Need Motivation? LAST ONE! Part 13

You know that my primary motive on GSG.com is to improve the health of human beings through a plant-based diet.   But today we look at figures regarding the treatment of animals raised for food in America before I officially retire this series:

Number of pigs in U.S. raised in total confinement factories where they never see light of day until trucked to slaughter: 65 million   (in England, zero!)  

U.S. pigs that have pneumonia at the time of slaughter: 70 percent

Broiler chickens so overfed and obese at 6 weeks that they can’t walk: 90 percent

Mass of breast tissue of 8-wk. old chicken compared to 25 years ago: 7 times greater

Do you think the treatment of animals is acceptable if the package reads “cage free,” “free range,” and “natural?”   Those terms mean virtually nothing in the U.S.–they’re just a marketing gimmick with no law or regulation defining them (by USDA standards, a Burger King Whopper is “natural”).   Egglands Best and Vegetarian Harvest both use caged hens.

Length of time birds subjected to forced molting (75 percent of U.S. hens) are given no food:   10-14 days (and 3 days with no water)

Chickens housed in U.S. egg farms in an 18″ by 20″ cage: 7 or 8 (where they peck each other to death, so farmer “de-beak” them, and excrement falls constantly on them from chickens above)

U.S. dairy calves taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth: 90 percent (compared to 8 months of nursing from their mothers in a natural environment)

Veal calves in the U.S. are: denied mother’s milk, trucked to auctions 1-2 days old, commingled with sick and dying animals, chained for life in crates 22″ wide, denied solid food, made anemic, kept in the dark, plagued by respiratory and intestinal disease, not allowed lie down normally, deprived of bedding, never able to walk

Tell me:   Do you love your dog?   Would you be okay with your dog being treated this way?   How did we get to the point that we condone this treatment of other animals like cows, birds, and pigs?

Posted in: Eco Friendly Living, Lifestyle, Whole Food