Thanksgiving arrives every year with a heated debate over how to best cook that plump and juicy turkey. But the idea of a tofu turkey (also known as a “tofurkey”) has gone from a joke a couple years ago to a reality for many. While vegetarianism has been practiced for over a thousand years in some countries, it is a relatively new concept in the West. And so, with the question cropping up more and more often, should we eat meat?
Animals on today’s factory farms are kept in crowded, filthy enclosures and denied everything natural and enjoyable to them. Most of them have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats.
Chickens and turkeys are crammed into huge, windowless sheds, pumped full of enormous amounts of drugs to make them grow unnaturally large, and are killed when they're just months old—in ways that result in billions having their throats slit while conscious and millions being scalded to death.
Hens used by the egg industry have part of their sensitive beaks sliced off and are crammed so tightly into cages that they cannot even stretch a wing.
Pigs in factory farms endure castration and tail-docking and have their teeth cut – all without any painkillers. Pregnant pigs are confined in crates so small they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably.
Fish are suffocated or cut open while still alive on the decks of massive fishing boats, while those in fish farms are crowded into filthy tanks for their entire lives before being violently killed.
Cows used by the dairy industry are confined to muck-filled lots and are repeatedly impregnated. Their newborn calves are torn from them and relegated to tiny, filthy veal crates. At the slaughterhouse, animals are routinely hung upside-down and have their throats slit while still conscious.
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