Arviso 1

Cheyenne Arviso
Professor Batty
English 113A
December 1, 2015
Animals have lives too
Going vegan is not just beneficial to peoples health but also for animals lives as well.
Evelyn B. Pluhar wrote an article called Meat and Morality: Alternatives to Factory Farming
from Journal of Agricultural and Environment Ethics. Her article talks about: factory farming,
humane farming, animal rights and vegetarianism. This article talks about all farm animals
treatment worldwide and how many are being killed for human consumption. It also talks about
the dangers for both human and animals health; animals are given contaminated water which
requires all animals to have constant antibiotics to keep them healthy enough to be consumed.
This article is about multiple things on factory farming from different perspectives. Its about
Scientists that show practices on factory farming being a danger to humans health, the
environment, and nonhuman animal welfare. For all these reasons, moral agents must consider
alternatives. Vegetarian food production, humane food animal farming, and in-vitro meat
production are all explored from a variety of ethical perspectives, especially utilitarian and rights
based viewpoints, all in the light of current U.S. and European initiatives in the public and
private sectors. It is concluded that vegetarianism and potentially in-vitro meat production are the
best-justified options. There is a difference between animal rights which is not torturing or
killing animals where people would be vegan and animal welfare where factory farming

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improves their working conditions for animal wellness. I believe in animal rights where people
should go vegan for the lives of animals: health, treatment along with the health for humans.
Humans demand for an increase in meat so high where meat industries are forced to
unnaturally grow animals bigger and fuller faster than normal which causes back fire to both
humans and animals well-being. World farm animals, United Poultry Concerns and Lavelle and
Garber 2008 are the writers on the facts about the animals and human consumption, Their report
came at a time when not only American but world-wide demand for animal products, especially
meat, have risen to their highest point yet. The numbers are staggering. Intensive confinement
and mechanized production methods create an enormous volume of flesh for consumption,
(Pluhar 456). This proves that humans undeniable yearn for meat causes health and wellness
problems to animals. To add on, According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 10.378
billion U. S. land animals were slaughtered for food in 2007 (World Farm Animals 2008). This
accounts for nearly 25% of the total estimated number of non-aquatic animals killed for food in
the world (United Poultry Concerns 2008). The American appetite for flesh has grown from 234
lbs. per capita in 1980 to 273 lbs. in 2007 (Lavelle and Garber 2008). Worldwide demand for
meat is likewise increasing as developing nations become more able to afford it, (Pluhar 456).
Seeing such a big increase on animal production should alert society and make them curious to
know how a numerous of animals are reproduced so quickly. Ratings show an increase over the
years for meat and the dangers in that, Contributing to the problem are routine nontherapeutic
doses of antibiotics in animal feed. Although the European Union banned the practice in 2006
(Union of Concerned Scientists Food and agriculture report 2009), it continues in the United
States, accompanied by the emergence of increasingly antibiotic resistant strains of
Campylobacter, MRSA, Salmonella, E. Coli, and Enterococcus (Sayre and Laura 2009). In the

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United States alone 76 million are stricken annually by fouled food, 5,000 of them fatally (Harris
2009), (Pluhar 456). This backs up my thesis on animal wellness along with humans, because
the quote talks about society demanding more meat which: one, is bad for human consumption,
two, because animals are given hormones and unnatural food to eat that makes them grow faster
and bigger for humans desire. Doing this creates side effects on the animals where they are
eating unnatural food that makes them sick and create toxic waste in animals along with sickness
that can be harmful to humans health; it all starts with society and their choices. Although eating
meat gives protein that can be beneficial for humans consumptions doesnt mean its beneficial
to the animals living conditions before they were just a piece of meat on a plate.
Imagine living in a small cage cramped with other people squishing you not being able to
move an inch your whole life or being a mother pinned down by bars their whole life with no
space to move to nurture your children that are left to die that are just a turn away. In this quote it
describes the living conditions on how the animals were treated, At the end of its 1,100-page
report, the Commission recommended a ten-year timeline for the termination of the most
intensive production techniques, including battery cages, gestation crates, and force feeding birds
to harvest their fatty livers for foie gras (Hunger Notes 2008). This quote talks about the
Commission recommending a timeline for shutting down the bad living conditions animals are
being treated but, wont guarantee it will happen behind closed doors. Yes, its true that humans
have canine teeth but we are also called omnivores which can live off of meat or plants; so
why inseminate an unnecessary amount of animals to be consumed that are forced to grow faster
than normal that creates disesases? Mary Gerush states, If you care that 5,000 people in the U.S.
die from foodborne illness every year; if it matters that 35,000 miles of rivers were polluted by
hog, chicken, and cattle waste in the 90s; if the 69,000 children that suffered from pesticide-

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related poisoning or exposure in 2002 mean something you should care about factory
farming. Workers dont care about the animals well-being which means dead or alive; they are
still slaughter and shipped off to markets for humans to consume which can create health
problems to humans.
Due to the careless meat industries that dont care about the health for both animals and
humans but the increase in money instead creates a worldwide problem to human health and the
environment. I found on Meat and Morality, Tissues from cows who die before slaughter or
who are downers were also permitted until U. S. President Obama, in response to record E
Coli food poisonings, declared that there would be a ban on their slaughter (Harris 2009). This
should be against animal rights on many levels to where factory farms could careless on the
animals health or the health of the consumers. The FDA explains how infected cows are still
slaughtered and are consumed by meat eaters, Due to fears about mad cow disease, cattle feed
may not contain cattle tissues, but cattle blood, restaurant waste, and poultry litter are still
permitted. The FDA notes that cattle 30 months old and younger are less likely to harbor mad
cow disease, but critics have replied that younger cows could still be infectedand that it is
possible for the disease to be spread through what is still allowed in cattle feed (FDA 2005).
People consuming infected animal meat creates diseases and health problems to humans.
Without the governments help on regulating and having strict rules on the living conditions and
treatment for animals, humans will still be affected and animals will still be reproduced just to be
tortured and slaughtered.
The only solution for better lives for farm animals is to go vegan where no animals can
be harmed and humans can continue living healthy. If the government helped regulate meat
industries more it would be the first step in helping animals; at least animal welfare it would be

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better as to having a more natural living environment for animals and well-being in addition to
their treatment of food they consume and how they are executed. People should care on going
vegan because of 69,000 children getting pesticide poisoning from eating meat. Going vegetarian
makes a huge impact for humans health and animal rights.

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Works Cited
Pluhar, Evelyn. "Meat and Morality: Alternatives to Factory Farming." Journal of Agricultural
and Environmental Ethics (2009): 468. Print.
Gerush, Mary. "You Should Care About Factory Farming Heres Why." Eat Drink Better.
2013. Web. <http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2013/09/08/you-should-care-about-factory-farming/>.
Zuzworsky, Rose. "From the Marketplace to the Dinner Plate: The Economy, Theology, and
Factory Farming." Journal of Business Ethics 29.1/2 (2001): 177-88. Journal of Business Ethics.
Web.