Farm animals deserve better

Thank you for Karen Dillon’s well-written article detailing the cruelty of factory farms (10/30, A-1, “Factory farms under fire; Warehouse-style conditions and confinement inspire a wave of challenges”).

Pigs are more intelligent than dogs and cats. They can learn to play simple video games, and when raised on pasture, they have a complex social structure. A mother pig will gather grass and straw and build a nest for her piglets.

How unbearable it must be for these intelligent animals, who like to root in the ground and have their minds challenged, to be locked in tiny barren crates where they can’t even turn around.

Additionally, factory farm pigs often suffer painful foot and leg problems and respiratory illnesses. In fact, 70 percent of the antibiotics used in this country are fed to factory farm animals to keep them alive in such stressful conditions.

All 27 countries of the European Union and four American states have banned these cruel practices. It’s time for national legislation to ensure that all animals, including those raised for food, are treated humanely.

Pam Snyder
Pleasant Hill

Just how dumb do factory-farm owners think we are? Spare us the lies and lame justifications for the cruel practices of these mega operations. Are we supposed to believe:

That animals in confinement are loving every minute of it?

That the selfless owners are thinking only of the welfare of the dear animals, rather than exploiting them for profit?

That animals living in cramped, toxic indoor conditions eating unnatural food, getting body parts cut off and forced into production overload and ill health is an improvement on God’s designs?

Which of these owners would be willing to trade places with the animals? It’s time that we demand reform and end the abuse of the least among us, our animal kin.

Better yet, stop raising animals for food at all, since it is an unsustainable practice, terrible on the environment and a contributor to poor health.

Carol J. Meyer
Roeland Park

Comments

[Marctnts]

Do you suppose the rest of Bea's family would take me up on an offer to buy them a steak dinner?

[repete]

Sorry Bea, vegan is not the way to go. And it's not healthy either. Vegetarianism perhaps, but not vegan. But, hey, I support your right to live the life you choose. All I ask is that you kindly return to favor.

As far as these letters go, they were clearly composed in a very warm and fluffy room, far away from the ideal conditions they imagine.

[kcstar_is_one_sided]

Do rabbits, rodents, squirrels, etc count, Bea Elliot? Has anyone on this board worked on a farm. Do you know how many animals die from combines working the fields for your vegan diet? Research several years ago showed that many more animals are killed from a vegan only diet due to the farm tools killing all of the field animals on farms.

[Lost_In_Ambivalence]

Bea

What about those awful plants that are forced to grow in row after row, being planted and then plucked from the ground in the prime of their lives, shortly before they are able to propagate. How awful. If you really want a spiritual awakening, eat concrete and dirt. It fills you up good and you only eat what is absolutely necessary to end the hunger pangs.

[Beaelliott]

Thanks for the excellent evaluation of the unsustanability of animals as "food". Horrible consequences to human health, to the evironment and of course to the animals. My family is much healtier since converting to a vegan diet - And spiritually it's great knowing that our ethics are inline with our food choices. For health & heart - Go VEGAN