A vegetarian diet is a powerful way to oppose cruelty to animals every day. By withholding our food dollars from businesses which abuse animals, we can make the world a kinder, more humane place every time we sit down to eat.

Many people believe that animals raised for food must be treated well because businesses will not make money off of sick animals; this is, unfortunately, not the case. Since the 1940’s, small farms where animals lived lives of relative comfort before they were slaughtered have given way to vast “factory farms,” where animals are treated like production units.

Bernard Rollin, Ph.D., explains that it is “more economically efficient to put a greater number of birds into each cage, accepting lower productivity per bird but greater productivity per cage... Chickens are cheap, cages are expensive.” (Farm Animal Welfare, 1995)

Animals are suffering in every branch of the food industry. Economic concerns dictate that animals will be overcrowded, that animals will receive little or no veterinary care, and that painful procedures, such as castration, branding, dehorning and debeaking, will be done with no anaesthetics whatsoever.

In the next few pages, you will learn about what animals are going through every day because of the way Americans eat. It’s not pleasant, but it is true, and if we look away, we will only be allowing it to continue. The good news is that we can all do something about it very easily every time we eat.

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