The Welfare of Animals in the Meat, Egg, and Dairy Industries

Authors

Abstract

Each year in the United States, approximately 11 billion animals are raised and killed for meat, eggs, and milk. These farm animals—sentient, complex, and capable of feeling pain and frustration, joy and excitement—are viewed by industrialized agriculture as commodities and suffer myriad assaults to their physical, mental, and emotional well-being, typically denied the ability to engage in their species-specific behavioral needs. Despite the routine abuses they endure, no federal law protects animals from cruelty on the farm, and the majority of states exempt customary agricultural practices—no matter how abusive—from the scope of their animal cruelty statutes. The treatment of farm animals and the conditions in which they are raised, transported, and slaughter within industrialized agriculture are incompatible with providing adequate levels of welfare.

Recommended Citation

(2007) "The Welfare of Animals in the Meat, Egg, and Dairy Industries," Agribusiness Reports: Vol. 2007, Article 1.
Available at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/agreports/vol2007/iss2007/1