Meat and milk factories - Essay Example

In fact, we can delude ourselves into believing that the animals do not have any thoughts, feelings or emotions. This, in turn, means that we can treat our animals in any way that we choose. This essay will show specific examples of how horrible we treat our animals, and makes the argument that, if humans could identify more with animals, animals would not be allowed to be treated as they are. The point that Singer and Mason were trying to make, when they talked about how we, as humans, use completely different terminology when referring to animals, as opposed to referring to humans –such as using the term farrowing for giving birth, feeding for eating, and gestating for being pregnant – is that it separates the animals from the humans in our minds.

It makes it seem as if they are less than us, different from us. Of course, they are different from us, but it is this difference which allows us to treat them in a manner that we would never treat our fellow man. In the chapter titled “Meat and Milk Factories,” Singer and Mason presented examples of how we treat animals, and how this is not the way that we would treat one another. They began to detail the life of a farm pig. First of all, they state that the pigs are kept in a crate which is too narrow for them to turn around or walk more than a step or two forward or backwards.

“More than 90% of pigs raised for met today are raised indoors in crowded pens of concrete and steel, and don’t even have straw to bed down in” (p. 45). These pigs are locked in these crates for life. This is because there are little protections for them. At this time, there was not a federal law that governed how farm animals were to be treated while they are living on the farm. The lack of a federal law is the reason why farmers are allowed to treat pigs in the manner that they treat them – keeping them in crowded pens of concrete and steel, never letting them outside to root around, and not even providing them with straw to lay on.

This is especially true for breeding sows, who produce one litter after another, while living in tiny crates which are a foot longer than their bodies. Singer and Mason state that 90% of breeding sows in the America’s 10 largest producers are kept in this manner. This causes the pigs to show signs of clinical depression and stress, because it goes against their basic nature, which is to explore their surroundings and root around. This is because keeping them in this manner goes against their basic nature, as pigs are “sensitive, intelligent, and highly social animals,” and the conditions provide them with “nothing to do all day.

They cannot walk around or socialize with other sows. All they can do is stand up or lie down on the bare concrete floor” (p. 46). Other examples in this chapter also show how we treat our animals. For instance, there was a sow with a broken leg, who was due to farrow the following week. A vet wanted to fix up the leg, but the farmer would not allow it – he said that he didn’t have the money for this. The sow would be shot as soon as she gave birth to her piglets. According to Singer and Mason, “