Vegan for Life - Jack Norris [91]
FISH AND OTHER SEA CREATURES
According to experts, fish have structures that resemble the pain receptors in humans and other animals, but whether they are actually conscious of pain is subject to debate. Studies show that fish react to pain by changing their behavior, which suggests a consciousness of discomfort. It seems fair to give fish the benefit of the doubt, especially since the ways in which they are farmed, caught, and killed are particularly inhumane. All of these animals—including lobsters, crabs, and shrimp—fight for their lives to the extent that they are able.
Bottom-trawling nets pull hundreds of tons of animals from the ocean, squeezing some of them so tightly against the sides of the nets that their eyes bulge and burst out of their skulls. For hours, trapped fish are dragged along the ocean floor. When hauled out of the water, the surviving fish undergo decompression. The extreme pressure change ruptures their swim bladders, pops out their eyes, and pushes their esophagi and stomachs out through their mouths.
Commercial fishing uses drift nets that also kill tens of thousands of sea mammals such as dolphins, whales, otters, seals, and sea lions per year, as well as depleting the food sources of many of these animals.
SLOW CHANGE
There are very few laws protecting farmed animals, and some animals, such as birds, are exempt from laws regarding farmed animal slaughter. Animal agriculture interests are, on principle, opposed to regulation of agriculture and they fight vigorously to stop even the most meager improvements for animals. And they have a great deal of political clout; most legislation to improve farmed-animal welfare must pass through agricultural committees made up of legislators from farming areas or who receive contributions from the industry.
The good news is that there have been small changes in factory farming practices over the past few years, nearly all in response to the efforts of animal protection activists. For example, since 1994, it is no longer legal to brand steers on their faces. Voters in some states have passed measures to do away with some of the cruelest confinement systems. Withholding food from chickens for two weeks to increase egg production is no longer recommended by the United Egg Producers, and the majority of farmers no longer follow this practice (although many still do). In 2009, tail docking of cows (removing part of their tail without anesthesia) was made illegal in California. In her 2008 audit, Temple Grandin reported that ten pig slaughterhouses passed with all pigs being stunned properly.
But given the extensive and routine cruelty associated with factory farming and the strength of an industry that resists even the smallest improvements, meaningful change for all farm animals is a long way off. Animal cruelty is an inherent part of factory farming. Longtime activist and Vegan.com blogger Erik Marcus put it this way:
Many of the so-called “breakdowns” that are captured in these videos are not a result of worker incompetence or deliberate cruelty but rather stem from the design of housing systems and handling procedures. These cruelties are baked-in to the system on an industry-wide basis, and that’s why every video investigation I’ve ever witnessed has uniformly generated the same sorts of appalling images.
For instance, given