What about products where animals are not killed?

It seems as if on its face there are some animal products which are benign and do not involve killing animals. The two most common people think of are eggs and dairy. However, once the production methods of these two products are analyzed it quickly becomes apparent that even the egg and dairy industries cause the deaths of countless lives. In addition to this many battery chickens (birds for egg laying) and dairy cows suffer at the hands of their captors. Unfortunately, this is not an exception to the rule, but standard practice for agribusiness.

Battery chickens are introduced into the factory farming model at birth. They are hatched in large incubators and sexed (process to determine males from females) soon after. Once sexed, the females are sent on to be egg layers while their brothers are left to die; often deposited in large garbage bags while still fully conscious and left to suffocate under the weight of their fellow hatchlings. Afterwards they are sometimes ground up to be processed into feed for livestock. The remaining females have their beaks amputated, some of which grow back to be cut off for a second time. This process is used to combat industry induced vices such as mutilation and cannibalism.

Once the females can lay eggs they are put into production where they will remain until they die or are killed. The cages chickens inhabit hold 4-7 birds and are barely larger than a sheet of paper. They continually stand on the wire floor of their cages and some become entangled in its mesh and die inches from their food troughs. Often times the excrement form these birds falls through their wire floor onto the rows of chickens below. Kept in these barren conditions, chickens never receive the opportunity to fulfill their natural tendencies such as, roosting, preening, dust bathing, scratching, and foraging. They develop vices never before seen in their natural environment; devoid of stimulation and denied natural behavior they are eventually driven to insanity. They begin to peck at other cage mates and themselves, resulting in self-mutilation and cannibalism.

This is life for the victims of the egg industry and death in this instance is a reprieve from the egregious torment they face daily. Chickens in this system are kept in rows to better monitor egg production. If a row of chickens (100 or so) fall below the egg laying levels deemed profitable then all of the chickens in that row are killed and replaced. The common egg layer can expect a lifespan of around 2 years.

Dairy cows also endure the stresses of modern day agriculture and both suffer and die as a result. Most dairy cows are not kept on the beautiful lush prairies and farms that the dairy industry tries so hard to fool consumers into believing. They rarely see the outside and are kept in stalls to better facilitate the milking process.

Cows do not produce milk at all times of the year as is thought by many. Like all mammals they must first be pregnant. So at least once a year dairy cows are impregnated. A dairy cow will carry her calf for nine months before birth. Once the calf is born it is stolen from her. Some mothers scream in vain and risk bodily injury trying to prevent this theft (kidnapping).

If the calf is female it is probable she will be put into service as her mother is. If male, the young calf will likely be sent to the feedlot where he is pushed to gain as much weight as fast as is possible and slaughtered for beef. Other male calves end up in a veal crate. This is a wooden stall about two feet wide which the calf is connected to by a chain or rope. This stall is intended to prevent the calf from moving and developing tough muscle. The softer the muscle the more sought after as meat (veal). They are also kept iron deficient so as to keep their flesh pale (white veal) and more desirable for consumers. It is here they remain for about eight months wallowing in their excrement and urine, sometimes consuming it in an attempt to garnish what little iron it may contain. At around eight months old and after having endured some of the harshest treatment they are slaughtered for that all-desirable product known as veal.

Their mothers fair no better. As dairy cows, their bodies are pushed to exhaustion and physical breakdown. Today’s cows are genetically engineered and selected. They produce an inordinate amount of milk than what nature has dictated. This creates large utters that cause them structural deformities and lameness (lameness results in slaughter). They are medicated and fed hormones to increase production. Such demands breakdown their bodies and cause calcium deficiencies and painful infections which sometimes become systemic, often resulting in early slaughter. All of this abuse is endured with no caprice for the dairy cow; she must undergo these diseases, infections, deformities and still remain pregnant for at least nine months out of every year.

Dairy cows live, on average, less than a third of their normal lives. After about 3-7 years they’re bodies’ breakdown to the point that they are no longer considered profitable. It is then that they are culled and taken to slaughter.

Unfortunately, eggs and dairy are not as benign as many, including myself, once believed. Because of the high demand for dairy and egg products and the desire of agribusiness to make as much profit as possible, cows and chickens are pushed to the brink and sometimes beyond their biological limits. As a result, their bodies become useless deformed shells of what nature intended for them and they are casually and carelessly discarded; their misery ending in slaughter.

The question following this one addresses the ethical implications of animal use.

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