Humane - marked or motivated by concern with the alleviation of suffering; showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement.
In the UK alone, 850 million animals and hundreds of millions of fish are killed every year to put meat on tables. That works out to be more than three million animals a day. It is though, not as simple as life and death. Before they are slaughtered, hundreds of millions lead desolate, disease-ridden lives on factory farms and suffer miserably.
In the animal kingdom pigs are rated 4th in overall intelligence, behind chimps, dolphins and elephants. Pigs are mucg cleaner and even smarter than dogs. 75 per cent of all piglets have their teeth crushed and tails cut off without anaesthetics. Many millions are conscious when their throats are cut. Same goes for calves and lambs.There is evidence to suggest that they understand before slaughter what is going to happen to them as they show visable distress on hearing their fellow species cries of pain. 20 per cent of lambs however don't actually make it to slaughter and die from cold, disease and starvation.
Not forgetting our feathered friends; four-fifths of broiler chickens (killed for meat) have broken bones and deformed feet, legs and other bone deformities. Up to one fifth of chickens may be fully conscious when they enter the scalding tank to loosen their feathers. Most ducks are gactory farmed in crowded sheds. They never see daylight. They never get the chance to swim in water.
Turning vegetarian means you’re no longer a part of that cycle of death or the intollerable cruelty associated. The dairy industry too however is unforgivable in the suffering caused.
Cattle reared for milk production are exploited and made to suffer, just like animals reared for meat. They suffer from lameness, mastitis (inflammation of the udders) and other illnesses. They are forcibly separated from their calves just days after they are born so that humans can drink their milk. Cows are not some kind of special animal that produces milk automatically: just like every other animal, including us, they only produce milk to nurse their young. Male dairy calves, meanwhile, are useless to the dairy industry and are usually shot at birth. 24 percent of dairy cows are prenant when slaughtered; many nearing full term.
Egg-laying hens may be crammed into battery cages; five to a cage in a space no bigger than a microwave oven. 80 per cent of all eggs come from battery hens. The alternative being disgusting, disease ridden percheries. They are forced to produce twenty times the number of eggs as are natural to them. Even free range and organic layers, although improved in a way, face disease and parasites and are slaughtered for cheap meat as soon as their productivity falls below the level that the egg business will accept. Male chicks are as useless to the industry as male dairy calves and all are killed. This includes those on free-range and organic systems.
http://www.viva.org.uk/
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