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"Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to do it this way."
Michael Pollan, An Animal's Place, NY Times Magazine, November 10, 2002
Did you know…
A Texas beef company was cited 22 times in one year for violations such as chopping hooves off live cattle. The USDA took no action.
Inspectors at a livestock processing plant in Hawaii describe hogs walking and squealing after being stunned as many as four times.
Another Texas plant was cited for 22 violations in a six-month period, including allowing live cattle to dangle from an overhead chain.
Videotape from an Iowa pork plant showed hogs squealing and kicking as they were submerged in scalding water to loosen their hides for skinning. Because they were ineffectively stunned they were scalded before dying by drowning.
Number of cats and dogs entering shelters each year:
6–8 million
Number of cats and dogs euthanized by shelters each year:
3–4 million
Number of cats and dogs adopted from shelters each year:
3–4 million
Number of cats and dogs reclaimed by owners from shelters each year:
Between 600,000 and 750,000—15–30% of dogs and 2–5% of cats entering shelters
Number of animal shelters in the United States:
Between 4,000 and 6,000
Percentage of dogs in shelters who are purebred:
25%
Average number of litters a fertile cat can produce in one year: 3
Average number of kittens in a feline litter: 4–6
In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can theoretically produce 420,000 cats.
Average number of litters a fertile dog can produce in one year: 2
Average number of puppies in a canine litter: 6–10
In six years, one female dog and her offspring can theoretically produce 67,000 dogs.
Wild animals used in circuses and other traveling acts are routinely subjected to months on the road confined in small, barren cages. With few exceptions, they are provided with limited and inconsistent veterinary care. These animals often live in filthy and dilapidated enclosures or are chained in one position for the majority of the day with no chance to move, let alone express their full range of natural behaviors or to socialize with other members of their species. Their routine care is often entrusted to seasonal or temporary circus employees who have little or no experience caring for such animals.
Each year more than 40 million animals are killed for their fur: minks, foxes, bobcats, beavers, raccoons, sables, lynx, chinchillas and other animals.
Under current practices, a veal calf is by definition a sick, deliberately malnourished animal. To create what Veal USA, the industry's trade group, calls "the taste of elegance," the creatures are denied maternal care, the iron and fiber ruminant animals crave, the company of other animals, free movement (to prevent muscle growth) and even straw to lie on in their miserable little crates lest the merest scrap of roughage mar the "velvety smooth succulence" of the meat.
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