped by trappers but a good 2.7 million fur bearing animals like minxes and foxes are raised on fur farms. The minxes that are raised on fur farms are kept in 1-by-3 foot cages with 3 other minxes. Minxes are very solitaire animals and when they are forced to live with other minxes, it takes an excruciating toll on their sanity. They develop self-mutilating behaviors and abnormalities called "stereotypes", which include pacing in a ritualized pattern and chewing repeatedly on their tails and feet.

The minxes are very uncomfortable in the heat of the summer because they are partly water animals and they use the water to cool off in the summer. Wild minxes spend 60 to 70% of their time in the water and without it, their salivation, respiration, and body temperature increase greatly. In order to control these reactions to the heat, the animals attempt to cool themselves off by pressing their backs against their drinking water bottles. The mink farmers do not want to "waste" water so they stop this by cutting off their already meager water supply.

The foxes on fur farms are also treated cruelly. They are kept in 2.5-foot square cages with up to 4 animals to a cage. The foxes kept in close confinement go a little insane and they sometimes cannibalize each other. For the minxes, foxes, and other animals that are raised on fur farms that are still alive when it comes time for them to be killed, they are murdered in many different ways. Animals may be stuffed into small cardboard boxes with only one hole for the exhaust pipe of a car to go into.

The engine of that car is then started and run for a few minutes until the animals inside the box are dead. The can also be killed by being electrocuted, poisoned by strychnine, or having their necks snapped. These methods are not 100% effective and some animals "wake up" while being skinned (web). It is much more humane to make a coat out of fake fur than one of real fur and it takes 3 times less energy to make a coat from trapped animals' pelts -- and 40 times as much from ranch raised furs -- than it does to make a fake fur coat. Fur farmers don't care about that though; they only care about the profits made from their $648 million a year sales. They couldn't care less about the pain and agony that they cause to a helpless animal. factory Farming~ an attitude which regards animals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit.

These people do not care that the animals realize what is going on and that they can feel pain. Hundreds of millions of animals are killed annually in the United States for money. Over 100 million pigs alone are raised and killed in the U.S. every year. The pigs live in overcrowded pens with concrete floors and metal bars. The sows are in a continuous cycle of impregnation and birth. They have approximately 20 piglets, or 3 litters, a year.

When a sow is no longer deemed a productive breeder, she is slaughtered. The piglets will eventually face the same fate. They have their tails cut off to minimize tail biting and notches are taking out of their ears for identification purposes. All of this is done without anesthesia or painkillers. Many diseases are rampant in swine confinement such as respiratory problems, swine arthritis, salmonellosis, TGE, Bratislava, and parvovirus.

Because of this, 15% of the piglets will have died by the time that they are taken away from their mothers when they are 2 to 3 weeks old. The piglets then live until they are 6 months old and weigh 250 pounds. When they reach that weight, they are carried in trucks to the slaughterhouse. Overcrowding in these trucks is cause for over 8 million pig deaths yearly and it is done just to save $0.25 per head.

At the slaughterhouse, the pigs are supposed to be "stunned", usually by a mechanical blow to the head, which renders them unconscious before they are hung upside down by their back legs and bled to death. "Stunning" is often imprecise, and when it is, the pig will be upside down, struggling and kicking, while a worker attempts to "stick" it in the neck with a knife. If the worker is unsuccessful in his attempt to stab the pig, it is sent down the assembly line to the next station, the scalding tank, where the pig will be boiled alive. All dairy cows must give birth in order to produce milk and they are forced to give birth once a year.

With genetic manipulation and intensive production technologies, it is common for dairy cows to produce 100 pound of milk a day, which is 10 times more than they would normally produce. The cows are fed high-energy feed that makes them produce more milk. This unnaturally rich diet causes metabolic disorders, such as ketosis, which is fatal, and laminitis, which causes lameness. The "Bovine Growth Hormone" is injected into the cows to make them produce more milk. This Bovine Growth Hormone increases birth defects in calves. It doesn't matter to the dairy farmers, though, because the calves are immediately separated from their mothers following their birth.

The female calves are raised to replace the older cows in the milk herd. Veal is a by-product of the milk industry because a cow must give birth in order to begin producing milk. One half of the calves born are male and since they are of no use to the dairy industry, they are used for beef or veal. Right after their birth, male calves are taken away from their mothers and loaded onto trucks. The calves are then sold through an auction ring. After they are sold, they are shocked and kicked and when they can no longer walk, are dragged by their ears or legs to get them loaded once again onto trucks, this time to move them to their "new" home.

Every year, approximately 1 million calves are each confined in 2-foot wide crates and chained by the neck to restrict all movement. This rough treatment prevents the calves' muscles from developing so that their meat stays "tender". The calves confined in these small, wooden crates experience "chronic stress" and require 5 times more medication than a calf in normal conditions. Because the calves need that much more medication, their meat is the most likely to contain illegal drug residues that pose a threat to human health (web). The calves show abnormal coping behaviors that are associated with frustration from being engaged. They experience leg and joint disorders and an impaired ability to walk because their leg muscles are never built up and their legs are always in the same cramped position.

The calves are fed an all-liquid milk substitute that is purposely deficit in iron and fiber. This diet produces borderline anemia and the pale-colored flesh fancied by "gourmets". When the weak animals reach an age of about 4 months, they are slaughtered. The "expensive" or "milk fed" veal that you would normally eat comes from the calves kept in the small confinement of the wooden crates. "Bob" veal, on the other hand, is the flesh of calves that are slaughtered when they are only a few hours or days old. Although "bob" calves are spared the 4 months chained and tied up, they are still subject to inhumane transport, handling, and slaughter and they may die before reaching the slaughterhouse.

Very few dairy calves are raised into cattle to be killed for beef because most of the 35 million beef cattle killed annually are born and / or live on the range, fending for themselves, for months or even years. It is very dangerous for the cattle because they may die of dehydration or freezing to death. They may also get "cancer eye", which is a form of cancer that eats away at the animal's eye and face. It eventually produces a crater on the side of the animal's head. When the cattle that are still alive reach the selected slaughter age, humans round up the confused and frightened animals. Many of the cattle are injured as they are corralled and packed onto cattle trucks.

They are then sold at an auction ring. The older cattle are taken directly to the slaughterhouse and the younger cattle are put back out onto the range with the young breed cows. Ranchers identify cattle with hot brands or by "waddling", which is cutting large chunks out of the hide that hangs from their neck. Most of these cattle spend the last few months of their lives at feedlots, crowded into small, dusty holding pens. The cattle at feedlots are routinely implanted with growth promoting hormones and they are fed unnaturally rich diets to make up for the poor food that they had to eat on the range.

After they are sufficiently overweight, they are taken to the slaughterhouse. At the slaughterhouse, over 250 cattle are killed every hour. The cattle are supposed to be unconscious when they are hung upside down and bled to death. This "stunning" is usual done by a mechanical blow to the head.

Not every animal is properly "stunned", so while the animal is upside down, kicking and struggling, the worker attempts to hit it in the head. Eventually the cattles' throats are slit with a knife and they will bleed to death, whether they are unconscious or not. "Red meat" animals are not the only ones that suffer inhumane treatment. More people eat chicken or turkey than red meat because it is healthier. Over 10 billion chickens and one half billion turkeys are being hatched for their flesh yearly. They are crowded into huge, drafty warehouse where the chickens can hardly move because each one is given less than half of a square foot of space.

The turkeys are a little better off; they are given less than 3 square feet to move around in. The turkeys need more room because they are very violent animals when they are provoked. The chickens and turkeys have the ends of their beaks cut off and the turkeys have their toes clipped to prevent them from scratching each other to death. These mutilations are done without anesthesia or painkillers. The chickens and turkeys that are raised for meat are genetically altered to grow two times faster and two times larger than normal. The birds' legs are not meant to hold their unnaturally heavier upper bodies so they develop crippling leg disorders.

When the birds are ready to be killed, they are taken to the slaughterhouse in crates on the backs of trucks. The chickens and turkeys are dumped onto conveyor belts at the slaughterhouse but some fall onto the ground. The workers don't pick up the birds that don't make it onto the conveyor belt and they are killed later by machinery or die of starvation or exposure. The birds on the conveyor belt are then hung, fully conscious, by their feet from metal shackles on a moving rail. They travel to the first station, which is the "stunning" tank. There, the birds' heads are submerged in an electrified bath of water.

Poultry is specifically kept out of the Humane Slaughter Act, which requires "stunning" before killing the animal being slaughtered. Poultry farmers use it anyway because it immobilizes the birds speeds up the assembly line killing. The stunning procedures are not monitored and they are sometimes inadequate. In many slaughterhouses, the electrical current for the "stun bath" is commonly set lower than what is required to render the birds completely unconscious.

They set it lower because too much electricity might damage the birds' carcasses and diminish the value if its flesh. What results from this is that the birds are immobile but they are still conscious and they can still feel pain. The next station on the assembly line slashes the birds' throats with a mechanical blade and they are bled to death. Inevitably, the blade misses some birds. The birds then proceed to the third and last station, the scalding tank. There, they are submerged in boiling hot water.

The birds that were missed by the blade are boiled alive here. This happens so often, approximately 4 million birds are boiled alive yearly, that the poultry industry has a name for them... ". redskins". In conclusion, I have found that the animals used for fur and food are treated horribly. The people that raise these animals don't care about the animals' welfare. All they care about is getting more money. They think that animals don't feel pain, but they do.

Many people eat meat and wear fur coats and that would be fine with me if the animals didn't have to be subject to such torture and inhumane treatment. If the animals were given an actual life and raised normally without all these growth promoting hormones and then killed quickly and painlessly that would be better. They should be properly stunned so that they are completely unconscious when they are killed. The workers at the farms and the slaughterhouses should handle the animals carefully so as to no break any bones or injure them in anyway. If people just realized how terribly these animals are treated and DID something about it, everyone would be better off. But no, everything these days is about money and greed.

If causing pain and torture to a living being gets them more money, the happier they are. They trap animals in metal claws that rip and tear at an animal's leg and then they brutally kill them. Fur farmers force solitary animals to live together and don't do anything to ease their suffering until they are dead from breathing in poisonous toxins while being trapped in cardboard boxes. Factory farmers raise animals in bulk and force them to live in overcrowded, cold, drafty warehouses while they are fed an unnatural diet laced with growth promoting hormones. When the animals are already either weak or dead from the many rampant diseases and problems involved with this industry, they are shoved onto overcrowded trucks and taken to be killed. Most of the animals are still conscious or can feel pain when they are boiled alive or have their throats slit.

It's against the law to improperly stun the victims but people do it anyway. Our country needs to realize the terrible mistakes we " re making by being cruel, heartless people. Animals deserve as much respect as human, more even because we invaded their land and their lives and now we are raising them to kill them. Most animals now live to die and it's our fault.

Just about everything bad that has happened to animals has been caused by the human species. We owe it to the animals to give them the respect that they deserve.

Bibliography

1.) Cows Are Cool. September 19, 1996.
PETA. October 24, 2000 web 2.
Factory Farming. October 6, 2000.
PETA. October 24, 2000 http: / web 3.
Fur Is Dead. April 9, 1995.
PETA. October 24, 2000 web 4.
Meat Stinks. January 21, 1998.
PETA. October 24, 2000 web 5.
PETA. August 7, 1993.
October 24, 2000 web.