Halloween is just around the corner. Many people will be getting into the spooky spirit by watching scary movies, carving pumpkins, and dressing up in costumes. But for animals used for food and fur, their life is a living nightmare—no need to make believe.
Here’s our list of five of the spookiest industries that inflict pain, suffering, and horror onto animals every day in relentless pursuit of profit.
#1. The Egg Industry
At commercial egg farms, it’s standard practice to cut the beaks off of hens without any pain relief. Most hens are still crammed into tiny, hellish cages that are so small they can’t spread their wings, and are slaughtered at one to two years of age. Male chicks are typically suffocated or ground up alive in macerators since they cannot produce eggs.
#2. The Dairy Industry
Dairy is scary. On dairy farms, cows are forcefully impregnated every year so they keep producing milk while their newborn calves are stolen and taken away. Male calves are confined in tiny crates and quickly slaughtered for veal. Female calves are forced to endure the same cycle of forced impregnation as their mothers. Whether the cows are used for dairy or veal, they all face a bleak existence and heartbreaking death.
#3. The Meat Industry
Canada slaughters over 800 million land animals every year, and the vast majority of these animals are raised in nightmarish industrial farms. On modern farms, animals are almost exclusively kept indoors in unnatural environments. Animals like chickens and pigs are crammed tightly together in dark windowless warehouses. There are no federal laws governing the treatment of farmed animals in Canada, and virtually no government oversight of animal welfare on farms. Federal laws do apply when animals are transported and slaughtered, but they’re inadequate and poorly enforced. Over 1.5 million animals arrive dead or dying at slaughterhouses each year because of the stress of transport, including exposure to extreme weather and being trucked for long distances.
#4. The Fishing Industry
Fishes feel pain, but sadly, they are left out of many animal protection laws, including laws aimed at minimizing suffering during slaughter. Fishes often endure painful deaths by suffocation, or being killed without first being stunned. Commercial fishing nets also kill an exorbitant amount of “non-target” species like dolphins, coral, sharks and turtles, who easily get entangled. It’s estimated that 300,000 whales and dolphins are killed every year as by-catch in the fishing industry.
#5. The Fur Industry
The amount of cruelty inherent in the fur industry is chilling. While many animals used for fur are caught in the wild in bone-crushing traps and suffocating snares, the vast majority are raised in fur farms. Animals in fur farms are forced to live in overcrowded, dark and grimy sheds. Animals like foxes and minks are packed together in tiny wire cages, and deprived of everything that makes life worth living.
Whether animals are used for fur or food, their suffering is astronomical. Canada desperately needs stronger laws to give animals legal protection from the cruelty and abuse that they face on such a massive scale. You can do your part by eating more plant-based foods, and sporting only cruelty-free fashion!
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