'Factory' Farming

The presentation that the group did about the treatment of livestock was shocking to me. As much as I was aware that these inhumane treatments did exist I was shocked at the extent at which they could be found. When most of the hog ‘factories’ in the state that provides a major portion of the pork that is consumed in the united states follows these practices they are really a much bigger problem that what I had assumed. I believed we live in a society that, for the most part, insisted on maintaining benevolent care of the animals before their death. I am not a vegetarian, I have personally caught (and subsequently killed and cooked) my own fish and lobster, I was raised to understand where my food came from but I do not support any unnecessary cruelness in this process. The idea of debeaking chickens and cutting off the cow’s tails, are just outrageous to me. But people being cruel to animals so long as it serves them is something almost commonplace in our society. A personal example of this is my kitten. I refused to have either of my cats declawed because the process is unnatural, the risks of surgery are too great and it tends to produce a lot of behavioral problems afterword as the cat doesn’t feel like it can defend itself. Yet almost every time someone finds out that I chose not to have my pets declawed their first reaction is “What about your furniture”, which is ridiculous to me. I would rather have a happy and healthy pet than perfect furniture. To me this is just another example where people put their own desires above the needs of these animals. Overall I felt the girls did an amazing presentation and their video choices were really well selected!