The nation’s largest animal protection organization, the
Humane Society of the United States, is increasingly engaging
college students in farm-animal welfare issues.
The reason for this is simple: More than 98 percent of the
animals we kill in this country are raised for food production. The
vast majority of these animals are forced to live inside massive
warehouses known as factory farms, where they languish in cramped
quarters, suffer from painful mutilations, and often die a violent
death.
Despite widespread societal concern for the treatment of
animals, those animals we raise for food have virtually no legal
protection. In fact, agricultural practices that would be illegal
if forced on dogs or cats are standard in modern-day factory
farming. In short, “food animals” are treated as if
they are unthinking, unfeeling machines, used as mere
commodities.
Egg-laying hens are arguably the most abused animals in the
United States today. Shortly after birth they often have parts of
their beaks sliced off with a hot metal blade. They’re later
cramped in overcrowded cages too small for them even to spread
their wings. Each hen is allotted less space than the area of a
standard sheet of paper to live out her entire life. They’ll
never be able to touch earth, dust-bathe, or even escape the stench
of their own feces.
Chickens raised for meat (known as “broilers”) are
genetically manipulated to grow so quickly that their hearts, lungs
and legs often can’t keep up with their unnatural size. To
put the growth rate of a modern-day chicken into perspective, the
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture reports, “If
you grew as fast as a chicken, you would weigh 349 pounds by the
time you were 2 years old.” Mammals also bear the negative
impacts of factory farming. Many mother pigs are confined in crates
too narrow for them even to turn around, while their piglets have
some of their teeth ripped out, their tails cut off, and are
castrated ““ all without any painkillers.
Though these abuses are upsetting for many of us to discover,
UCLA students can help these animals without even leaving campus.
By reducing our consumption of meat, eggs and dairy, we can help
prevent animal cruelty every time we sit down for a meal.
In addition to helping reduce the consumption of animal
products, the Humane Society of the United States is also eager to
work with students to urge the campus dining facilities to provide
more vegetarian meals, along with removing factory-farmed animal
products from their offerings.
Students from over 80 universities are already in the process of
reforming their dining facilities to become more animal friendly,
including Yale, Penn State, Cornell and Georgetown. Just this past
month, students at George Washington University persuaded their
school store to stop selling eggs from caged birds.
UCLA can be a driving force behind the ever-growing trend to
take farm-animal welfare issues seriously.
Balk is outreach coordinator for the Humane Society of the
United States. Students interested in getting involved may contact
him at [email protected].