Persuasive Essay by Kylee

Kylee Plummer

Jacques ELA

Domestic Land Animal Abuse

Everyday, domestic land animals are treated inhumanely, tortured, and slaughtered for their meat, eggs, and milk. Worldwide, the slaughter count is more than 50 billion yearly. A majority of animals raised and killed for food live short and stressful lives in overcrowded facilities commonly called ‘Factory Farms’. The goal of factory farms is to produce the most meat, eggs, and milk for the lowest cost possible. However, these ‘farms’ are not only cruel to the animals, but also damaging to the environment. Factory farms often transmit diseases, not only to the farm animals but to the workers, also. Not to mention the animals in these facilities that are tortured, neglected and sometimes treated brutally. There are many things our world can do to help reduce the abuse of domestic land animals, such as supporting vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, giving tax breaks to farmers to encourage healthy and organic animal-raising, and educating the public on the mistreatment of animals used as our food source.

Animals housed in factory farms are given hormones, antibiotics, and other chemicals to boost high productivity. These animals are often confined indoors to small metal cages, ammonia-infected air, and sometimes have no light at all. The practice of not lighting animal cages started soon after the discovery of vitamins A and D. Farmers began adding these vitamins to the feed, enabling animals to no longer require exercise, or sunlight for growth. In Factory Farms, animals are not even considered animals at all, just food-producing machinery. However, these animals feel pain and suffering, just as humans, dogs, and cats do. For example, chickens have their beaks seared off at a young age to prevent attacking the other birds in their cages. The poultry is bred to grow at astonishing rates, and this creates birds so heavy that they cannot support their own weight, making it very difficult for them to stand. Pigs are bound to narrow cages, where they can’t even turn around, and become crazy with boredom and are driven to fighting because of their frustration. “This [video footage from the movie ‘Babe’] is the way Americans want to think of pigs. Real-life ‘Babes’ see no sun in their limited lives, with no hay to lie on, no mud to roll in. The sows live in tiny cages so narrow they can’t even turn around. They live in metal grates, and their waste is pushed through slats beneath them and flushed into huge pits.” (Morely Safer) People want to believe that animals are happily raised on farms with green pastures and fresh hay, when in reality this is not how most farm animals live.

One important step we can take is supporting vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. This could reduce not only cruel abuse, but also create a greener earth. Even eating vegetarian once a week can reduce heart disease and cancer. Our world can help support less domestic farm animal abuse by offering more vegetarian/vegan prepared items in stores and restaurants, and more oversight and regulations requiring humane conditions for all animals raised for consumption.

Besides just promoting more vegetarian and vegan options, the government should reward farmers that practice organic and healthy animal raising by giving them tax breaks. This would give the farmers incentives to continue raising organic and healthy animals and plants for food. Also, farmers should be educated in the benefits of organic farming, such as how organic processes could strengthen the land without chemicals. Another benefit of this would be that it would help cut back domestic land animal injustice.

In conclusion, the best solution would be promoting and rewarding organic and healthy animal raising. This would not only help our earth become greener, but also help lessen the mistreatment of chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, and other domestic land animals. “In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned, and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.” (Ruth Harrison, author of “Animal Machines”) In a nutshell, cruelty and inhumane treatment of animals should not slide by or be thrown out the window because money and commerce is involved. “If you could see or feel the suffering you wouldn’t think twice. …” (Kim Basinger)

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