Why am I a vegetarian?
Downed Cow- The true story of one anonymous animal born into the meat industry
The truck carrying this cow was unloaded at Walton Stockyards in Kentucky one September morning. After the other animals were removed from the truck, she was left behind, unable to move. The stockyard workers used the customary electric prods in her ear to try to get her out of the truck, then beat and kicked her in the face, ribs, and back, but still she didn’t move. They tied a rope around her neck, tied the other end to a post in the ground, and drove the truck away. The cow was dragged along the floor of the truck and feel to the ground, landing with both hind legs and her pelvis broken. She remained like that until 7:30 that evening.
For the first three hours, she lay in the hot sun crying out. Periodically, when she urinated or defecated, she used her front legs to drag herself along the gravel roadway to a clean spot. She also tried to crawl to a shaded area but couldn’t move far enough. Altogether, she managed to crawl a painful 13 to 14 yards. The stockyard employees wouldn’t allow her any drinking water; the only water she received was give to her by Jessie Pierce, a local animal rights activist, who had been contacted by a woman who witnessed the incident, Jessie arrived at noon. After receiving no cooperation from stockyard workers, she called the Kenton County police. A police officer arrived but was instructed by his superiors to do nothing; he let at 1 p.m.
The stockyard operator informed Jessie that he had permission from the insurance company to kill the cow but wouldn’t do it until Jessie left. Although doubtful that he would keep his word, Jessie let at 3 p.m. She returned at 4:30 p.m. and found the stockyard deserted. Three dogs were attacking the cow, who was still alive. She had suffered a number of bite wounds, and her drinking water had been removed. Jessie contacted the state police. Four officers arrived at 5:30 p.m. State trooper Jan Wuchner wanted to shoot the cow but was told that a veterinarian should kill her. The two veterinarians at the facility would not euthanize her, claiming that in order to preserve the value of the meet she could not be destroyed. The butcher eventually arrived at 7:30 p.m. and shot the cow. Her body was purchased for $307.50.
When the stockyard operator was questioned by a reporter from The Kentucky Post he stated. “We didn’t do a damned thing to it,” and referred to the attention give the cow by humane workers and police as “bullcrap.” He laughed throughout the interview, saying that he found nothing wrong with the way the cow was treated.
This is not an isolated case. It is so common that animals in this condition are known in the meat industry as “downers.” After PETA brought much-needed attention to this issue, the Kenton County Police Department adopted a policy requiring that all downed animals be immediately euthanized, whether they are on the farm, in transit, or at the slaughterhouse. Sadly, other law-enforcement agencies don’t have such policies, and downed animals continue to suffer everywhere. It is up to the public to demand change, and it is up to consumers to refuse to purchase the products of this miserable industry.
What happens to Chickens?
The majority of “broiler chickens” and “laying hens” live n vast warehouses where lighting and ventilation are controlled by machines and where a system failure means mass death. To increase profits, farmers drug and genetically manipulate broiler chickens; as a result, many birds suffer from painful, crippling bone disorders and spinal defects. Laying hens are confined seven or eight to a cage; their wings atrophy from disuse, and their legs and feet grow twisted and deformed from standing on slanted wire cage bottoms.
Up to 40,000 birds live in a typical broiler warehouse, 400 times more birds than can possibly establish a pecking order. In such larger numbers, chickens vent their stress and frustration by pecking at each other. To reduce losses, egg farmers use hot blades to slice off chicks’ beaks just hours after the birds hatch. The procedure, which requires cutting through tender tissue similar to the flesh under human fingernails, is so painful that many chicks die of shock. Some die of starvation, when eating becomes too painful.
Every year in the laying industry, millions of newly hatched male chicks-who can’t produce eggs themselves-are thrown into garbage bags or grinders to suffocate or be crushed or hacked to death.
What happens to pigs?
More than 100 million pigs are killed for food in the U.S. every year. Pigs on factory farms are castrated and have hunks of flesh ripped from their ears, bits of their teeth torn out with wire cutters, and their tails chopped off-all without painkillers. Sometimes stalls are stacked, and excrement from pigs in the upper tiers falls on those below. The accumulation of filth, feces, and urine in the sheds causes more than one-quarter of pigs to suffer from agonizing mange, and three-fourths of pigs have pneumonia by the time that they reach the slaughterhouse. Drugs and genetic breeding cause pigs to become so weak that they can barely walk, and 400,000 a year are crippled when they arrive at the slaughterhouse. Once there, workers jab metal hooks into the pigs’ eyes, mouths, or rectums to forcer them to move faster.
Breeding pigs on factory farms are impregnated several times during their short lives and are confined to stalls that are barely larger than their own bodies. These stalls are so cruel to those intelligent and sociable animals that they have been outlawed in some countries and in Florida.
There was also stuff on fish too…dandy....hmmm
The truck carrying this cow was unloaded at Walton Stockyards in Kentucky one September morning. After the other animals were removed from the truck, she was left behind, unable to move. The stockyard workers used the customary electric prods in her ear to try to get her out of the truck, then beat and kicked her in the face, ribs, and back, but still she didn’t move. They tied a rope around her neck, tied the other end to a post in the ground, and drove the truck away. The cow was dragged along the floor of the truck and feel to the ground, landing with both hind legs and her pelvis broken. She remained like that until 7:30 that evening.
For the first three hours, she lay in the hot sun crying out. Periodically, when she urinated or defecated, she used her front legs to drag herself along the gravel roadway to a clean spot. She also tried to crawl to a shaded area but couldn’t move far enough. Altogether, she managed to crawl a painful 13 to 14 yards. The stockyard employees wouldn’t allow her any drinking water; the only water she received was give to her by Jessie Pierce, a local animal rights activist, who had been contacted by a woman who witnessed the incident, Jessie arrived at noon. After receiving no cooperation from stockyard workers, she called the Kenton County police. A police officer arrived but was instructed by his superiors to do nothing; he let at 1 p.m.
The stockyard operator informed Jessie that he had permission from the insurance company to kill the cow but wouldn’t do it until Jessie left. Although doubtful that he would keep his word, Jessie let at 3 p.m. She returned at 4:30 p.m. and found the stockyard deserted. Three dogs were attacking the cow, who was still alive. She had suffered a number of bite wounds, and her drinking water had been removed. Jessie contacted the state police. Four officers arrived at 5:30 p.m. State trooper Jan Wuchner wanted to shoot the cow but was told that a veterinarian should kill her. The two veterinarians at the facility would not euthanize her, claiming that in order to preserve the value of the meet she could not be destroyed. The butcher eventually arrived at 7:30 p.m. and shot the cow. Her body was purchased for $307.50.
When the stockyard operator was questioned by a reporter from The Kentucky Post he stated. “We didn’t do a damned thing to it,” and referred to the attention give the cow by humane workers and police as “bullcrap.” He laughed throughout the interview, saying that he found nothing wrong with the way the cow was treated.
This is not an isolated case. It is so common that animals in this condition are known in the meat industry as “downers.” After PETA brought much-needed attention to this issue, the Kenton County Police Department adopted a policy requiring that all downed animals be immediately euthanized, whether they are on the farm, in transit, or at the slaughterhouse. Sadly, other law-enforcement agencies don’t have such policies, and downed animals continue to suffer everywhere. It is up to the public to demand change, and it is up to consumers to refuse to purchase the products of this miserable industry.
What happens to Chickens?
The majority of “broiler chickens” and “laying hens” live n vast warehouses where lighting and ventilation are controlled by machines and where a system failure means mass death. To increase profits, farmers drug and genetically manipulate broiler chickens; as a result, many birds suffer from painful, crippling bone disorders and spinal defects. Laying hens are confined seven or eight to a cage; their wings atrophy from disuse, and their legs and feet grow twisted and deformed from standing on slanted wire cage bottoms.
Up to 40,000 birds live in a typical broiler warehouse, 400 times more birds than can possibly establish a pecking order. In such larger numbers, chickens vent their stress and frustration by pecking at each other. To reduce losses, egg farmers use hot blades to slice off chicks’ beaks just hours after the birds hatch. The procedure, which requires cutting through tender tissue similar to the flesh under human fingernails, is so painful that many chicks die of shock. Some die of starvation, when eating becomes too painful.
Every year in the laying industry, millions of newly hatched male chicks-who can’t produce eggs themselves-are thrown into garbage bags or grinders to suffocate or be crushed or hacked to death.
What happens to pigs?
More than 100 million pigs are killed for food in the U.S. every year. Pigs on factory farms are castrated and have hunks of flesh ripped from their ears, bits of their teeth torn out with wire cutters, and their tails chopped off-all without painkillers. Sometimes stalls are stacked, and excrement from pigs in the upper tiers falls on those below. The accumulation of filth, feces, and urine in the sheds causes more than one-quarter of pigs to suffer from agonizing mange, and three-fourths of pigs have pneumonia by the time that they reach the slaughterhouse. Drugs and genetic breeding cause pigs to become so weak that they can barely walk, and 400,000 a year are crippled when they arrive at the slaughterhouse. Once there, workers jab metal hooks into the pigs’ eyes, mouths, or rectums to forcer them to move faster.
Breeding pigs on factory farms are impregnated several times during their short lives and are confined to stalls that are barely larger than their own bodies. These stalls are so cruel to those intelligent and sociable animals that they have been outlawed in some countries and in Florida.
There was also stuff on fish too…dandy....hmmm