Reduce Animal Cruelty by Going Vegetarian

Regardless of your primary reason for going vegetarian, putting an end to animal cruelty is likely to be one of the many reasons you are turning your back on meat.  The reality is that the animals that are bred for food consumption are not treated well at all.  If the slaughter of these animals is not enough to turn your stomach, the fact that they are genetically manipulated, exposed to extreme weather conditions and subject to neglect should be enough reason to get you to go vegetarian.  Here's a quick look at the things that are done to animals in order to fatten them up and to prepare them for sale:

Chickens - drugged and bred so they grow quickly, which causes their lungs, which causes their bodies to grow so quickly that their lungs, hearts and limbs can't keep up.

Hens - kept in small cages the size of a file drawer along with 5 or 6 other hens.  These cages are then stacked on top of each other in a warehouse while their eggs are collected.

Cattle - before they are slaughtered, their horns are removed from their heads, they are castrated and branded without the benefit of pain relief.

Cows - bred and drugged so they produce massive amounts of milk.  They are impregnated so they will produce milk, but the babies are removed from them and sent to veal farms.

Pigs - placed in small crates that make it impossible for them to lay down or turn around comfortably.

Fish - kept in small enclosures that are so filthy that 40% of them die from disease, infection and injury before they are packaged for market.

Turkeys - genetically manipulated and drugged to increase their body size, causing extreme leg pain and often heart failure.  Their toes and beaks are routinely burned off with a hot blade.

Once they are ready to be slaughtered, they are transported over long distances in crowded trucks.  At the slaughterhouse, their throats are slit and they are often plunged while still conscious into tanks of scalding hot water in order to remove their fur and feathers.

So, even if concern for the animals is not your primary reason for choosing a vegetarian lifestyle,  you can take comfort in knowing that you are helping to reduce the number of animals that are tortured when you choose to go vegetarian.