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Meet the Animals
Today’s domestic and wild pigs are descendants of wild boar native to forested parts of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Wild pigs do not overeat and prefer clean water and bedding. Pigs raised for meat have been selectively bred to be very large in order to maximize meat production. Wild pigs’ natural diet consists of about 90% plant material—roots, bulbs and tubers (unearthed by rooting with their long snouts) and fruit and berries, with animal matter constituting the remaining 10%. Pigs are extremely intelligent (more than dogs). One woman developed a shower for her pigs, and the animals learned to turn it on and off! A pig's bristles gives little protection against the cold and they easily overheat (as they do not have sweat glands, despite the saying "sweat like a pig). In hot weather, wild pigs spend a lot of time wallowing in ponds, springs, streams, or mud to cool off. Feral pigs prefer to live in small social groups of 6 to 30 animals. Piglets are born inside a specially constructed nest, a mound-like structure built by the sow from nearby vegetation. Pigs, both wild and farmed, have an extremely strong, natural desire to root. Many of these instinctual needs, such as building nests in preparation for birth and rooting in the earth, are thwarted when pigs are raised for food. (1) In a natural setting, domestic cows are social animals that live in herds. Like humans, a calf is born after nine months of gestation. Calves nurse for six months, then remain with their mothers for an additional six months (one year total). Females can reproduce from ages one to twelve years. Calves learn to recognize their mother and are able to stand and walk soon after birth. The bond between mother and calf is very strong. They cry when separated and one even walked seven miles to reunite with her calf after being sold at auction. (3) To produce milk, dairy cows are kept perpetually pregnant and their calves are taken from them. Female calves become dairy cows. Male calves become beef or veal. Regardless of production method, it is standard procedure for dairy cows to be slaughtered at 5-6 years old when their productivity declines. They are sold as lower quality beef. See below for more details about the "Dark Side of Organic Milk." Domestic cows feed on grasses, stems, and other herbaceous plant material. An average cow can consume about 70kg of grass in an eight hour day. Cows, like other ruminants, are designed to eat grass, not grains, such as corn. However, they are typically fed corn when they arrive at the feedlots for final fattening in order to produce the type of fat-marbled meat consumers prefer. As a result of this corn-rich diet, feedlot cattle can suffer significant health problems, including excessively acidic digestive systems and liver abscesses. Grain-induced health problems increase the need for drugs. (2) A mother hen will fiercely protect her young brood, driving off predators and sheltering her chicks beneath her wings. The rooster keeps watch over the flock. He alerts the hens if he senses danger, and he calls them when he finds food. Roosters often join in the hen’s egg-laying ritual. Chickens evolved in the jungles of Southeast Asia, so they enjoy perching in trees if given the opportunity. White leghorn hens rescued from battery cages instinctually roost in the branches of trees and bushes, like their wild relatives and ancestors. Even free-range/organic chickens raised outdoors are denied many of these important natural behaviors, as they are typically not provided the trees and foliage they instinctually desire for shade, shelter, and perching. (4) Turkeys are the only common farmed animal native to North America. They prefer to live in forested land. They roost high in trees at night, safe from predators, so trees are necessary. They are very quick runners, wary, with sharp eyesight. Factory farmed turkeys look and act very different from their bright, wild cousins because they are bred to have an excess amount of breast meat. They are so large that they cannot fly (yes, turkeys can fly) or mate (they must be artificially inseminated). Also, in nature, these birds spend up to five months—the age when most farmed turkeys are slaughtered—close to their mothers. (5) The Dark Side of Organic Milk Excerpted from Satya Magazine (October 2006): “Organic Milk, the Unwholesome Choice,” by Andrea Rose. Many consider organic milk to be humane because the federal government’s organic standards mandate access to pasture for ruminants (cows, sheep, and goats) as well as bedding. Consumers should be aware, however, that there have been concerns about lax enforcement, with some large-scale producers not providing meaningful access to the outdoors. In addition, in organic as well as conventional dairies, cows are kept constantly pregnant in order to produce milk. Some organic dairies use natural fertilization involving a bull, but most use artificial insemination. The method of choice is recto-vaginal insemination, inserting a gloved arm through the cow’s rectum. Organic dairies say their cows live longer since they are healthier, but the longer living cow has to endure more artificial inseminations, more pregnancies and painful deliveries, as well as the suffering that accompanies each removed calf. One of the most common practices of the dairy industry, whether organic or conventional, is the forced separation of the bull calf from his mother, as the males are useless to dairies and typically sold as beef or veal. Some organic dairies allow the baby to stay with his mother for up to two months. Other dairies might keep their calves until they are six months old and sell them as “red veal” or “pink veal” (as opposed to conventionally-produced “white veal” from calves raised in small crates) due to their naturally colored flesh. There is no set standard and it varies from farm to farm. These farms are part of a coop and are individually operated; they represent only a small fraction of the organic dairy industry. Cows can live to be about 25 years old. However, dairies, organic and otherwise, typically send cows to slaughter when they are between five to seven years old because milk production starts to decline. As a result, arguable the two ugliest aspects of the dairy industry—a stolen, slaughtered male calf and the slaughter of his mother at a fraction of her natural lifespan—can hardly be considered humane. Also, according to the Humane Society of the United States, the requirement that organically-raised cows be given access to pasture may be flouted by some operations. The standards do permit temporary confinement as a response to inclement weather, risk to soil or water quality, the animal's stage of production, and conditions under which the health, safety, or well-being of the animal could be jeopardized. However, some dairies have used this temporary confinement exemption to raise cows almost exclusively in outdoor pens. Despite this practice, their products are still being certified "organic" by the USDA. Free Range Turkeys: Not So Free Courtesy of East Bay Animal Advocates. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the single condition for the term 'free-range' is that birds have access to the outdoors. All other facets of a free-range turkey's life can be indistinguishable from the living conditions of a conventionally raised bird. University of California-Davis poultry specialist, Ralph Ernst reports: "Most free-range birds are still fenced in corrals, though people like to imagine the birds are out roaming the range. They're not out exercising. These birds are raised much like the regular turkeys." (6) Thousands of free-range turkeys are raised in a single warehouse-like structure (known as a grow-out shed), forced to stand on accumulated fecal waste and breathe in ammonia fumes. To prevent free-roaming birds from injuring each other in the grow-out quarters, a portion of their beaks and toes are severed without the aid of anesthesia. Ian J.H. Duncan, a professor of Poultry Ethology at the University of Guelph in Canada, says, "The idea of beak trimming being a short-lived discomfort for the bird may be far from accurate. The short and long-term changes in behavior, particularly the substantial decrease in activities involving the beak and the increase in inactivity particularly in the first week after the operation, suggests that the birds are suffering severe pain." (7) Free-range turkeys are slaughtered between 14 and 25 weeks of age. Reaching 'slaughter-age', turkeys are transported via multi-tiered, flat-bed trucks in overcrowded wire cages, enduring all types of weather conditions. Arriving at the slaughterhouse, the fully-conscious birds are hung by their legs and their throats are slashed. The Humane Slaughter Act and Animal Welfare Act exempt turkeys from legal protection. "People pay extra because it makes them feel better about the fate of the turkey," Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation, explains. (9) |
Pigs
Cows 
Chickens
Turkeys