Research Essay About The Meat, Dairy, and Egg Industry

An assignment for Mastering the Five-Paragraph Essay class

            If a person saw a fluffy cow being abused, they would usually call the police and try to intervene. But did you know that this is happening behind closed doors all over the world, and not many people even think about it? The meat, dairy and egg industries exploit animals in ways nothing short of shocking, and by eating less meat, dairy, and eggs, one can save animals being tortured.

            First is the meat industry, which is a disgusting atmosphere. Animals are crammed into uncomfortable and tiny spaces where they cannot move around at all. Piglets who are too sick to be slaughtered for meat are murdered by being smashed against concrete. According to the USDA in 2011, 90 percent of faulty chicken carcasses contained feces. Farmers breed chickens in such a way that the chickens gain weight so fast that, in fact, they cannot move and suffer. (17 Unsettling Facts) In addition, the fishing industry is very cruel. Scientists say that fish feel pain. (Carman, T) Nearly 4,000,000,000 fish are killed in the fishing industry every year. (2019 Animal Kill Clock)

            Likewise, a lot of people think that eating dairy products doesn’t harm cows. But what the dairy industry doesn’t want you to know is that there’s no happy cows like on the dreamy commercials. Because a female cow needs to be pregnant to make milk, she is forcibly, constantly impregnated from the age of fifteen months continuing to her death. Immediately after she gives birth, her calf is stolen from her, and the mother will scream in agony for weeks. If the calf is male, he will likely be tossed into a very small cage and be brutally slaughtered for veal. If the calf is female, she has the same fate as her mother. (Newkey-Burden, C)

            Just as horrifying is the egg industry for chickens. When a chick is born, they will never see their mother. Since they do not produce eggs, male chicks are thrown into a macerator and ground up alive. Hens have their beaks, which feel pain, cut off to prevent them from pecking other chickens in the cruel conditions. Chickens are cramped into cages that are stacked up and are as long as two football fields. (Eggstreme Cruelty) In the cramped cages they have to live in their own urine and feces. They usually die in their cages, but the ones who live are sent to slaughter, just the same as chickens raise for meat. (21 Things the Egg Industry Doesn’t Want You to See)

            There is no question that the animal torture is wrong. Even the motion picture industry wouldn’t get away with the atrocities of animal abuse. By switching to a plant-based diet, a person gets almost a whole decade of extra life. So, when one eats less meat, dairy, and egg products, they can save billions of animals from slaughter.

Works Cited:

17 Unsettling Facts About Meat That’ll Make You Reevaluate Your Entire Life. (2017, July 28). Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://mercyforanimals.org/17-unsettling-facts-about-meat-thatll-make.

2019 U.S. Animal Kill Clock. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://animalclock.org/.

21 Things the Egg Industry Doesn’t Want You to See. (2014, April 8). Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://www.peta.org/features/egg-industry-cruelty/.

Carman, T. (2019, March 28). Scientists say fish feel pain. It could lead to major changes in the fishing industry. Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2018/05/24/scientists-say-fish-feel-pain-it-could-lead-to-major-changes-in-the-fishing-industry/.

Eggstreme Cruelty to Animals. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2020, from http://www.eggabuse.com/readmore.php.

Freston, K. (2012, December 26). Why Do Vegetarians Live Longer? Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/plant-based-diet_b_1981838.

Newkey-Burden, C. (2017, March 30). Dairy is scary. The public are waking up to the darkest part of farming | Chas Newkey-Burden. Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/30/dairy-scary-public-farming-calves-pens-alternatives.