4 Animals

Most people choose to lead a vegan lifestyle for moral reasons. Ethical vegans refuse to be part of a system that uses, abuses, tortures and kills trillions of innocent lives each year, and view the unnecessary use and consumption of non-human animals to be inconsistent with living an ethical lifestyle.

We believe that many people would choose compassion if they knew the extent of the cruelties animals face before they reach their plates.

Below is a brief explanation of the various animal ‘food’ industries:

Dairy Cows and Calves

Just like human mothers, cows can only produce milk after giving birth. This means that dairy cows are continually impregnated, and have their babies taken away from them shortly after birth. If the babies are male, they are considered valueless, as they’re unable to produce milk. This means that the majority of male ‘bobby’ calves born in Australia each year are sent to slaughter, often in their first week of life. The mothers are also slaughtered, usually after about 7 years, once they can no longer produce milk.

Pigs

Around 90% of ‘commercial’ pigs in Australia are born & raised in factory-farms, and it’s hard to imagine what these animals endure in their brief lives. Pigs have the intelligence equivalent to that of a three year old child, yet are denied the ability to express any of their natural behaviours in factory farms. As piglets, their tails are sliced off, and their teeth clipped without any anaesthetic. Breeding sows and boars live miserable, confined lives in stalls and farrowing crates. And the most common method of stunning pigs prior to slaughter is via a carbon dioxide ‘gas chamber’ which inflicts acute pain and suffering.

Broiler (Meat) Chickens

Chickens are the most consumed land animal in Australia, with around 664 million chickens slaughtered each year. They endure short, miserable lives – typically crammed in dark sheds containing tens of thousands of chickens. Chickens are slaughtered between 4-6 weeks of age, at around 3 kg. Selective breeding means they grow at 3 times the natural rate, resulting in many painful skeletal & metabolic disorders. 90% of chickens have a detectable abnormal gait at their slaughter age of just 35 days.

Sheep

Over 30 million lambs and sheep are slaughtered every year in Australia, the majority are lambs, slaughtered around 6-8 months of age. Sheep can naturally live up to 20 years, with a typical lifespan of 10-12 years. There are many welfare concerns in the sheep & wool industries. Winter lambing, tail docking, mulesing (removal of the skin around the buttocks), castrations, shearing, selective breeding, winter shearing, slaughter and more. Selective breeding for multiple births means that millions of newborn lambs are abandoned at birth every year, resulting in death from hypothermia or malnutrition in their first 48 hrs. Sheep are lovely, playful, curious, loyal & loving animals. They deserve so much better.

Beef Cattle

Cattle are subjected to painful procedures like branding, ‘disbudding’ (early removal of horns by hot iron), dehorning and ear marking, often without pain relief. As the country is increasingly affected by drought, more and more cattle are being sent to feedlots. At any time there are around 1 million cattle on Australian feedlots, which are highly stressful intensive farming operations. Many feedlots have no shade or protection from the elements, and can house tens of thousands of cattle from anywhere between 70-500 days. They are fed an unnatural diet of grain in order to fatten them before being sent to slaughter.

Egg (Layer) Hens

Whether eggs come from hens raised in cage, barn or ‘free range’ facilities, they are all subjected to cruel debeaking procedures, and are sent to slaughter at around 18 months of age, when their bodies cannot keep up with the daily egg production. The male chicks who are born in the egg industry are considered ‘wastage’ as they cannot lay eggs. Sadly, soon after they are hatched, all males born in the egg industry are macerated alive, or gassed via carbon dioxide poisoning and discarded as trash.

Goats

Goats are curious, intelligent and playful animals who are exploited for both their milk, flesh and skin. Around 465 million goats are slaughtered every year around the world. That’s nearly more than 20 times the human population of Australia. Just like dairy cows, does (female goats) are repeatedly impregnated to keep producing milk. Their babies are taken away at birth, and the males are usually killed. Horrific recent exposés on Australian goat farms have shown newborn kids being bludgeoned to death.

Fish, crustaceans & other marine life

The fishing industry is responsible for an overwhelming amount of by-catch which also kills endangered marine life, such as turtles, sharks and dolphins. A staggering 40% of the global fishing catch is wasted. A study published in the journal Science predicted that if fishing rates continue unchanged, we could see the collapse of ocean fisheries by the year 2050. Human demand for fish is devastating the oceans, with 90% of fisheries classified as overstocked or fully exploited. Just like land animals they feel fear, pain and stress.

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