Why go Vegan? For Animal Liberation
Animals are presently viewed as commodities rather than individuals. This has led to a situation of normalized animal abuse, where we feel justified in confining, manipulating, and killing them by the billions.
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Family Separation in the Factory Farm Industry
A routine and particularly disturbing industry practice is that of widespread family separation, even in highly social beings. For example, in the dairy industry, mothers have
their babies taken from them less than 24 hours after giving birth. This prompts a mourning process for the mother, and the baby will
then be placed in a solitary confinement hut until being either killed or forced to enter the dairy industry themselves.
Because cows are repeatedly forcibly impregnated to produce the most milk, this tragedy will play out multiple times over the course of her life, until she too will be killed after no longer being able to produce milk.
In order to build a more compassionate world, we must understand that there is nothing about farmed animals that separates them from the companion animals that we already effortlessly display compassion towards. There simply is no property that morally justifies a pig as belonging on the dinner plate, while a dog belongs as a member of the family. To reframe this problem, all we must do is take our understanding that animal cruelty is wrong, and apply that understanding to all animals — whether society and the factory farming industry tells us they are mere commodities or not.
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A Case Study on Cruelty to Farm Animals
Michigan Law Review
Despite being no less capable of suffering than dogs or cats, farm animals are denied meaningful protection while enduring "the most egregious forms of mistreatment at all stages of their lives.""There is a glaring need for a federal scheme that can truly ensure food safety and animal welfare."The "USDA’s relatively toothless animal handling regulations are extraordinarily out of step with the American public’s growing expectation that regulators will ensure animals raised for food are not needlessly tortured."The US lacks any federal system to ensure "consumers’ reasonable hope that farm animals be treated even remotely humanely." -
Long-Term Mental Consequences for Cows as a Result of Family Separation
University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna
Early family separation has long-term negative effects on the cow.Cows raised with maternal contact were more active and motivated.Cows raised with their mothers were more social and competent as adults. -
Eating Misery: The Moral Question of Factory Farming
Fordham University
Factory farms have consistently chosen to pursue profit even in the fact of ethical violations.Factory farms are a direct threat to animal welfare, our environment, individual health, and worker rights.Animal protection legislation is lacking and often outright violated.Slaughter of land animals has more than doubled since 1980.
Key Data
Better Understanding the Ethical Cost of Our Current Diets
Our culture's ever-growing demand for meat and animal products carries with it a grave cost to the animals. By making a change, we can create a more peaceful and compassionate world.
~70 billion Land animals are killed each year.
~1 trillion Sea creatures are killed each year.
95% Of farm animals in the US are raised in factory farms. Most of these animals rarely see the sky.
85% Of farmers and their families support a ban on new industrial animal farming facilities.