Should it matter how animals are housed and treated if they are going to be killed for consumption later?
The treatment of animals in slaughterhouses has been an on going controversy in the United States. Many individuals and animal organizations continuously voice their concerns on the treatment of animals in these facilities. The two major issues concerning these slaughterhouse animals are, the inhumane treatment of the animals, and the health hazards these factory-processed organisms have to us. Inhuman treatments in which these groups of people are concerned about are the conditions that the animals are raised in, the slaughtering process, and how these poorly treated animals can actually have an effect on human health. Unfortunately their concerns often go unnoticed due to the powerful companies that own such facilities. These companies primary concerns are about efficiency and cutting costs. In this paper I will present the two alternate positions on the topic of, does it matter how animals are treated in …show more content…
Animals that roam consume more food and water because they are burning more energy by being able to walk around and exercise their bodies. Factory farmed animals are fed mostly corn because it makes them grow and get fat more quickly. From an ecological standpoint cows are suppose to eat grass. According to Michael Poll, (2002) “Cows and other ruminants can do things we can’t do. They have the most highly evolved digestive organ, called the rumen. And the rumen can digest grass. It takes grass, cellulose in grass, and turns it into protein, very nutritious protein” (Poll, 2002). As you can see cows are meant to eat grass, however, this is not efficient enough. Factory farmed cows are not fed grass because grass fed animals gain weight slower. So from a financial standpoint a concentrated corn feed is the best option and the
The treatment of animals in slaughterhouses has been an on going controversy in the United States. Many individuals and animal organizations continuously voice their concerns on the treatment of animals in these facilities. The two major issues concerning these slaughterhouse animals are, the inhumane treatment of the animals, and the health hazards these factory-processed organisms have to us. Inhuman treatments in which these groups of people are concerned about are the conditions that the animals are raised in, the slaughtering process, and how these poorly treated animals can actually have an effect on human health. Unfortunately their concerns often go unnoticed due to the powerful companies that own such facilities. These companies primary concerns are about efficiency and cutting costs. In this paper I will present the two alternate positions on the topic of, does it matter how animals are treated in …show more content…
Animals that roam consume more food and water because they are burning more energy by being able to walk around and exercise their bodies. Factory farmed animals are fed mostly corn because it makes them grow and get fat more quickly. From an ecological standpoint cows are suppose to eat grass. According to Michael Poll, (2002) “Cows and other ruminants can do things we can’t do. They have the most highly evolved digestive organ, called the rumen. And the rumen can digest grass. It takes grass, cellulose in grass, and turns it into protein, very nutritious protein” (Poll, 2002). As you can see cows are meant to eat grass, however, this is not efficient enough. Factory farmed cows are not fed grass because grass fed animals gain weight slower. So from a financial standpoint a concentrated corn feed is the best option and the