You call yourself an animal-lover, yet you allow billions of mammals, and trillions of marine animals, to be tortured. In fact, you support it. Ninety-nine percent of all farmed animals are raised and slaughtered in factory farms. Factory farms are inhuman and demented, and that’s where your food comes from. The animals residing in these torturous places are abused, crammed into tiny, overcrowded crates, deprived of natural needs such as foraging, walking and running, nesting, and playing. The animals are driven insane from the lack of mental stimulation and the horrible environment that they’re in. Over hundreds of millions of animals a year suffer in factory farms all because of the greed of humans, one reason you should eliminate meat products from your diet. If you switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet, you will not only be helping the animals, you will be helping yourself and the people around you. The last reason you should change is because you, and all the other beings on earth, will be healthier.

Animals in factory farms are forced into artificial insemination. Once their young is born, different things will happen to them and their babies, depending on the farm. All the animals suffer painful mutilations, wounds, abuse from the employees working there, and overcrowding. They reside in crates and cages that are much too small for them, and are injected with harmful toxins made to deform them and make them bigger than they are naturally supposed to be. The animals are driven insane, such as pigs, not only from a lack of mental stimulation, but because of the abuse and torture that they witness and are a part of.

On the pig farms, they are not allowed to move. Some are put into cages that don’t allow them to stand, and others are crammed into cages that don’t allow them to even turn their heads. They are artificially inseminated, forced to give birth when they know what will happen to the young, because they’ve been through it all before. They will hear the screams of their young being taken away, their pain-filled cries from being castrated with a knife or special clippers, and their sensitive tails being ripped off, while the mother watches, so she knows that the humans have complete control over her. Pigs are susceptible to insanity because they are very intelligent beings. And when looking at the rump of another companion, not moving, and hearing the squeals and screams of the tortured all day, don’t you think you would go insane?

Chickens in factory farms do not look like the chickens you know and see. They are painfully deformed from being injected with chemicals and being bred to be bigger and grow faster than their bone structure will allow. They cannot stand or walk on their crooked, mutilated legs because of their excessive body weight. When they are young, their beaks and toes are painfully burned off to lessen the wounds that happen in such overcrowded places. Again, they don’t get the luxury of painkillers or tranquillizers.

Even “just” egg-laying hens are subject to torturous environments and practices. Just like the poultry chickens, their beaks and toes are burned off. For their entire (short) lives, they live under unnatural light so they have to lay more eggs a day. If she isn’t supplying enough eggs for satisfaction, she will be killed. When her eggs are fertile, they will be sorted by gender, like cows. Females will suffer the same fate as their mother, and males will casually be tossed into grinding machines. These machines grind the chick, often times not even giving them the luxury of death, and then the slush of the chick’s bodies will be put in giant buckets. Sometimes, some chicks don’t go through the grinder. They are just tossed in the buckets of their ground-up comrades to drown. Some are suffocated in trash cans or gassed. These chicks are of no use to the egg-laying company or the meat farmers because they are not genetically modified to grow as big or as quickly.

On dairy farms, cows are artificially inseminated for their milk, and injected with growth hormones to produce more. Once her calf is born, its fate will immediately be decided by his or her gender. A male will be sent for slaughter, used for the food you call “veal”. A female will suffer the same fate as her mother, which is just as devastating as when the baby male’s throat will be slit while he’s hung upside down, and  he will bleed out without any painkillers or relevant. The mother’s milk will be harvested until it’s all dried up and unable to provide more, and she will then be inseminated again… or she will be killed. Most dairy farms, you think are not as bad as when the animals are sent to be slaughtered, because the cow is wanted to milk, not meat. You are wrong. They still suffer just as much. They are overcrowded into manure-filled, concrete pens, many die from disease, wounds, exhaustion, stress, and abuse.

Fish are just caught fresh from the ocean and sent to fish markets to be killed and sold for restaurants and stores, right? Wrong. Fish are also farmed, not necessarily in a factory, but its close enough to it. They are trapped in enclosures with millions of other fish. Parasites, bacteria, and viruses spread quickly throughout fish farms, some of which can also be spread to people. Not only do the fish suffer from these things plus wounds, they are so crowded that they don’t get to swim like they’re meant to do. They flop and thrash on each other, trying to get comfortable. Some of the fish on top of the tanks suffocate because they aren’t able to get underneath the water; there are too many other fish in it. When they have grown to satisfaction, they are either electrocuted, suffocated, put in ice water, or have their gills cut with knives.

Animals are not objects for human entertainment or consumption. Imagine your dog, cat, or favorite pet under the same conditions as the beings you eat. You think it’s different, but why? How is a dog put higher than a pig? All animals are the same; YOU just put “meat” in a different category. Cows, pigs, chickens, and fish all have the same feelings as your dog or cat does. They all feel pain, sadness, and loneliness. They know how to love, and have personalities and thoughts of their own.

You think factory farms are not a problem because that’s where you get your food from. You think that without meat, you wouldn’t be about to survive and be healthy. And besides, you think, it tastes good, you could never give it up.

These animals do not give up their lives for you. They do not want to be tortured for your own gluttony. They suffer because they are forced to; chained, caged, and unable to get away. Video evidences have been taken to try and educate the public on what happens to the flesh of beings they eat. Common occurrences of torture include electrical shock to the face and genital areas, punching, stabbing, choking, whipping, suffocating, burying alive, and murdering. If a young animal is “annoying” an employee of a factory farm, the employee will often pick up the animal, slam them head-first into the ground, throw them, and stomp on them. Mechanical equipment is often used improperly to abuse the animals. Chains will be used to whip or drag animals by the neck when they have collapsed from exhaustion, wounds, or disease. Forklifts have been used to lift or stab heavier animals. 

Animals are not food. They don’t want to give their own lives for you, a greedy, self-righteous human who somehow thinks that animals are meant for three things; food, entertainment, and work. Eating meat does not make you healthy. It makes you susceptible to the diseases and viruses that the animals get and can pass on to you (salmonella, E.coli, MRSA, and mad cow disease), obesity, heart-disease, toxic chemicals, food-borne-illnesses, and exposure to livestock drugs. It is proven that animal proteins and fats contain carcinogens, and they feed cancer cells. This is especially bad if you have cancer in your family.

Protein is in plenty of vegetables too, not just meat, contrary to popular belief. When eliminating meat from your diet, you are also dampening your chances of getting obesity, heart disease, and food-borne-illnesses. Your bones get stronger, you have more energy, cut down on cholesterols and fats, and you gain more fiber.
Even if you think you could not possibly give up eating meat because it’s part of your life, and you like the taste of it, you’re supporting the suffering of too many animals to count. Once you find out what happens in the places you get your food from, if you cared at all and had self-control, you would boycott it.

Become a vegetarian or vegan, help animals, and help your fellow humans and environment. Once enough people come to their senses and stop eating meat, factory farms will be forced to shut down. They won’t be getting the income from ignorant people buying the flesh they provide. Nobody will be supporting these inhumane places. They will be exposed, people will learn what happens when the word is spread, and put an end to the torture.

You will be a much healthier person as a vegetarian or vegan. Not only will your body be healthier and you will be less susceptible to the harmful things I mentioned earlier, your mind will be healthier. With more energy, you will be able to learn more and exercise as much as you need. You will have a clear conscious, knowing that you are no longer supporting the suffering and murdering of innocent beings. Not only will you be helping yourself and animals, you will be helping the environment and people around the world. There will be cleaner water and lands, less methane in the atmosphere. There will not be starving people anywhere in the world.

You know those commercials on television that ask you to donate to children in Africa? Those will not be needed. Factory farms use so much grain to fatten the animals, that if they were shut down, there would be enough grain to feed every starving child in Africa, and more. People wouldn’t be dying from the lack of food, or from the food-borne-illnesses that meat creates. Nobody will be suffering from the greedy consumption of innocent flesh.
Factory farms are hurting the environment. Cow farms produce more manure than the factory farms know what to do with, so it is all dumped in giant lagoons, which often break into water sources, including groundwater. These lagoons also give off hydrogen sulfide, which is dangerous to breathe in even small amounts. Cows also produce so much methane gas, that it is one of the highest sources of global warming. Rainforests are diminishing because of the need to feed the overabundance of factory-farmed animals.

By eating meat, you are supporting the suffering, torturing, and murdering of countless animals. You are also supporting starvation in your own species, and environmental problems. You should switch to a meatless diet and help eliminate the suffering.

If you wish to help end the anguish of innocent beings, you can switch to a healthier and moral diet.