Q: I’ve recently learnt that my favourite egg and bacon breakfast is a product of millions of animals’ silent suffering in factory farms. What is actually happening and how can I help stop it?

As consumers we are mostly unaware of the conditions and practices that animals endure behind the closed doors of factory farms. Whether you’re a committed carnivore or an ovo -lacto vegetarian, there are some things you should know.

The factory floor

Factory or intensive farming is the practice of raising livestock in high density, artificial conditions. It sidesteps the natural conditions animals ordinarily need to survive and thrive by keeping them confined indoors and feeding them hormones and antibiotics to increase growth and production rates, translating to lower prices on the supermarket shelves. Typically, the first time factory-farmed animals see the outside world is the last day of their lives.

Legalised cruelty

The Australian Model Code of Practice, which oversees basic requirements for factory-farmed animal welfare, provides absolute minimal standards with no provision for animals’ physiological and behavioural needs. The Code also exempts operators from prosecution under state animal laws.

Tasteless facts

BATTERY HENS*

•  In Australia there are 11 million battery hens confined to wire cages producing eggs for human consumption.

•  They are denied their natural instincts to stretch their wings, dust bath, forage, exercise or nest in privacy, living in a space smaller than a sheet of A4 paper.

•  Female chicks have the tips of their beaks sliced through with a hot iron to prevent stress-induced pecking injuries to their cage mates.

•  Common illness and injuries include feather loss and skin damage from constant rubbing against the wire cage; claw growth around the wire base; and severe osteoporosis resulting in paralysis, dehydration and starvation.

•  At around 18-24 months of age — six years earlier than their natural lifespan — battery hens are considered ‘spent’ as egg producers. Destined to become pet food or flavouring, they are systematically pulled from their cages and packed into transport crates (often resulting in bone breakage due to their frail state).

•  Once at the abattoir, the hens are shackled upside down for a pre-slaughter dip in the electrified water bath. Those that unwittingly raise their heads face the automated knife fully conscious.

•  Each year over 12 million male chicks are gassed or macerated (disposed of in high speed grinders) soon after birth because they cannot lay eggs.

BROILER (MEAT) CHICKENS*:

•  Over 488 million chickens are killed annually for meat.

•  A typical broiler factory farm may house approximately 40,000 to 60,000 birds per shed, or 20 birds per square metre.

•  Chicks are bred to grow nearly three times quicker than nature intended. Their bodies are put under enormous pressure, causing heart and skeletal malfunctions. Those that can’t carry their own weight are left to lie in damp ammonia-soaked litter and faeces, developing breast blisters and unable to reach food and water stations.

•  The life of a broiler chicken lasts six weeks. On the way to the abattoir, one million will die in transport and 7% arrive with bone fractures or dislocations.

PIGS*:

•  Pigs are highly intelligent, inquisitive, social animals considered to be as smart as three-year-old human children.

•  Deprived of natural light, space and the ability to forage for food in natural surroundings, they suffer depression, emotional and psychological stress.

•  A factory-farmed sow is treated as a breeding machine, enduring intense suffering and deprivation with each cycle of artificial insemination, pregnancy and birth.

•  Confined to a barren metal crate or sow stall, a pregnant sow can’t turn around and has to lie or stand on concrete for her entire four-month pregnancy.

•  Transferred to a bare farrowing crate for birthing, the sow is denied her instinct to make a private birthing nest and must suckle her piglets on cold metal or concrete.

•  Piglets are taken away at four weeks of age. Not long after, the sow will be inseminated again.

What you can do

•  Spread the word

•  Get educated. Animals Australia, Animal Liberation and Voiceless all have very comprehensive websites full of fact sheets, videos and research papers.

•  Talk to family, friends and colleagues about factory farming. It’s possible they’re part of the ignorant majority.

•  Raise awareness in your local community with a free Animals Australia action pack.

•  Take action

•  Petition your local MP and the Federal Minister for Agriculture about animal welfare on factory farms here

•  Join the “Cage-Free Campus” initiative by campaigning against the use of factory-farmed eggs at your school, college or university

•  Urge your supermarket or local restaurant to stop the sale of caged eggs and factory-farmed meat products. Most supermarkets provide feedback forms.

•  Adopt a rescued battery hen through Homes for Hens (Queensland only)

•  Live compassionately

•  Stay informed and make educated decisions when buying animal products

•  Refuse to buy factory-farmed products like cage eggs and ham, bacon and pork products

•  Go vegan if you’re totally committed to abstaining from all animal products and the cruel practices associated with them. Vegetarianism is the next most effective way to steer clear of the factory farming industry. Find out more here.

•  Support

•  Your financial support is fundamental to the research, education, and legal, advertising and action campaigns that promote the rights and wellbeing of animals. GiveNow lists a number of animal welfare causes who could use your help.

More Information

•  Coles responds to sow stall cruelty: In July this year, Coles set an Australian supermarket benchmark by committing to “sow stall free” home brand pork products by the end of 2014.

•  There’s no such thing as an organic abattoir: Products marked “free range” or “organic” usually provide a better quality of life – but be aware that almost all commercially raised animals are subjected to the same stressful transport and slaughtering practices. These include travel over long distances without shelter from extreme weather in multi-level trucks with exposure to falling excrement and possible injury. Abattoirs are loud, unfamiliar places where the animals are moved along the slaughter line often against their will.

* Information for this article was sourced from:

• Animals Australia specifically their FreeBetty website regarding battery hens and broiler chickens, and the Save Babe website for factory farmed pigs.

• Voiceless provided information about animal protection law and sow stalls, specifically in its report " From Paddocks to Prisons: Pigs in NSW Current Practices, Future Directions ". 

• Animal Liberation Qld provided comprehensive fact sheets on intensive pig and chicken farming.