ANIMAL CRUELTY IN FARMING
CHICKENS
Such a high number of chickens are killed: over 900 million chickens were slaughtered in the UK during 2013 (Defra 2014). This figure does not include the hundreds of millions of male chicks who are gassed or crushed to death simply because they can’t lay eggs for the industry to sell.
Chickens for meat
Broiler chickens have been manipulatively breed to grow much quicker than they would do naturally. To increase the industry’s profitability, chickens are now reared to reach slaughter weight in a much shorter time. If humans grew at the same rate as broiler chickens, we’d weigh 25 stone at age two. As Dr Toby Knowles from the UK’s Bristol University Division of Food Animal Science states:
‘In the past 50 years, broiler growth rates have increased by over 300 per cent from 25g per day to 100g per day’.
This unnatural rate of fattening puts increasing pressure on the chickens’ legs. Many of them are unable to support their own body weight and eventually collapse. Hock burns (small areas of dark discolouration around the knee joints) are evidence of this suffering. As the birds struggle to stand, they will often squat to the ground where high concentrations of ammonia (from their faeces) will burn the chickens’ legs and breast.
50% of laying hens in the UK are kept in cages. These chickens have very little space (not much larger than a single sheet of A4 paper) and spend the majority of their lives inside. In such small spaces, hens are unable to engage in basic natural behaviours like walking, nesting, spreading their wings, dust bathing, or foraging for food. The system uses artificial lighting, which is set for prolonged periods, to encourage hens to lay more.
This overcrowding allows disease to spread quickly and causes other serious welfare issues for the chickens. In these close confinements their bodies are often crushed as the chickens compete for space. Unable to escape, stressed, many chickens suffer from severe feather loss and foot deformities from standing on wire cage floors.
According to the dairy industry, there are around 1.8 million dairy cows on the 14,550 dairy farms across the UK, which equates to 2 million dairy calves born every year. Statistics from DEFRA put the UK’s beef herd at approximately 1.6 million. In total, this equates to 3.4 million cows being raised for dairy and beef production in the UK alone, and does not factor in the estimated 2 million calves born as a result of dairy production.
Milk Production
Like all female mammals, to produce milk, a cow must give birth. And like human females, a cow’s pregnancy lasts nine months. A dairy cow has her first calf at around 18 months old. Typically, this calf is taken away from her within hours of birth. This separation is traumatic for both her and her baby. Cows will often bellow for prolonged periods to be reunited with their young. Mother cows will walk back and forth rapidly in an effort to reconnect, often for several days.
To ensure a constant supply of milk, a cow will suffer this same process of pregnancy, and separation several times in her life. She is caught in this cycle for as long as she can produce enough milk to be deemed ‘profitable’. A dairy cow is typically artificially inseminated every 13 months, meaning she will give birth to a calf nearly every year. While a cow would naturally live 15-20 years, because of the health toll of constant pregnancies and milk production, the lifespan of a dairy cow is only five to seven years.
With so many cows having baby after baby to ensure a constant supply of milk, the dairy industry produces millions of ‘surplus’ calves. Female calves, as soon as they are old enough, will become milk-producing machines just like their mothers.
Male Calves
Since they do not produce milk, male calves (also known as bull calves) are of no use to the dairy farmer, and fetch very low prices at auction. The males of dairy-producing breeds do not grow as large as breeds raised for beef, so these calves are often killed at birth, sold for low-quality meat, or raised for veal.
Some countries still use veal crates to confine dairy calves. Because veal is prized for its pale, tender texture, baby calves are confined to very small pens, hutches, or crates to restrict their movement, and fed nutrient-deficient diets. Veal crates are so patently cruel they have been banned in the entire European Union and at least seven U.S. states. Veal calves, whether in crates or pens, are slaughtered at around six months.
Globally, more than 290 million cows are slaughtered every year. The beef industry is a large sector of agriculture within the UK – Scotland primarily, with the second largest beef herd in Europe, after France. During the first week of their lives calves are often disbudded and castrated. Then they are fed on cereals in ‘fattening sheds’, where numbers can reach as high as 8,000, before they are sent to slaughter at the early age of 11 – 12 months.
Whether they are raised for beef or dairy, all cows end up at the slaughterhouse, and experience the same horrors.
Once at the slaughterhouse, most cows in the UK are stunned with a pistol-like captive bolt gun to the brain, then shackled, bled, disembowelled, and skinned. However, due to the high speed of the production, the law stating cows must be rendered unconscious or insensible to pain before being killed is routinely ignored as cows and unskilled workers struggle and many animals have their throats cut and their skin removed while fully conscious.
Broiler chickens have been manipulatively breed to grow much quicker than they would do naturally. To increase the industry’s profitability, chickens are now reared to reach slaughter weight in a much shorter time. If humans grew at the same rate as broiler chickens, we’d weigh 25 stone at age two. As Dr Toby Knowles from the UK’s Bristol University Division of Food Animal Science states:
‘In the past 50 years, broiler growth rates have increased by over 300 per cent from 25g per day to 100g per day’.
This unnatural rate of fattening puts increasing pressure on the chickens’ legs. Many of them are unable to support their own body weight and eventually collapse. Hock burns (small areas of dark discolouration around the knee joints) are evidence of this suffering. As the birds struggle to stand, they will often squat to the ground where high concentrations of ammonia (from their faeces) will burn the chickens’ legs and breast.
Egg Laying Hens
50% of laying hens in the UK are kept in cages. These chickens have very little space (not much larger than a single sheet of A4 paper) and spend the majority of their lives inside. In such small spaces, hens are unable to engage in basic natural behaviours like walking, nesting, spreading their wings, dust bathing, or foraging for food. The system uses artificial lighting, which is set for prolonged periods, to encourage hens to lay more.
This overcrowding allows disease to spread quickly and causes other serious welfare issues for the chickens. In these close confinements their bodies are often crushed as the chickens compete for space. Unable to escape, stressed, many chickens suffer from severe feather loss and foot deformities from standing on wire cage floors.
| Animal | Natural lifespan (on average) | Age at which they are typically killed |
| Broiler chicken | 7 years | 40-50 days old |
| Male chicks | 7 years | 1 day old |
| Layer hens | 7 years | 18 months old |
COWS
Milk Production
Like all female mammals, to produce milk, a cow must give birth. And like human females, a cow’s pregnancy lasts nine months. A dairy cow has her first calf at around 18 months old. Typically, this calf is taken away from her within hours of birth. This separation is traumatic for both her and her baby. Cows will often bellow for prolonged periods to be reunited with their young. Mother cows will walk back and forth rapidly in an effort to reconnect, often for several days.
To ensure a constant supply of milk, a cow will suffer this same process of pregnancy, and separation several times in her life. She is caught in this cycle for as long as she can produce enough milk to be deemed ‘profitable’. A dairy cow is typically artificially inseminated every 13 months, meaning she will give birth to a calf nearly every year. While a cow would naturally live 15-20 years, because of the health toll of constant pregnancies and milk production, the lifespan of a dairy cow is only five to seven years.
With so many cows having baby after baby to ensure a constant supply of milk, the dairy industry produces millions of ‘surplus’ calves. Female calves, as soon as they are old enough, will become milk-producing machines just like their mothers.
Male Calves
Since they do not produce milk, male calves (also known as bull calves) are of no use to the dairy farmer, and fetch very low prices at auction. The males of dairy-producing breeds do not grow as large as breeds raised for beef, so these calves are often killed at birth, sold for low-quality meat, or raised for veal.
Some countries still use veal crates to confine dairy calves. Because veal is prized for its pale, tender texture, baby calves are confined to very small pens, hutches, or crates to restrict their movement, and fed nutrient-deficient diets. Veal crates are so patently cruel they have been banned in the entire European Union and at least seven U.S. states. Veal calves, whether in crates or pens, are slaughtered at around six months.
Cows for beef
Whether they are raised for beef or dairy, all cows end up at the slaughterhouse, and experience the same horrors.
Once at the slaughterhouse, most cows in the UK are stunned with a pistol-like captive bolt gun to the brain, then shackled, bled, disembowelled, and skinned. However, due to the high speed of the production, the law stating cows must be rendered unconscious or insensible to pain before being killed is routinely ignored as cows and unskilled workers struggle and many animals have their throats cut and their skin removed while fully conscious.
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