Animals do not develop the capacity to suffer on the day they are killed; they possess that capacity their entire lives. —from PETA’s petition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Back in 1958, the U.S. Congress enacted the Humane Slaughter Act, which declared it to be “the policy of the United States that the slaughtering of livestock and the handling of livestock in connection with slaughter shall be carried out only by humane methods” (emphasis added).
That raises a very important question. If the animals bred, born, and raised on factory farms have been brought into this world for no other purpose than to be slaughtered, aren’t they, from the moment of their births, being handled in connection with slaughter? PETA contends that they are, and so we are challenging the limited application of the Act by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA is the federal agency responsible for implementing the Act, but it has only enacted regulations that apply when the animals have actually reached the slaughterhouse, leaving them to suffer without protection for most of their lives.
With that in mind, PETA’s in-house litigator, Matthew Penzer, has filed a unique rule-making petition calling upon the USDA to immediately implement rules that protect animals raised for food, leather, and other commercial practices from abuse throughout their entire lives, from the moment they are born until the moment they are killed.
PETA’s investigations, as well as the industry’s own standards, reveal cruelty to animals in livestock production that almost defies belief and that goes unchecked because of the USDA’s failure to designate humane methods of handling, as required by the Act. Among the common practices we cite in our petition:
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FIRE-BRANDED
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CRAMMED TOGETHER
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MUTILATED
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CHAINED
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• Cattle are castrated and branded with fiery hot irons, as well as having their nerve-rich horns cut off—all without painkillers. Pigs, too, are castrated and have their tails cut off, notches cut into their ears and the ends of their teeth cut off without any anesthesia.
• Animals sent from the factory farm to the slaughterhouse are often crammed into trucks so tightly that they cannot even lie down without being crushed. They are jostled, trying to balance, for long distances in open-sided trucks through freezing winter weather and searing summer heat without rest, food or water for many hours. It is not uncommon to find, at the end of the journey, animals whose skin has frozen to the sides of the transport trucks.
• Bull calves in the dairy industry are taken from their mothers just days after birth and chained inside tiny stalls to be raised for veal. Fed a low-iron diet, they are weak and often suffer from painful, swollen joints from constantly trying to stand on slippery, waste-covered floors.
PETA’s filing seeks to force the USDA to set humane standards for care of animals in these and all aspects of their lives. We are demanding, as we contend the Act provides, that the government explicitly outline humane standards not only during slaughter but throughout the entire lives of animals who are bred and handled for no other purpose than to be killed for food.
A decision in PETA’s favor would make a world of difference to animals who live miserably and are violently slaughtered by the millions.
Of course, the best way to stop the abuse is to stop contributing to the idea that animals are food instead of living beings with feelings, wants and needs similar to our own. But as long as others continue to eat flesh, PETA will fight to ensure that animal suffering is minimized.
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 Deprived of all that is natural to them, as well as even the smallest kindness, animals abused for food need your help:
• Go vegan if you haven’t already. Call 1-888-VEG-FOOD for a free vegetarian starter kit, or visit GoVeg.com.
• Donate to PETA’s legal fund to support our efforts in this and other important cases for animals.
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THANK YOU
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PETA is grateful to attorneys Phil Hirschkop and Matthew Penzer (pictured above), Jeffrey Kerr and Marianne Merritt for their work.
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