In a bid to “end factory farming before it ends us”, vegan charity organisation Viva! surveyed 2000 Britons earlier this year about their views on the industrial farming of animals.
The eye-opening results showed that a monumental 9 in 10 British citizens want the British government to end factory farming immediately.
The public’s disdain for industrially farmed animals was mainly due to the global pandemic and the concerns it raised about where our food comes from.
Additionally, a more recent survey from June of this year revealed that it is precisely the people who are especially committed to keeping meat as part of their diet who play down the part that industrial farming has on disease outbreaks like Covid-19. They preferred reactionary solutions by the government to the spread of animal-borne diseases, rather than acknowledging that it is, in fact, their meat-eating habits that need to change.
According to the Guardian’s Environment Agency, more than half of the pig and poultry farms in the UK are now classified as “intensive”, i.e. holding over 40,000 birds or 2000 pigs each.
In the US, mega farms are even more horrific, with facilities housing a minimum of 125,000 broiler chickens, 82,000 laying hens, 2,500 pigs, 700 dairy cows and 1,000 beef cattle.
When large numbers of animals are crowded together into small spaces – both in rearing and during long-distance transportation – their welfare is completely neglected:
- It is common practice in factory farms for sows to have their tails cut off and be confined to extremely restrictive farrowing crates, while chickens linger in their own waste for so long they suffer lesions on their feet.
- The UK’s government-established Farm Animal Welfare Committee affirms that the beef industry has been unprofitable for years, resulting in “…low investment in farm infrastructure and training, loss of skilled labour, limited use of modern production and veterinary techniques, and therefore a risk of poorer animal health and welfare.”
- The European Parliament issued an in-depth analysis of the intensive poultry and egg industries, concluding: “Many of the issues currently affecting the sector are linked to its large-scale and intensive production methods. While high stocking densities and fast growth impact negatively on poultry welfare, intensive production can also be detrimental to the environment and human health.”
None other than the United Nations issued a report maintaining that the 2 main causes for epidemic outbreaks are unsustainable livestock farming and the demand for animal protein – the latter being the obvious cause of the former.
In fact, 3 in 4 infectious diseases in humans that emerge today come from animals, annually causing 2.5 billion cases of human illness and 2.7 million human deaths – especially in low-income countries.
The scientific evidence doesn’t lie. Neither does public desire.
International health institutions, scientific research, animal welfare groups and now even the British public are all urging the government to stop subsidising factory farming in the UK, costing taxpayers over $650 million a year.
Join the 85% of the British public and Viva! In their quest to end factory farming and, with that, the leading cause of antibiotic resistance, animal cruelty, climate change and environmental damage here.
