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Mary-Hannah Romrell

Mr. Gardner

Milky Jalape​ños

28 October 2019

As Animal Cruelty Becomes More Prevelant, Is Veganism a Solution?

Animal cruelty is acts of violence or abuse perpetrated on animals, this also include animal

neglect where animals are denied access to basic survival necessities. When people think of animal

cruelty, they think of househeld pets, not farm animals. However, household pets only makes up

around 115 million animals exposed to cruelty per year compared to the “suffering of billions of

animals each year in factory farming.”(Alberro) Factory farming was invented in America to

industrialize farming, with its intensive factory production on livestock animals. This type of

production of meat is found at any nearby stores and restaurants, which produces more than 95%

of America’s meat. These factory farm animals live in harsh conditions that are specifically

designed to increase animal production with minimal costs. Most of these livestock animals die

(around 850 million per year) before even making it to the slaughterhouse due to mistreatment,

overcrowding, disease, and undoubtedly poor sanitation. More than “seventy billion farmed

animals are reared annually worldwide and 6 million animals are killed for food every

hour”(Cowspiracy). As humanity continues to expand rapidly, the consumption of meat expands,

and the need for more livestock animals increase (See Figure 1).
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(Figure 1) Maslin, Micheal.​“Things were done very differently on the farm when I was your age,

Kenny.” Political Cartoon. ​New Yorker.​ 11 December 2000. Web. October 22 2019.

This political cartoon uses the office space to represent how farming has ironically adjusted to the

crowded spaces of factory farms rather than the classic farm image that everyone imagines (a lush

green pasture with freely roaming animals). The author’s message is farming has drastically

changed, but the general population has not recognized it. The food industry was able to convince

consumers that the production of animals was happening elsewhere, than in actuality. Questioning

how much is animal cruelty a part of food manufacturing.

The factories learned to advertise positive aspects of their methods, to divert public

attention from their animal abuse. Such as manipulating the appearance of meat, so consumers

would not be able to correlate it to a living breathing animal. There began to be an increase of

meat consumption in regular diets, making meat productions soar. “This went hand-in-hand with

our portrayals of them [the livestock] as “dumb animals,” making it easier to overlook their abuse

and ignore their manifold social and emotional lives” (Arora). As humanity began to disregard the
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lives of livestock animals, due to the appeal of imitation, animal abuse became more common in

factory farms and slaughterhouses.

Factory farms and slaughterhouses employees consist of divisions that separate non

unionized labor. Hidden undercover videos tapes, found in the documentary, ​Earthlings ​produced

by Shaun Monson, found an extensive amount of evidence displaying animal cruelty cause by

employees. Workers are shown disrespecting animals, as they perceive these livestock animals as

objects. “Slaughterhouse employment increases total arrest rates, arrests for violent crimes, arrests

for rape, and arrests for other sex offenses in comparison with other industries.”(Lehmkuhl) The

agriculture industry has the highest rate of violence subsequent employment, that any other

industry. Animal cruelty is one of the starting lead correlation of acts of violence. “​Research backs

up the finding that there is a direct link between acts of cruelty to animals and violence toward

humans. This includes child abuse, domestic violence, and other violent behavior.” (“Animal

Cruelty…”)As this directs factory farming to animal cruelty in food manufacturing, is veganism a

solution?

Over the recent years, veganism has become increasingly more popular throughout the

world. Industries have begun to add vegan options in stores and restaurants, as it continues to

popularize. The United States alone, has more than one million people who considered themselves

to follow some sort of vegan lifestyle. Veganism is “a philosophy and way of living which seeks to

exclude all forms of exploitation and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing; promotes the

development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the

environment” (Team). There are several distinctive categories of veganism such as dietary vegans,

environmental vegans, and ethical vegans. Ethical vegans are found to be the most popular vegan
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lifestyle and their decisions are shaped by their desire to avoid animal cruelty and suffering to any

animal. Animal rights activists believe that ethical vegans save over 6,000 animals lives by not

consuming animal products. This solution would prevent the total amount of animals born in mass

production, reduce the amount of cruelty, and decrease the amount of supply and demand for meat.

This topic I fondle over with, I went vegan for a month and was debating whether the

vegan lifestyle actually was a solution to animal cruelty. I stopped being vegan as I had found no

surface correlation between the two and struggled with understanding all of the lifestyle. I wanted

a direct correspondence with cruelty that would explain why ethical vegans were categorized as

the most popular type of vegan. I was shocked to find out after watching the documentaries on

factory farms, to find how manipulative the agriculture industry is, and how they handled animal

cruelty within the farm as if it did not exist. This gave me insight to investigate how important this

industry was with animal cruelty, imitaions, and found evidence of exploited animals that

correlated with violent acts.

I believe that becoming vegan, will not provide a set solution with animal cruelty directly.

Most ethical vegans believe that animals will stop being abused and killed once they stop eating

animal products. As I had mentioned prior, as humanity continues to increase, the demand and

supply for agricultural products also increase. The amount of vegans who stop eating animal

products do not account for the billions of people who continue to.​ However, if the amount of

vegans continues to increase, animal’s rights against cruelty might become more prolific and

prominent in the upcoming years. People may become more aware of the situation with the

agriculture industry, and provide a way for ​“​animals who would've been bred into existence to

suffer on factory farms now not be brought into the world and exploited in the terrible ways that
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are customary in the meat industry.”(King) The main issue of animal cruelty requires a solution

that is currently unattainable, as people grow awareness towards animal cruelty, activism will

increase and will hopefully create a solution to solve this problem.

Works Cited

Alberro, Heather. “Go Vegan Because of Mass Exploitation of Animals, Not Because Eating Them

Is Wrong.” ​The Conversation,​ 17 Sept. 2019,

[Link]

e-eating-them-is-wrong-110628

“Animal Cruelty and Domestic Violence - The Link Between Cruelty to Animals and Violence

Toward Humans.” ​Animal Legal Defense Fund,​

[Link]/article/the-link-between-cruelty-to-animals-and-violence-toward-humans

Arora N. On Eating Animals. ​Humanist​. 2013;73(4):26-31.

[Link]

live. Accessed October 13, 2019.

Cowspiracy. Andersen Kip. ​Appian Way A.U.M. Films First Spark Media. 2014. Netflix. 2019.

Earthlings. Shaun Monson.B​urbank California. Nation Earth.​Earthlings​.com, September 2005. 2019.

King, Barbara J. “Does Being Vegan Really Help Animals?” ​NPR​, NPR, 12 Mar. 2015,

[Link]/sections/13.7/2015/03/12/392479865/does-being-vegan-really-help-animals.

Lehmkuhl, Vance. “You Care More About Animals Than You Do About People” ​North American

​ AVS, 2019. Web. October 7 2019.

Maslin, Micheal.​“Things were done very differently on the farm when I was your age, Kenny.”

Political Cartoon. ​New Yorker.​ 11 December 2000. Web. October 22 2019.

Team, Sentient Media editorial. “The Ethical Vegan Versus a Plant-Based Diet: What Is the

Difference.” ​Reporting on Animals, Animal Rights, and Human Choices -​, 17 Apr. 2019,

[Link]/ethical-vegan/.