Conscious Choice: Raising and Slaughtering of Animals

August 2000 | Health Conscious

Raising and Slaughtering of Animals

by Rebecca Ephraim, RD, CCN

I will not be trying to convince you in this column to give up eating meat. That would be hypocritical as I, too, eat what my vegetarian friends term "animal flesh." My intent is to create more awareness about the animal products that we use as food. This approach will not only save "food animals" from agonizing lives and deaths but will also make this food more healthful for us.

You don’t have to be an animal lover to understand that animals feel pain. And in today’s factory farms (or what’s called industrial animal production facilities) and the slaughterhouses where they end up, these animals — poultry (including laying hens), cattle (including dairy cattle), pigs, and sheep — are facing repulsively shocking mistreatment. In poultry production, for example, chickens are routinely "debeaked" as this prevents them from pecking each other in the crowded stacked wire cages where they spend their pitiful lives in a standing-room-only fashion. One agriculture specialist informed me that some operations are even cutting off the birds’ wings. I’m told that crowded conditions are the rule in all factory farming as the giant producers such as Cargill, ConAgra, Iowa Beef Processors (IBP), Perdue, and Tyson attempt to process as many animals as possible to meet demand.

Of course, many readers will already be acquainted with the abuses that animals are subjected to in the course of industrial "food animal" production from birth to slaughter. Mostly, they are born in massive commercial complexes that confine them in miserably cramped quarters, pumped with drugs such as hormones and antibiotics, fed with chemical-laced feed, and ultimately hauled thousands of miles to their deaths in bacteria-laden slaughterhouses where they die in a cruel mechanized environment that prizes processing speed over humane approaches. "I don’t think you have to exaggerate at all. I think all you have to do is tell the truth about the current system and I think most Americans would be totally appalled if they knew what was going on," says David Brubaker, Ph.D., director of a John Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health research project on industrial animal production. "Our goal is a sustainable food production system that is humane, environmentally sound, and produces safe, healthy food. I don’t think it’s possible to produce animals humanely and meet environmental and health standards on a mass-produced basis."

This is why an increasing number of consumers are buying their animal products from regional sources that are committed to what’s called "sustainably raised" poultry and livestock. Currently, most of these approaches are known by a mishmash of ambiguous terms such as "organic," "free range," and "pasture raised." Unfortunately, according to Gary Valen, Ph.D., who’s with the Humane Society of the U.S., these terms do not mean the same thing. For instance, by purchasing "organic" it is understood that the meat or dairy from animals are drug and chemical free but may not have been raised or sacrificed in a humane environment. "Free range" is also an unclear term that can be used for animals in various circumstances from grazing in open fields to having a little space to move around; there’s no guarantee that the animals are free of drugs and chemicals. Moreover, they might have been sent through the same horrendous processing facility as conventional "food animals."

Valen says some conventional growers are exploiting the rising demand for "free range" by distorting the meaning of the term to their own advantage. Free-range chickens, for example, are usually considered to be those that are able to scratch, hunt, and peck in open fields. Yet, since there are no legal standards for this term, some large factory farmers are known to create a small open area (that eventually becomes thick and deep with chicken feces) next to a containment building, which technically allows them to advertise their birds as "free range."

Valen, a specialist on the proposed organic standards for livestock and poultry, expects new standards to be released this fall by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and is hoping that humane treatment of animals will be required along with the restrictions on drug and chemical use. "The Humane Society has weighed in very heavily on this. At the very least we think the organic standards should mean that all animals should have outdoor access...with the ability to follow their more natural instincts, to graze, and to socialize." He’s cautious about expecting full USDA acceptance of humane terms as the agency, he says, wants to include debeaking in the organic standards!

Slaughterhouses are a separate issue. There is a USDA Humane Slaughter Act on the books but Valen says there’s negligible compliance and enforcement. The Humane Society has lobbied for strict enforcement of the act in tandem with the introduction of the new organic standards.

Derek Lee is in the forefront of implementing standards for humane treatment and processing of animals in Wisconsin. He oversees and promotes "Wisconsin Pasturelands," a six-month-old program based in Madison that is organizing Wisconsin farmers to raise animals on pasture without the use of hormones or antibiotics and then have the animals processed by small local processing plants adhering to humane standards. Lee is in the midst of lining up markets for the products. "We realize there are people who are opposed to eating animals and we understand and respect that view. We’re trying, for those who are going to continue to eat meat, to raise these animals as consciously as we can...and to process them in as humane a way as we can trying to look out for the welfare of the animals."

Until acceptable standards are implemented on a large scale, all three men — Lee, Valen, and Brubaker — suggest that concerned consumers need to take a proactive approach to buying their meat and dairy products. Question the manager of your grocery store that sells free-range/organic animal products and ask him if he’s confident that the suppliers adhere to standards that you demand. This question alone may inspire the management to be aware of the problem. Shop local farmers’ markets for pasture-raised animals that have been processed in small plants taking humane approaches. And look for CSA movements — community-supported agriculture — where you can buy shares of a crop yield guaranteeing the farmer both a predictable income and the confidence to continue sustainable agriculture.

Lee, Valen, and Brubaker insist we must be prepared to pay more initially for these products as sustainable food systems cost more to operate up front. They say the cheap animal products from factory farming comprise a "dishonest" economy. The industrial animal production facilities assault our environment with pollution to the land, water, and air while the onset of health challenges stemming from contaminated animal products (deadly E.coli outbreaks for example) burden our health care system.

And finally, we need to think in terms of eating fewer animal products. Valen suggests following the "three R’s": Refine your diet by buying products from humanely raised organic or sustainable agriculture. Reduce your consumption of meat or animal products. Replace them with vegetables and other whole nonanimal foods.

For detailed and graphic explanation of animal production facilities, I highly recommend Slaughterhouse by Gail A. Eisnitz. Eisnitz’s remarkably straightforward and objective account describes the toll taken on the animals, workers, and ultimately, the consumers. The book can be purchased at www.hfa.org.

Disclaimer: This column is for information only and no part of its contents should be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, recommendation or endorsement by Ms. Ephraim.

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