Inside the factory farms
Scientific proof that farmed animals experience emotions, from pleasure to suffering, is already recognised by the European Union.
Yet factory farmers continue to cage or tether millions of animals in barren conditions, treating them as machines in a production line.
Organic farmers keep farm animals according to the ‘five freedoms’, a set of science-based farming principles set out by the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council:
- Freedom from hunger and thirst.
- Freedom from discomfort.
- Freedom from pain, injury or disease.
- Freedom to express normal behaviour.
- Freedom from fear and distress.
Factory farmed animals experience none of these. Unremitting suffering is an ingredient of all factory farmed meat and dairy products.
How do factory farms produce eggs?
© WSPA
Three quarters of all egg-laying hens are confined in sheds with up to 90,000 other birds. A factory farmed hen can be one of ten birds forced into a tiny battery cage.
It will never stretch its wings. It will never go outside, walk or peck the ground. The hen is prevented from laying eggs in a nest.
A third of the beak is removed to stop it pecking the other hens crammed in around it. Lack of movement will make its bones brittle and liable to snap.
What about bacon?
A factory farmed breeding sow is restrained for her whole life, caged in a stall so narrow she cannot turn round. She may also be tethered by a short chain.
She suffers from weak bones, wasted muscles, heart damage and excruciating cuts and abrasions. Poor air quality causes lung infections and other respiratory problems.
In many countries, pigs for fattening are kept indoors in overcrowded, filthy pens with concrete or slatted floors. There is often little natural light.
Prevented from behaving normally, the pigs often resort to tail biting and ear chewing.
Factory farmers respond with tooth-clipping and tail-docking, mutilations which are usually carried out without anesthetic and often lead to prolonged pain.
All this pain is avoidable
There are clear alternatives to factory farming. WSPA’s Model Farm Project offers a practical demonstration of cruelty free and cost-effective farming practices.You can help WSPA end factory farming by choosing free-range or organic food.