When I first got to the United State I didn’t get why people are so concerned and all over the ” whole food / Organic food” thing, where I came from almost everything is organic by common sense, if it has no genetic adds, then its organic!
I also spoke with many vegetarians and when I asked why did you become vegetarians, they told me because they were against who the animals are being missed treated, but I never imagined who miss treated until one day I had to write a proposal for my host organization about animals and pets rights in the United States and I got shocked with the facts and numbers that I almost decided to become vegetarian too, but I only eat Hala meat and one of the main must in Islam is that the animals should be treated with mercy and kind.
Here are some facts that I found while I was running my research:
Agriculture and Farming
97% of the 10 billion animals tortured and killed each year are farm animals*
Poultry is being over layered which 90-95% of the eggs sold in the U.S, forced molting and left in very small cages that made of extremely uncomfortable wire the birds cannot even spread their wings.
Cattle are being forced feedlot, burned with a hot iron brand, castrated and de-horned without anesthetic. Cows during dairy are being forced to produce 10 times more than they naturally produce and milking machines often cut them and cause other injuries.
Pig sadly were not luckier than the other animals, Female pigs are kept pregnant continually and forced impregnated, and kept in placed in 18 to 24 inch wide pens that they can not turn or flat their legs, After giving birth, sows are only permitted to nurse their newborns for 2-3 weeks and this cause to approximately 15% of the newborn die, then they cut the tail of the survived ones without anesthesia so that other piglets will not bite it, which is an unnatural behavior that results directly from the stress of the factory farm.
Fish also didn’t escape from the mistreatment of mass production, fish are crowded into such small enclosures and since the water is being brought up and running/renewed often, this cause disease and suffocation which force the farmers to fill it with excrement and other health dangers, and feed fish chemicals, herbicides, and drugs, which end up in the bodies of fish-eating consumers.
Pets Abuse
There are up to 2,000 cases of animal hoarding per year reported in the United States, resulting in more than 250k abuse cases*
Many Americans are taking pets as their first companion, unfortunately not many of them got lucky with their owners, statistics show that about 71% of the victims of domestic abuse state that their perpetrator targeted their animal, 32% were killed or abused by children at home, have been reported by their mothers.
Dogs had their share from the wars too! Since after the civil war, dog fighting became a new entertainment for police officers and firemen with professional pits proliferating in the 1860s and Until the year 2000, any dogs that served in the military were euthanized once they were returned from the battlefield.
Sadly there are up to 2,000 cases of animal hoarding per year reported in the United States, resulting in more than 250k abuse cases.
Pharmaceutical and animal testing
Animal statistics show 15 million animals worldwide, are tortured daily in laboratories. Sadly these animals are not used for research purposes, but in the end, there are kept in the most inhumane conditions where they are left to die and suffer. These animals from all kind more than you can imagine, Chimpanzees, monkeys, beagles, dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, birds, farm animals, etc., were used for animal experimentation.
Over 25 – 100 million vertebrate animals of which a few are the closest relatives to man were reported to be used for animal testing in the US
Environment (sea life)
It’s no secret that many companies are spilling their oil and chemicals in the ocean in the oceans and this being causing to trap many penguins, seagulls, walruses, turtles, fish and many other marine animals. The oil forms a thick layer over their bodies which also sticks to their fur or feathers and destroys the natural insulation as well as waterproofing properties on the fur and feathers at the end they develop hypothermia due to this and die.
These chemicals and left oil also stick on birds feathers and wings who come to the ocean to feed and make them unable to flip their feathers and cannot escape predators, unfortunately, these birds and animals are drowned in the water, as oil makes their bodies heavier.
