Factory farming has been in the American and European culture for over 200 years now, and is considered one of the foremost sources for our food supply for today's population. However, with the growing awareness to animal cruelty in this world, many people have been considering our current culture and removing many instances of these acts from it. Along with laboratory testing, poor shelter conditions, and pet abuse, the idea that factory farming can be considered animal cruelty is a current debate in today's world. As a matter of fact, that is my argument. We have relied on factory farming for so long that we overlook the experiences these animals go through in the factory process. It is no secret that animal cruelty is just wrong, and in this paper I present the many reasons in which factory farming is in fact animal cruelty, and that it should be abolished from our culture.
The term abuse refers to the use or treatment of something that is harmful. Most of us are already aware of abuse in our society. Spousal abuse, child abuse and pet abuse are most commonly talked about and referred to. Many of us are not aware that the meat that we eat is produced in an abusive way. While they are alive we should treat them well. Like humans, farm animals are sentient beings capable of feeling pleasure, pain, stress, frustration, and even fear. We will die one day as well, but this is not a reason to mistreat human. "If we feel jealously, then dogs and wolves and elephants and chimpanzees feel jealously. Animal emotions are not necessarily identical to ours but there's no reason to think they should be. Their hearts and stomachs and brains also differ from ours, but this doesn't stop us from saying they have hearts, stomachs and brains. There's a dog joy and chimpanzee joy and pig joy, and dog grief, chimpanzee grief and pig grief" (Marc Bekoff). .
Many people ponder the question whether or not animals do have feelings, but ultimately that answer is yes.
