While my primary motivation to adopt a whole-food, plant-based diet was my personal health, I am 100% against factory farming for several reason.
First, factory farms are incredibly cruel to animals which are crowded into small spaces, a situation that causes mental distress to the animals, and also causes them to live in their excrement (aka "shit and piss").
Second, because of the overcrowding of the animals, disease is rampant among them and they have to be fed antibiotics on a daily basis to keep them alive long enough to grow big enough to be sent to slaughter and someone's plate.
Third, sick animals in close quarters being fed antibiotics breeds "super bugs", or "drug resistant bacteria" which can cross the species-barrier to human beings. These super-bugs are carried on the contaminated meat, eggs, and dairy products that are destined to be food for humans.
Birds and pigs get the 'flu just like humans do, and we have recently had several outbreaks of bird and swine 'flus that have crossed to humans and killed them. The confining of chickens, turkeys, and pigs in close quarters creates environments where 'flu strains can easily and rapidly evolve into dangerous viruses that can be passed to humans and cause a pandemic that could potentially kill millions. Just think that the 'flu pandemic of 1918 killed between 50 and 100 MILLION people worldwide. That was 3% - 5% of the population at the time. If a similar number of people were killed today, that would be 180,000,000 to 300,000,000 people! Something like the entire population of the United States.
Ag-gag laws are laws the criminalize the taking of photos and/or video of farms in the states where such laws have been passed, even if those images are captured from public property. They are designed to protect factory farms from being exposed for either cruelty to the animals in the farms, or being exposed for conditions that would contaminate the food that is being produced in them.
Fight against all attempts to pass ag-gag laws in your state, or if you live in a state that has already passed them, work to have them revoked. Innocent animals have no voice in the fight against the cruelty inflicted on them so we must speak up. The safety of the food supply is also protected by exposing farms that house animals in unsanitary conditions.
Below is a video of journalist and commentator Bill Moyers in which he clearly and concisely lays out the arguments against ag-gag laws. It also contains a few brief images of cruelty to animals and of animals intended for food living in their excrement.
Can you seriously support having such practices hidden from public view? Please watch the video and fight "ag-gag".
First, factory farms are incredibly cruel to animals which are crowded into small spaces, a situation that causes mental distress to the animals, and also causes them to live in their excrement (aka "shit and piss").
Second, because of the overcrowding of the animals, disease is rampant among them and they have to be fed antibiotics on a daily basis to keep them alive long enough to grow big enough to be sent to slaughter and someone's plate.
Third, sick animals in close quarters being fed antibiotics breeds "super bugs", or "drug resistant bacteria" which can cross the species-barrier to human beings. These super-bugs are carried on the contaminated meat, eggs, and dairy products that are destined to be food for humans.
Birds and pigs get the 'flu just like humans do, and we have recently had several outbreaks of bird and swine 'flus that have crossed to humans and killed them. The confining of chickens, turkeys, and pigs in close quarters creates environments where 'flu strains can easily and rapidly evolve into dangerous viruses that can be passed to humans and cause a pandemic that could potentially kill millions. Just think that the 'flu pandemic of 1918 killed between 50 and 100 MILLION people worldwide. That was 3% - 5% of the population at the time. If a similar number of people were killed today, that would be 180,000,000 to 300,000,000 people! Something like the entire population of the United States.
Ag-gag laws are laws the criminalize the taking of photos and/or video of farms in the states where such laws have been passed, even if those images are captured from public property. They are designed to protect factory farms from being exposed for either cruelty to the animals in the farms, or being exposed for conditions that would contaminate the food that is being produced in them.
Fight against all attempts to pass ag-gag laws in your state, or if you live in a state that has already passed them, work to have them revoked. Innocent animals have no voice in the fight against the cruelty inflicted on them so we must speak up. The safety of the food supply is also protected by exposing farms that house animals in unsanitary conditions.
Below is a video of journalist and commentator Bill Moyers in which he clearly and concisely lays out the arguments against ag-gag laws. It also contains a few brief images of cruelty to animals and of animals intended for food living in their excrement.
Can you seriously support having such practices hidden from public view? Please watch the video and fight "ag-gag".
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