Turner, 1

McLeod Turner

Mr. Anderson

English 1B

3/18/10

If Slaughter Houses Had Glass Walls

When people think of today’s farms, they think of beautiful, flowing green pastures; , big

red barns, and white picket fences that hold happy cows with big bells about their necks.

Unfortunately, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Today, flowing green pastures have been

replaced with knee deep, manure laden , muck.; Ppicket fences have been pitched forwith solid

concrete walls and; red barns withare now shadowed by large factory- like slaughter houses.;

and the happy cows with wretched unhappy cows, with scars from electric prods in place of

bells. According to data collected by the USDA, in 2008, , 35,577,500t hirty five million, five

hundred and seven thousand, five hundred calves and cows were slaughtered at commercial and

farming institutions throughout America. People all over the worldUnited States, need to stop

buying meat that comes from feedlots; and should realize that the money they spend buying

feedlot meat, helps support the feedlots, continues the problematic living conditions, improper

feeding, and inhumane slaughter of cattle, and theas well as abolishing abolishs of our social

responsibility to protect those weaker than ourselves.

The first reason you should buy meat from local farms rather than meat that comes from

feedlots is because the living conditions of the cattle causes not only problems for the cow, but

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also for the consumers who eat it. The Farm Sanctuary, an advocacy group seeking to expose the

conditions facing slaughter livestock, describes feedlots as having animals “crowded by the

thousands into dusty, manure-laden holding pens. The air is thick with harmful bacteria and

particulate matter, and the animals are at a constant risk for respiratory disease”

(Farm Sanctuary). How would you feel if you were put in a small cage with t other people, until

there is absolutely no room left then the cage is filled with knee deep sewer water? On top of

that, all what if all you had to eat was bread with mold and sewer waterraw sewage all over it? .

In essence, Tthis is exactly what cows face everyday. The Food and Drug Administration, FDA,

estimates: five thousand deaths and seventy six million cases of food borne illnesses from beef

produced in feedlot occur annually. Some of these illnesses that are coming from feedlots are

mad cow disease, a neurological disease caused by eating infected cow meat that results in loss

of control in the body, , and E. coli O1570157:H7, which attacks the immune system and is fatal

if contracted. So, with illnesses like mad cow and E. coli O1570157:H7 and as well as countless

other food borne illnesses on the rise, people need to see that our feedlots are the cause of it.

Another justification for people to stop buying disease-ridden meat from that is full of

diseases from feedlots is the inhumane slaughter of the cattle, sometimes only days old. These

defenseless cows and calves routinely suffer cruel and abusive treatment at the merciless hands

of slaughterhouse workers. In one specific case of abuse, the Bushway Packing, Inc. in Grand

Isle, Vermont, the facility slaughters days-old male dairy calves—many so young that their

umbilical cords still hang from their bodies. Their abuse to the animals was caught on a hidden

camera by a USDA inspector undercover. In one scene of the footage , a worker attempts to skin

a young calf alive, right in front of the inspector. As also seen in the video, were live calves are

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placed in piles with dead ones. Workers also frequently use electric prods and kick the calves in

an attempt to force the newborns to stand. Some calves are shocked more than 30 times, and in at

least one case, water was splashed on one calf to intensify the effect of the electric shocking.

Slaughter plant workers constantly perform improper stunning methods to knock the animals

unconscious, including stunning calves in groups, and in a crowded room as opposed to

individually restraining them to make the stunning more accurate. Federal law requires that

animals to be rendered insensible to pain before being bled out and dismembered (hHumane

societySociety). This kind of treatment has to stop. ! Cows all over the worldAmerica are

suffering the same way the calves at Bushway are. As long as people are willing to buy meat

from feedlots—meats that are full of harmful diseases and come from abused cows, nothing will

change.

A third validation for the all people all over the world to buy better healthier meat is

because of the cattle’s unhealthy diet. Perhaps the most serious thing that can go wrong with a

ruminant ondiet of corn is feedlot bloat. The rumen, the first compartment of the cow’s stomach

— where food is returned to the mouth for further chewing, is always producing copious

amounts of gas, which is normally expelled by belching during ruminationingestion. WBut when

the diet contains too much starch and too little roughage—like corn, – rumination all but stops ,

and a layer of foamy slime that that can trap gas thattraps gas that forms in the rumen. The rumen

inflates like a balloon, pressing against the animal's lungs. Unless action is taken to relieve the

pressure, the cow suffocates. A corn diet can also give a cow acidosis. Unlike that in our own

highly acidic stomachs, the normal pH of a a cow’s rumen is neutral. Corn makes it unnaturally

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acidic , causing a kind of heartburn , which in some cases can kill the animal but usually just

makes it sick. Acidotic animals go off their feed, pant, and drool excessively. They also, paw at

their bellies and eat dirt. The condition can lead to diarrhea, ulcers, bloat, liver disease, and a

general weakening of the immune system that leaves the animal vulnerable to everything from

pneumonia to feedlot polio. In the past, mMost of the microbes that reside in the gut of a cow

and find their way into our food get killed off by the acids in our stomachs, , since they originally

adapted to live in a neutral-pH environment. TBut the digestive tract of the modern feedlot cow

cow however is now closer in acidity to our own, and in this new, manmade environment acid-

resistant strains of E. coli have developed flourished. Even more frightening, they can that can

survive our stomach acids—and go on to kill us. . By acidifying achanging the natural digestive

processing within the cow cow's gut with corn,with corn, we have broken down one of our food
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chain's barriers to infection and diseases. (CDC). . The Another sad fact is that the main

reasononly reason feedlots feed them corn is because it is the cheapest thing out there. It is

because of today’s desire for money that the cows have to suffer the way they do and because of

the risks we take for money, we are harming not only them but also ourselves. We must make a

change to how our food is made; the first step is to show feedlots around the globe we do care

about what we’re eating, and to make an effort to change our food.

The fourth motivation for people to stop using meats that are unhealthy, full of deadly

diseases, and come from abused cows and calves, is because it is destroying our social

responsibility to protect those weaker than ourselves. Think back to a time when you were young

and asked your parents for a dog or cat of your own. . How many times did they tell you: a pet is
http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/

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a big responsibility; you have to feed it, play with it, and clean it, etc.?ct, ect. It’s the same thing

when you decide to start raising cattle—you have to feed it, love it, clean it, give it proper living

conditions, and ample, sanitary space to roam. So what makes feedlot cattle different from pet

cattle? Some would say they’re just cows; they’re going to die anyway. But when you think

about, it aren’t we just humans who are going to die anyway? Some would say the prices of meat

would go up if they had to follow all the regulations, and people wouldn’t pay that much for

meat. If people knew what was really in their food I’m pretty sure they would want change

despite the higher costs. There is no good that comes from this degree of abuse; and it must stop,

and stop now. We must stop supporting feedlots, and allowing them to abuse cattle, purposely

we have to feed them wrong, and give them improper living space,aim to step up to the plate and

be socially responsible and take care of those who need to be taken under our wings—like the

cow and all other animals weaker than us. and destroy the social responsibility to take care of

those we take under our wings.

People have to see what harm they are doing to themselves and those around them by

buying U.S. meat from feedlots around the globe. The unacceptable living condition of the

feedlots cattle has caused numerous diseases, which are harmful to humans, and are being spread

through throughout our meat. The Bushway Packing, Inc. in Grand Isle, Vermont is one incident

of hundreds throughout America and one of millions throughout the world that routinely abuse

their cattle. The unnaturally rich diet of corn has allowed bacteria like E. coli 0157:H7 to adapt,

becoming harmful to us. As feedlots continue the abuse, they continue abolishing our social

responsibility follow up our societal promise of taking care of those who can’t take care of

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themselves. This is our chance to show feedlots everywhere that we will not play dumb and

allow our food be contaminated for their profit. We need to You need to stop sustaining feedlots

with your supporting Ifmoney because if you don’t who will; and if nothing is done it won’t only

be the cows who suffer—it will be us and all future generations.

Cited works

"Factory Beef Production". Farm Sanctuary.

"Factory Beef Production". Farm Sanctuary. March 15, 2010

<http://farmsanctuary.org/issues/factoryfarming/beef/>.

"More Video of Abused Calves at Vermont Slaughter Plant". The Humane Society.

<http://www.humanesociety.org/news/news/2009/11/veal_investigation_110209.html >.

"More Video of Abused Calves at Vermont Slaughter Plant". The Humane Society of the United

States. March 15, 2010

<http://www.humanesociety.org/news/news/2009/11/veal_investigation_110209.html>.

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"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention". CDC.

<http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/ >.

" National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases". Center for Disease Control

and Prevention. March 15, 2010 <http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/>.

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