Don’t Look Away

Maybe you want to close your eyes, shut the tab, categorize photos of animal agriculture as “just too much.” This is an invitation to challenge that thinking. To ask yourself: if I can’t even look at it, or read about it…how can I continue to be complicit in causing it?

We don’t want to preach to our own choir. In an effort to welcome anyone who may be considering veganism, we’ve chosen photos that capture the emotional devastation of factory farmed animals, without any graphic depictions of the gore and violence inherent in the system. These show the living conditions in factory farms here in the USA, and around the world. Click any of the pictures to learn more.

All photos credited to the talented and dedicated photographers We Animals Media.

Dairy Cows

The life of a dairy animal is anything but pastoral. Over and over, she is forcibly impregnated and her calves are taken from her within hours of their birth, never to nurse naturally. Cows are famously caring mothers. But after just 3-5 years, her body will give out and she will be sent to slaughter. This cow, in a Canadian factory farm, has lived her whole life indoors.

Having the misfortune of being born in a factory farm, this wide-eyed newborn is isolated at birth. As a female, she will be returned to the system as a dairy cow—just like her mother. She will be impregnated at just over a year and spend her life in a cage.

Males born into the dairy industry are moved to veal crates within hours of birth. This baby, about 2 1/2 weeks old, will spend the entire winter on a short leash tied to his hutch.

A male calf, umbilical cord still attached, stands tethered in a line of babies tied to their hutches, unable to interact with one another. Calves are naturally playful and social, yet even this small kindness is denied them.

Like human babies, calves take great comfort in nursing. So traumatic and confusing is the separation from their mothers that calves will often suck on each other in attempt to find that comfort. This “weaning ring” prevents that. It has another, even more sinister purpose: if a cow’s milk production slows, her baby will be brought to nurse from her to stimulate production. But once she feels the pain caused by the ring, she rejects him. Confused and upset, they are separated again. Cows and their calves form incredibly close bonds. There is no thought given to the psychological impact this has on them.

Two calves struggle to connect, and begin suckling on each other. Instinct tells babies to suckle for food, safety, and the comfort these newborns are denied.

Whether goat, sheep, or cow, dairy farms are filthy. Floors may be slatted wood, metal, or juts concrete and they are not often cleaned. These cows will never see the outdoors, never lie in the soft grass, never breathe fresh air. They will lie on floors encrusted with their own wastes.

A dairy cow with her back ankles tethered together. The waste-covered floors are so slippery, that often a cows’ legs will slip out. When that happens, they are bound in this way to prevent it from happening again. Other options such as cleaning the floors or allowing cows to roam outdoors aren’t even considered.

Beef Industry

As their time on Earth draws to an end, steers are herded into giant feedlots where they’re fattened for slaughter. The scale of these lots across our Earth is astounding. Note that the steers are crowded into the barren, brown lots—and fed grain. The green grass that surrounds them is not for them.

On some factory farms, even the feedlots are indoors. These cows might never step foot outside again until they are loaded onto a truck for slaughter.

Rather than being allowed tp roam and eat forage as they normally would, these cows are fed grain with a view of the outdoors that is now lost to them.

Egg Layers

Battery hens never get to spread their wings: not once. They don’t fluff or clean their feathers. With no ground to peck, they often peck each other. They fight to access food and water troughs.

Chickens are naturally curious, friendly, and clean birds. They take daily dust baths and enjoy time outdoors. In factory farms, chickens in battery cages cannot even open their wings. They live their whole lives in filth.

Battery cages are metal, and have slanted floors for the eggs to roll forward for collection. This means chickens’ feet get no relief from wire flooring as they balance on the slope. Often, a stuck claw or leg means a chicken will starve to death or be trampled. Feces, uric acid, and other waste falls through the slats into the cage below.

A worker gathers eggs from the battery hens. In the wild, hens may lay 12-30 eggs a year. Egg layers in factory farms have been bred to lay about 300 a year—that’s an egg a day. If production slows, they may be denied food or water, or forced to molt, in order to increase production.

While some eggs are taken for humans to eat, others are fertilized. It would make sense to allow hens to hatch these eggs, but…it wouldn’t work in cages. So? These eggs are sold to hatcheries, factory farms with large incubators. The eggs are stored in drawers, and that is where the birds will hatch—inside stacked drawers like these.

When sows are ready to give birth, they are moved to farrowing crates like these, which are slightly larger than gestation crates. They will give birth here and be allowed 10 days to nurse their piglets through these iron bars. In the wild, mother pigs create hidden nests to keep their babies safe, and sing to them while nursing.

Once they hatch, the female birds will be processed for sale back into the system. Most chickens in factory farms never feel a comforting surface under their delicate feet.

Male chicks don’t lay eggs, so they’re” useless” in animal agriculture. On the day they’re sexed—often their first day of life—they are placed on a conveyor belt, and dropped into a *macerator*, or grinder. This is considered the most humane method of killing these newborns…yes, there are others. Globally, more than 7 *billion* baby roosters are killed, just because they were born male in the egg industry.

Industrial Pigs

Pigs are incredibly intelligent animals. Studies have shown that they can learn math faster than a three-year-old human. They’re eager for companionship and come running when their names are called. These female pigs are likely pregnant, and will spend their lives Lin cages like these.

Newborn piglets are given about 10 days to nurse. The piglet on the right is obviously emaciated and unhealthy. As at most factory farms, pigs will live in darkness, without even a window to the outside. Darkness—along with having their teeth, tails, and ears cut—is thought to help with the unnatural aggression that results from overcrowding, boredom, and fear.

Because pigs can have litters that average 14 piglets, runts and sickly piglets are deemed “not worth” medical care. They are left to die separate from the rest of the litter, or killed by “thumping,” which is as brutal as it sounds.

“Broiler” Chickens & Turkeys

Most chickens raised as food are Cornish Cross chickens like these, stuffed together in a factory farm. On average, about 20,000 birds are put in a grow out shed, which might measure 400 X 40 feet. Light is manipulated—with it left on most hours of the day and night—to keep birds eating and growing, not resting.

As Cornish Cross chickens gain weight, their bodies give out, unable to support such fast growth. The result? Broken bones, swollen, achy, legs and joints, heart and lung disease. Factory farmed chickens always have infections and scalds from the urine and feces in which they lay, unable to move.

Workers enter the sheds during the dark hours. The birds, exhausted from stress, so little sleep, and overeating, are easier to pack into crates for the long transport to slaughter.

Every Thanksgiving, about 45 million turkeys are killed. Here, a turkey who has been debeaked suffers the same illness and pain as a Cornish Cross—for the same reason: they’re genetically modified to gain weight quickly. Turkeys are killed at about 14-18 weeks.

Factory farms overcrowd animals, and provide them with little to no comfort. This turkey is obviously suffering, but is not being tended. Either he has gone unnoticed, or is close enough to slaughter age that medical care has been deemed an unnecessary expense.

Goats

Cows aren’t the only animals kept in factory farms for their milk. Here, dairy goats are lined up and connected to milking machines. Also like cows, their babies are taken from them and returned back into the system in one way or another.

Sheep

Rabbits

Rabbits at this slaughterhouse aren’t spared from witnessing what’s about to come. Notice how many turn their backs in fear. But this isn’t a nightmare they can wake up from.

After seeing what has become of his fellow rabbits in a cage, this bunny waits his turn.

Laboratory Animals

While most factory farmed animals are used for food, no conversation about CAFOs would be complete without mentioning companies that breed animals for laboratory use. In the United States alone, more than 1 million animals are used in lab experiments each year. Globally, it’s near impossible to get an accurate count. Experiments aren’t just medical—many are still done for the cosmetic industry. To get the most scientifically accurate information, most experiments are performed with no thought to pain medications. Animals will suffer skin burns, chemical burns in their eyes, and be injected or force-fed known toxins to see what happens.

Beagles are the dog of choice for experiments—chosen because they are sweet, eager to please, and docile. What cruelty: their very best qualities are used against them. Other animals include cats, rabbits, rodents, mini pigs, primates, birds, even lizards, and more. When they are no longer of use to the industry, the animals will be killed and thrown away like trash.

Because of their size, many lab animal breeders are legally considered CAFOs and thus, their workings are protected by the “Ag Gag” laws. But thanks to ARLO, you can find some records anyway.