Media Release

Text of the Revolting Leaflet Factory farming is based on profit. Farmed animals are selectively bred and intensively kept in order to increase the yield of meat and, in turn, swell the farmer’s bank account. Such procedures can mean only immense pain and stress for the animals as their lives are relegated to the importance of buttons in a clothing factory. Broiler Chickens Broilers are reared for meat. For speed, tiny motherless chicks are fed growth promoting drugs. Within six weeks, the baby balloons to the size of an adult. A huge, sad bird with the blue eyes and high pitched cheep of a chick. This immense weight places an unbearable strain on his body. In fact, up to four fifths of chicks have skeletal defects. Many suffer heart attacks; or their legs buckle and break beneath them. Too crippled to walk, they slowly die from dehydration and starvation. In the slaughterhouse, hanging upside down from a conveyor belt, terrified chicks often raise their heads above the electrically charged water bath used for stunning. These chicks are knifed fully conscious. Unstunned and bleeding, some enter the scalding tank - designed to loosen feathers - alive. Battery Hens Battery hens are egg-layers. They are imprisoned in cages, row upon row. Five hens are squeezed into a space little bigger than a microwave. Living her short life behind bars means that she is unable to spread her wings or turn around. To deter frustrated pecking, the end of her sensitive beak is sliced off. The shock can kill. Forced to stand all day on wire, her feet may become thick with ulcers. Excessive egg production drains her body of nutrients and her bones snap like dry twigs. As a by-product of the egg industry, 40 million male chicks - unable to lay and too lean to be eaten - are killed every year. One day old yellow, fluffy chicks cheeping as they ride the conveyor belt to death, by being minced alive or gassed. Cows A dairy cow produces milk only when she gives birth to a calf. To ensure all the milk is kept for humans, the baby is torn from her side after 24 to 48 hours. A male calf, too scrawny for the meat industry, is often shot. A cow’s body is designed to provide two litres of milk for her calf but intensive farming can force her to produce over ten. The huge, unnatural weight of her udders is an intolerable burden and can eventually cause lameness. Swollen udders are commonly hot with mastitis; they can be agonising and leak pus. Drained by physical and mental stress, she is slaughtered prematurely. Each year some 150,000 cows are still pregnant when killed. Pigs Over 90 per cent of British sausages, bacon and ham start life in a windowless shed, thick with the stench of urine and faeces. Inside, on cold, bare concrete, the sow performs an endless, unnatural cycle of birth. Prior to and during labour, she is imprisoned in a farrowing crate. Any movement is severely restricted by bars and all attempts to nurse her young are futile. Aching all over and frantic with despair, she is forced to watch, helpless, as her piglets are stolen away at three weeks. She is then immediately and forcibly made pregnant again. And her piglets? Neglected and diseased, their short lives are spent in squalid, overcrowded fattening units. At five months, each is shackled up by one leg and their throat slit. This is ‘life’ on the factory farm. A wretched, tormented existence leading only to the brutality and panic of death. Living, breathing creatures, with feelings much like our own, treated with utter indifference and neglect. And anyone who eats their dead bodies is supporting this cruelty. If you don’t think this is your problem, then you have a problem. If you do, then do something about it... Kick your noggin into gear and contact Viva! for a free ACT! End Factory Farming pack NOW and stop this suffering FOREVER! Click here for a larger view of the cover Click here to download a PDF version of the leaflet