1- (CC) Image by Caspian Rehbinder 2- (CC) Image by Dave Bezaire & Susi Havens-Bezaire 3- Image by Janet Stephens  4- (CC) Image by Usien 5- (CC) Image by Arthur Mouratidis 6- (CC) Image by Nachoman-au 7- Image by Ethelred  8- (CC) Image by Maqi 9- Image by Ellmist 10- (CC) Image by Madprime

We inhabit a truly awe inspiring planet with around 7,227,130 different species. By learning about the world around us and gaining new experiences, we become more knowledgeable and in turn more compassionate. With this new knowledge comes concern, many of us witness an unprecedented amount of cruelty in the world from animals being kept confined on factory farms to snakes being nailed to trees. This leads us to question the mindset of others around us, the corporate giants and the individuals who appear to lack any empathy towards animals. People are capable of both good and bad, a variety of factors can influence a persons character and level of compassion. The nature versus nurture debate explores whether people are born with certain characteristics or whether the environment they live in and the people around them influence their personality. Because of mankind's ability to be cruel, billions of animals suffer and die every single year. There are many non-animal alternatives to meat, dairy and clothing that eradicate the need to exploit animals. Yet, humans continue to inflict harm upon other species.

Statistics of animals killed each year:

- 200 million are killed by hunters 

- 40 million are killed for their fur

- 40 billion animals die for their meat

- 1 billion are killed for leather

- 100 million are used in animal testing

Animals for food

The majority of meat and dairy animals are kept on factory farms where concerns for their welfare are virtually non-existent. Animals are denied the right to move, lie down or turn around and they are denied the right to venture outside. The high density of the farms enables mass production and in turn, mass profits. Animals are considered mere products to be exploited for human consumption and because of this, farm workers rarely treat them with any respect. The majority of the world’s poultry meat (74%) and egg laying birds (68%) are kept on battery farms where they often suffer from broken limbs, infestation and disease. Many factory farms deny animals any veterinary care or anaesthetic for their ailments.

Chickens:

Animal welfare laws for chickens are not nearly as tough compared with the laws for livestock. Therefore, many chickens suffer immensely throughout their life and during slaughter. The majority of the world’s chickens are kept on battery farms where they are confined to inadequately sized cages. Chickens are often kept in cages with 3-5 other birds where they each have a floor space the size of a piece of A4 paper. Chickens frequently peck each other to death due to the high density confinement and the unhealthy mentality of the birds. To combat this, farmers debeak chickens. The process of debeaking causes chickens agonising pain and it leads some chickens to starve to death. Male chicks are slaughtered one day after birth because they are unable to lay eggs. Many will be thrown into a grinder, without receiving anaesthetic and will be grinded alive.

Pigs:

Approximately 100 million pigs are raised and killed in the USA every year. These gentle animals face extremely tight living conditions and may be denied the right to even lie down. Mother pigs or ‘breeding sows’ as the industry refers to them, spend the majority of their lives in ‘gestation’ crates that are approximately seven feet long by two feet wide. Just before giving birth, they are moved to slightly larger ‘farrowing' crates which are not even larger enough to allow mother pigs to build a nest for their young. When the piglets are born, they have their teeth clipped, their tails cut off and their genitalia removed (if male) without any anaesthetic. At around ten days old, they are torn from their mothers and placed into overcrowded pens. These living conditions are so poor, that pigs become prone to stress-related behaviours including cannibalism. When they are ready to be slaughtered they can be electrocuted, shot in the head or dropped into tanks of 140° boiling hot water whilst they are still alive. Some pigs may be hung upside down with their legs tied together whilst having their throat slit, until they bleed to death. According to Cambridge University Professor Dr Donald Broom, pigs have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated, even more so than dogs.

Cows:

Dairy cows only produce milk after giving birth and this milk should be intended for their calves. Instead, calves may be slaughtered at birth, male calves may be confined to crates to be used for veal and females may be kept for milk production. During the several months of milking that occurs after giving birth, cows are kept confined indoors where they are often forced to live in their own excretion. Cows can be subjected to extreme confinement living on small concrete floor slabs amongst hundreds or even thousands of other cows. Female cows spend almost their entire lives being artificially inseminated to conceive a calve and they spend the rest of their lives being milked. Cows are slaughtered at just five years old as their milk production typically slows down at this point. Other cows may be slaughtered due to lameness, reproductive problems and disease. When cows become too weak to tand on their feet, they may collapse onto the squalid concrete floor. Downed cows may be severely beaten, kicked and bludgeoned to force them to stand up.

Animal Skins

Much of the fashion industries profits can be attributed to the exploitation and use of animals for clothing. Whether being killed for fur or being sheared for wool, animals face traumatic living conditions and experience excruciating deaths, all for the purpose of fashion. Fur farms keep animals in small cages for their entire lives before either skinning them alive, electrocuting or beating them to death. Leather is considered a by-product of the meat industry but in actuality it is a co-product and leather sales provide almost half of all slaughterhouse profits. Animals used for leather suffer the same fate as most livestock, a painful death in the slaughterhouse. Sheep suffer immensely in the wool industry, particularly in Australia where the skin and wool of the sheep is cut from their back without any anaesthetic. Angora wool production involves confining rabbits to cages and plucking or shearing them every 3 months. Rabbits are tied to tables with their bodies stretched and the sharp shearing clippers can cut into their skin. Even the smallest of animals suffer for fashion with 30,000 silk worms being boiled alive in their cocoons to produce one pound of silk. Exotic skinned animals like snakes and lizards are taken from the wild, nailed to trees and skinned alive. Ducks and geese are plucked whilst alive to produce down feathers for mattresses, cushions and jackets. Goats are exploited for their wool and are exposed to harsh living conditions which can lead to premature death and illness. All animal exploited for their skins and for the materials they produce suffer from either a poor standard of living, a cruel death or a combination of both.

Animal Testing

More than 100 million animals including mice, rabbits, fish, chicks, primates, cats, dogs, ferrets, frogs, pigs and rats are kept isolated and confined in laboratory cages throughout the world. These animals are subjected to constant testing procedures where unreliable test results are frequently yielded. Experimenters purposely inject, drug and expose animals to diseases including cancer and HIV which causes extreme illness and death. Cosmetic and chemical tests poison, blind, injure and inflict unnecessary harm on animals who are then killed after they have fulfilled their purpose. Many of the tests are not required by law and tests that prove a product is harmful to animals, may still be sold to consumers. Biology experiments in classrooms and at university research facilities can cause great harm to animals. Live animals are cut up and dissected, poked and prodded or killed all in the name of classroom ‘science’. While many of the animals are bred for the specific purpose of being used for testing, animals from shelters and unwanted farm animals are sometimes sold to laboratories. There are many effective alternatives to animal testing which include: cell culture and tissue engineering, computer simulation, modular immune in vitro construct, synthetic membranes and advanced scanning techniques.

Animals for Entertainment

Many different animal species are subjected to lives of torment whilst they are forced to perform for jeering crowds and unrelenting tourists. Circuses, zoos, marine parks and dolphinariums use animals as tourists magnets to produce significant profits. While the animals may appear happy to tourists, in reality they are suffering from loneliness, depression and physical problems. Enclosures, cages and pens are much smaller than the animals natural habitat therefore, animals are unable to fulfil natural requirements. Circuses store animals like elephants and tigers in trucks and pens barely big enough to house the animal. Animals are beaten, stabbed with bull hooks and electrocuted in a cruel attempt to force them to perform. Marine parks hold orcas and dolphins captive in tanks that are too small for the animal to fulfil all of it’s requirements. Cruel sports like hunting, bullfighting, greyhound racing, dog fighting, rodeos and horse races disregard the welfare of animals and instead inflict harm upon them. All animals exploited for entertainment, no matter how happy they may seem, suffer from cruelty and confinement.

Action

Cutting meat and dairy out of your diet and updating your wardrobe with non-animal clothing will help ensure no animal suffers on your behalf. Knowing which companies test on animals, use fur and abuse animals is an important part of becoming an ethical consumer. There is an astounding number of benefit’s a vegan or vegetarian diet can give you. A vegan or vegetarian diet is far better for the environment, your health and your conscience. Vegans and vegetarians are far less susceptible to diseases including prostate cancer, arthritis, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Eliminating meat and dairy from your diet helps keep your blood pressure and cholesterol level at a normal rate. By changing the way to buy, eat and think you can save the lives of hundreds or even thousands of animals per year.