Going vegan for the animals
Going vegan is one of the best things you can do to help stop animal cruelty. By refusing to pay for animal products, you reduce the demand for them, which ensures fewer animals are bred to suffer and die on farms and in slaughterhouses.
Every year, around 1 billions animals are farmed and slaughtered for consumption in the UK alone – and this doesn’t include fish and marine animals. The vast majority of these animals will have been raised in intensive conditions, commonly known as factory farming.
On factory farms, animals are forced to reside in cramped conditions, often in windowless sheds where there is no natural sunlight, no grass and no fresh air. These conditions are breeding grounds for disease outbreaks, as well as injuries caused by living in such stressful conditions. Many of their natural instincts and needs are denied to them, all in the name of producing meat and dairy products as quickly and cheaply as possible. Due to this, many animals will die before they leave the farm, and for the rest, a bloody and brutal death at the slaughterhouse awaits.
But what about free-range and organic?
Labels like ‘free-range’ and ‘organic’ generally only serve to make consumers feel better about eating animals. Animal Aid, and other organisations, have conducted investigations into all sorts of farms, including those considered to be ‘free-range’ and organic and we have found similar shocking scenes that we have found in intensive farms.
In addition, we have conducted investigations in a range of British slaughterhouses, from conventional to non-stun to ‘high welfare’ and certified organic, and we have found illegal abuse and cruelty to be commonplace.
The dairy industry is horrifically cruel to animals. Dairy cows face a lifetime of forced impregnation, having their babies taken away from them, and then when they are no longer considered ‘profitable’, they are usually sent to the slaughterhouse.
If their babies are female, they will face a similar fate as their mother. If they are male, they are often sent to veal farms, killed shortly after birth, or even exported to other countries to be raised and slaughtered for consumption.
Take a look at our investigation into calf hutches.
The life of chickens in the egg industry is short, and often miserable. Their lives begin at hatcheries, where they are then sorted; the females will go to farms, whereas the males are seen as a useless by-product and are usually gassed to death at a day old. Other permitted methods include being minced whilst alive and fully conscious. Egg-laying hens suffering horrendously; Animal Aid has documented the widespread use of mutilations such as de-beaking, as well as animals being forced to reside in packed cages and sheds, where disease and illness are commonplace. We have found hens with open wounds being left without treatment, amongst other horrific scenes.
The fishing industry causes untold suffering to animals, with the exact number of fish caught in the wild and farmed every year too large to quantify. The science is very clear on the sentience of fish and other marine animals, such as crustaceans: these animals feel pain.
Not only does ripping these animals from the sea cause them horrific suffering, but it has a knock-on effect on other animals. Non-target species are regularly caught in nets; whales, dolphins and turtles, for example, often get caught up in the nets and die. Also, discarded fishing equipment is the biggest source of ocean plastic pollution, globally.
Read more about the suffering of fish and marine animalsIf you care about animals, being vegan is the best thing you can do!
Whether they are a dog who you share your home with, a pig or a chicken on a factory farm, or a fish being torn from the ocean, all animals deserve to live free from harm and suffering. By going vegan you will be doing the single, most effective thing you can do to say ‘NO’ to animal cruelty.
Meet Bramble the Chicken!
Bramble was saved from slaughter. She had been born on a factory farm and was due to be slaughtered at just 6 weeks old. Thankfully, activists outside a slaughterhouse managed to negotiate her release and take her and three other chickens to safety for the rest of their lives.
