Why Do Americans Need To Eat Meat

Meat has been a food source since the beginning of time. Yet do people really understand the harm it can cause? Americans need to stop eating meat for it causes harm to animals, their body’s health, and to the environment. Firstly, animals are treated very poorly in the livestock industry. The animals aren’t living in a Garden of Eden, they are living in a hell, where they are abused, and mistreated. According to Pomona College, Animals in the livestock industry are forced to live in small contained spaces where they cannot roam freely, or move at all. Usually they are crammed together, being required to breathe in air full of toxins from decomposing manure, pesticides, unhealthy additives, as well as being fed foods they would not normally eat. In these conditions the animals are also abused, pigs …show more content…
Pregnant pigs are kept in metal gestation crates barely bigger than they are. Baby cows raised for veal are tied up and confined in tiny stalls their entire short lives, which is usually 3 to 18 weeks. Not only are their living conditions repulsive, but the way that the animals are killed is quite shocking too. According to PETA, animals are not killed correctly. After being forced off small, contained trailers filled with manure and urine, the cows are stunned in the head with a stun gun. The goal for the stun, according to the USDA, is to eliminate any pain they may feel, however, this technique does not always work. Former livestock industry worker, Ramon Moreno, states that he would often have to cut off limbs of fully conscious cows, and that the cows would, “... blink,