In one year

In one year, America alone consumed 24.1 billion pounds of meat. That’s almost 2,802,325,600 chickens or 10,041,667 cows who were all tortured before they made it to your table. Animal abuse for food has become a serious problem over the last decade. There are ways we could fix this vicious food business.
Animals were not born to be confined by the thousands. Many people prefer to live with space between their home and their neighbors but chicken and other livestock live so close together they can barely move. “Overcrowded conditions heighten animals’ stress, lower their immunity, and allow disease to spread like wildfire” (Buhmitra). Animals live with stress everyday and that is no way to live, even for an animal. “On egg farms, each inhumane battery cage houses several hens providing each with no more space than the face of an ipad” (Solotaroff). The chicken in this position barely have enough room to breathe. “Nothing could prepare her for the sensory overload of 10,000 pigs in close quarters” (Solotaroff). Pigs and other animal used for “delicious” meals are stuffed so close together they are forced to lay in piles of their own feces.
Thes conditions do not only affect the animals, but us as well. Some claim that this doesn’t matter because they are just animals, but what those people do not realize is we are affected by factory farm abuse too. “It’s backbreaking 9 hour days” (Solotaroff). People in the factory farm business work 9 hour days for minimum wage shoveling dead piglets and other things for minimum wage whereas farmers with animals roaming free that are milked, have eggs, and eventually die of natural causes earn an average of $61,000 per year. Almost double those in factory farms. “The stench of their sh*t piled was unbearable” (Solotaroff). Not only does this make working difficult it also makes it extremely unsanitary.
The conditions these animals live in are inhumane and should never be wished apon anyone or anything. “forced to endure living on concrete in their own excrement with no access to pasture, fresh air, or natural light”(srapproject.org) Also the worse the animals are treated, the lower quality meat we are given. “When you treat animals well and keep them healthy, you produce a higher quality product”(srapproject.org). This can lead to death among us because “antibiotic overuse in food animals contributes to antibiotic resistance in humans. The same report documents that 23,000 people die each year in the U.S. due to antibiotic-resistant infections”(scrapproject.org).
In conclusion, animal abuse is slowly becoming a normal part of our economy. This cruel system is hurting animals, and those around us. This can be stopped with your help. Please help the animals live the lives they were meant to.