About this website
The purpose of this website is to provide information/news about Veganism and animal abuse/welfare/rights. It is hoped this information will be used for research and prompt a consideration of why Veganism is so important, particularly at this time. While Veganism is concerned with diet and the environment, it must always be animal-centered. Veganism, which is not animal-centered, is not Veganism...
"Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."
(Vegan Society)
The Future is Vegan...
The Meat Industry
"Factory farming is a modern system of farming animals which uses highly intensive methods, and prioritises profit. Animals are kept in cramped, overcrowded conditions with a lack of environmental enrichment, poor hygiene standards and low animal welfare. Although exact conditions vary between countries and species, there is one unifying factor in all factory farming and that is that it is wholly unnatural. Over the past century animal farming has mutated from family run small holdings, to a ruthless profit-driven machine – an industrialised, fast-moving production line that prioritises profit over the welfare of animals, humans and our planet. Instead of grazing on fields, animals are now often confined in their thousands, and sometimes millions, in giant metal sheds condemned to a life where they will never feel the grass under their feet or the sun on their face.
Selective breeding for maximum production causes animals immense suffering as they struggle to move under the weight of their oversized bodies or udders. Disease and injury run rife meaning that animals need to be propped up on a cocktail of antibiotics and drugs just to keep them alive long enough to slaughter, or take their milk...
By far the most factory farmed land animal in the world is the chicken. There are at least 20 billion chickens alive in the world at any one time – that’s almost three times the number of humans. Fifty billion are killed annually across the world. The vast majority of these are kept packed in vast sheds...
Cows too are factory farmed – for both their milk and meat. In the US over 40 per cent of beef cows are factory farmed in eye-wateringly gigantic feedlots with 32,000 other cattle or more. They are confined in barren enclosures devoid of grass – standing in mud and excreta, each typically housing 100 to 125 animals. Increasingly in the UK dairy farmers are turning to zero grazing to cut costs and increase productivity."
Source and full article: https://viva.org.uk/animals/introduction-factory-farming/
It is apparent that the dairy and meat industries are becoming increasingly fearful of the growing publicity about the tremendous damage caused to the environment by animal farming: on 8 December 2023, the Guardian detailed how "Lobbyists from industrial agriculture companies and trade groups have turned out in record numbers at Cop28, with three times as many delegates representing the meat and dairy industry as last year...Meat and dairy firms in particular are coming under increasing scrutiny due to pollution from livestock, which emits about a third of the global output of methane, a short-lived greenhouse gas, the cutting of which is identified as the quickest route to slowing global heating."
An article published in Vox raised the question about what children should be told about factory farming and also mentioned the discomfort of parents in doing this. It stated this discomfort "is sometimes described by psychologists as the 'meat paradox,'" a conflict that manifests itself "in the many lies we tell ourselves, and pass down to our children, about our relationship to animals." The confusion experienced shows up in how "Thirty to forty percent of American kids aged 4 to 7 think common animal products, like bacon, hotdogs, hamburgers, shrimp, and even chicken nuggets, come from plants, a 2021 study found." The article also commented "it shouldn’t come as a surprise that consumers so easily fall for meat industry advertising that makes farms look like the version they internalized from children’s literature."
5 things the meat industry doesn’t want you to know.
A data dump of suffering. The EU's long-distance trade in farm animals exposed.
Animal cruelty in the meat industry.
Animals killed for meat.
Animals killed for meat.
Animals suffer for meat production – and abattoir workers do too.
Animals used for food.
Botched killings and violent abuse at “Humane” meat slaughterhouse.
Environmental effects of meat production.
Everything you need to know about factory farming.
Exposed: the catalogue of cruelty suffered by Scotland’s farm animals.
Factory farming: animal cruelty.
Factory farming inflicts unimaginable pain on billions of animals.
Factory farming: misery for animals.
Factory farming: what the industry doesn’t want you to know.
Factory farming: the largest cause of animal abuse in history.
Hell on earth: The slaughterhouse experience of 5 animals.
How are factory farms cruel to animals?
How factory farming hurts animals.
How many animals are killed for food every day?
Inhumane practices on factory farms.
Investigation: how the meat industry is climate-washing its polluting business model.
Meat and dairy production.
PETA reveals how animals really die in slaughterhouses, disproving ‘humane’ claims.
Slaughterhouse of horrors.
Slaughterhouses: the harsh reality of how meat is made.
Soya - some facts.
The beef industry.
The personalities and plight of farmed animals.
Why animal products harm – meat.
Why eating meat is so much more than an animal rights issue.
Newspaper articles
The British national newspaper The Guardian has published a number of useful articles about meat production:
(a) This article deals with 'life inside Europe’s meat industry'.
(b) Industrial farming as "one of the worst crimes in history".
(c) Reasons for abandoning the consumption of meat.
(d) There is no such thing as a humane production of meat or eggs.
(e) EU revealed as hub for ‘cruel’ live animal transport amid fears of disease.
This is an article in National Geographic dealing with the damage caused to the planet by meat consumption.
This article in First Post deals with animal abuse and meat production.
This article by Newstalk in Ireland describes how a campaigner had said animal cruelty was “endemic” in the meat industry.
Mercy for Animals video films
The problem.
Undercover investigations.
Youtube library of Mercy for Animals videos.
Other videos
How slaughterhouses kill thousands of chickens an hour.
Meet your meat. Cruelty to animals: Mechanized madness.
The horrifying truth of how chicken meat is produced.
The truth about the meat industry.
The truth about the meat industry - Part 1.
The truth about the meat industry - Part 2.
This is how the pig meat industry treats mother pigs.
W5: Investigation of Canada's controversial horse meat industry.
What the meat industry doesn't want you to know about farm animals.
Why the egg industry shreds newborn baby chicks.
