Industrial/ Factory Farming

-supply 80% poultry, beef, & pork consumed in the U.S.A -40% fish -10 billion animals slaughtered annually *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-huge enterprises -assembly lines -thousands of employees -'concentrated animal feeding operations' (CAFOs) -endanger public health, enviroment, & the wellfare of animals *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-avian influenza -E. Coli (Escherichia Coli 0157:H7) -mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [BSE]) which is \"spread easily among animals confined in close quarters\" -many are antibiotic resistant -many think \"due to overuse of anitbiotics in livestock and poultry farmers, who administer the drugs to prevent\" and cure other diseases *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-Union of Concerned Scientists say- farm animals consume 70% of all antibiotics in US *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-cows are injected with the \"controversial recombinant bovine growth hormone\" (rBGH or rBST) -is approved by the FDA, but banned in Europe, Canada, other countries due to human health concerns *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-\"hormones, pesticides, & antibiotics from processed animal feed are excreted in animal manure \" -\"then stored in lagoons that often leak or spill\" out into water systems -\"where they post additional health concerns to humans, fish, & wildlife\" -decomposes, releases methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide -contribute to global warming and air pollution -\"residents who live near hog farms suffer a greater incidence of respiratory problems t general population \" *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-concerns include the health and welfare -many are illegal immigrants, unlikely to speak out against \"substandard working conditions\" -fear of reprisal, and the \"economic burden the large corporations have placed on the small farmer *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-use battery cages, gestation created, and continuing stake that \"prevent exercise and other healthy activities\" -1976 FDA began annual inspectors of CAFOs -dozens of lawsuits have implicated farms in polluting water systems *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-methods traced back to Industrial Revolution -farm machinery -milking machines from the 19th century into \"massive steel facilities\" that milk hundreds of cows an hour *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-in 2002- implicated in listeria outbreak -50 sickened, 8 dead -nonetheless, 24% Increase in profit for the forth quarter in 2010 *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-fish farming of salmon, catfish, shrimp, and other -in response to overfishing in the 80s and 90s threatened many species -environmentalists cite marine pollution as a by-product of fish farms built in the ocean or along coastlines -human health concerns are related to the prevelance of disease, use of antibiotics, for coloring, and other additives -\"there is a danger to wild fish populations when farmed fish escape their pens \" *Factory Farming: An Overview*

-social groups up to 30 birds -sensitive beaks containing nerve endings, use them as we do our hands -dust bathe to clean and remove bacteria, parasites -roost in low branches of trees -live up to 15 years *NHES*

-approx. 300 million egg-laying hens in US in factory farms -each bird lays more than 250 eggs a year -most egg-laying hens live up to 2 years -male chickens are tossed into grinders while alive, ground up, sometimes fed back to the rest of the hens -otherwise tossed into plastic bags, suffocated, or thrown away -hens are housed in battery~cages made of wire -house 5-10 birds, limits each bird's space to 8.5/11\" sheet of paper -many birds cant reach food or water -become entangled by their necks and feet in the wires, live their entire lives in the cages -environments engineered to make hens produce more eggs than natural in the wild -suffer from cage layer fatigue, hen becomes egg bound and dies because her body is too weak to pass another egg -osteoporosis, bodies lose more calcium to egg shells than can be taken in from their diets -fatty liver syndrome, occurs when a laying hen's liver works overtime to produce fat and protein for egg yolks -after egg production decreases, hen's cycle is manipulated through starvation, lack of water, and darkness for 2 weeks~causes forced molting -shock to their system brought on by forced molting often kills them -spent hens are no longer capable of meeting production standards~slaughtered for their flesh, goes into pet foods, soups, and other processed foods -10 billion broiler chickens are raised and slaughtered every year in US -raised by the thousands in giant sheds over a six~week period -suffer serious health problems due to \"unnatural rate of growth and the intensive psychological and environmental conditions in the sheds\" -typically, genetically altered to grow 2x as fast and 2x as large as wild chickens -hundreds of millions of chickens die before reaching 6 weeks *NHES*

-live up to 20 years -form strong family bonds -normal habitat~near bodies of water -natural swimmers -essentially aquatic birds -preen themselves with water to keep clean -fly at about 50 mph -known to migrate thousands of miles -eat seeds, plants, insects, worms *NHES*

-24 million ducks slaughtered annually -fed diets of corn and soy -housed in overcrowded sheds -forced to live on wire mesh -causes foot and leg problems, resulting in stumbling and falling -\"the birds who have fallen will be stepped on and cannibalized if they are not able to stand upright\" *NHES*

-live up to 25 years -mate for life -normal habitat~near bodies of water -show tremendous teamwork (fly in formation) -fly at about 50 mph -care for eachother -stay with a loved one to their own detriment -Konrad Lorenz (austrian zoologsit, nobel prize winner) found that geese express grief -\"...the eyes sink deep into their sockets, and the individual has an overall drooping experience, litterally letting the head hang.\" *NHES*

-live up to 12 years -dust bathe to clean and remove bacteria, parasites -roost on low branches of trees -social animals -live in flocks -mothers defend young against predators *NHES*

-cannot mate naturally because they are selectively breed to grow unnaturally large breasts -because, a 'milker' (employee) must restrain the bird and physically stimulate the bird with his hands to obtain semen -is then used to artificially inseminate female turkeys -because of their enlarged breasts, suffer from congestive heart failure, lung disease, and engorged coronary vessels -suffer from liver disease and heat prostration -enlarged breasts make them unable to fly or run -suffer from foot and leg ailments due to rapid growth they undergo *NHES*

-fatty liver -\"food product that results from ducks and geese being forced to increase the size of their livers to the point of exploding\" -have their mouths forced open with a metal tube that is shoved down their throats -\"feed is forced into them numerous times a day through these tubes until their livers become engorged\" -some die before slaughtering at 3 months because they develop hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) *NHES*

- \"there is no attempt at even the barest replication of natural life for birds on a factory farm\" -no place to dust bathe or clean themselves and to rid lice, dirt, and scales -no trees to roost in -not even space to move around, confined to buildings the size of football fields -\"no exposure to the natural world\" -\"no means of escape, except by slaughter\" -live in their own urine, excrement, vomit -never see a lake or pond -to avoid cannibalism, all birds are debeaked -\"hot blades cut through bone, cartilage, nerve, and soft tissue without anesthesia\" -pollution caused by factory farming manure run~off pollutes ponds, lakes, creeks, rivers, ground water, and wells -can kill aquatic plant and animal life, causes human illness and death *NHES*

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