There are an estimated 9 billion animals being factory farmed each year. 9 billion.
Reels, Some lovely, some heartbreaking:
Kinder World – The Power to Do Good
Playing with rescued farm animals
Vegan FTA – Animals are friends not food
Vegan FTA – Animal mothers
Beautiful farm animal love fest
Kinder World – They want a happy year as well (the sad realities)
Kinder World – They Never Had a Choice
Friends not food farm animals
Comparing the frustration of humans flying in a cramped airplane to the true confinement of farm animal caging
Links:
According to Nation of Change, states are doing a terrible job enforcing laws meant to protect farmed animals, so the lack of law enforcement leads to needless suffering for sentient beings. Farmed animals in the United States have minimal legal protections, and much of the abuse they endure is legal. Unfortunately, the federal Animal Welfare Act—which establishes protections for pets and nonhuman animals used for exhibition (like in zoos) and research—does not apply to farmed animals. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a poorly conceived regulatory framework regarding animal rights and the enforcement of the few protections that exist for animals raised and slaughtered for human consumption. More in the continuation of their article.
Animal Welfare Institute – Farmed Animals
ASPCA – How factory farming hurts animals
Farm Sanctuary – Factory Farming
Farm Sanctuary – Factory Farms Expanding as Cruel, Unsustainable Industrial Agriculture Dominates the U.S. Food System
Humane Foundation – Unveiling the Dark Side – Exposing the Truth of Animal Cruelty in Factory Farms
Animal Equality – The Meat Industry
The Humane League – Industrial Agriculture is far worse than you think
Humane League – Slaughterhouses. and How Animals Are Killed
The Humane League – What Happens During Live Transport: What happens to farm animals during transport?
The Humane League What is the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act? How Does it Harm Animals?
PETA – Animals used for food (not graphic)
Some good efforts going on:
Animal Welfare Institute – 5 Ways You Can Help Farmed Animals
The 10 Best Animal Welfare Websites to Find Helpful Resources
Animal Legal Defense Fund – Farmed Animals and the Law
ASPCA – Protecting Farm Animals
FARM – Standing up for animals
Humane Society – Improving the lives of farm animals
World Animal Protection – Our work ending factory farming
Books about Factory Farming:
Anderson, Kip, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
Bauer, Gene, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food
Berns, Gregory, Cowpuppy: An Unexpected Friendship and a Scientist’s Journey into the Secret World of Cows (Harper Horizon, 2024)
Blanchette, Alex Porkopolis: American Animality, Standardized Life, and the Factory Farm
Bohanec, Hope, The Ultimate Betrayal: Is There Happy Meat?
Bohanec, Hope, The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy and Ethical Eggs, (Lantern Publishing, 2023)
Brandt, Peter, Indefensible: Adventures of a Farm Animal Protection Lawyer
Desaulniers, Élise, Cash Cow: Ten Myths about the Dairy Industry
Eisnitz, Gail, Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, And Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry
Genoways, Ted, The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food (Harper, 2014)
Grušovnik,Tomaž (editor) Environmental and Animal Abuse Denial: Averting Our Gaze
Hannan, Jason (editor) Meatsplaining: The Animal Agriculture Industry and the Rhetoric of Denial
Hawthorne, Mark, Bleating Hearts: The Hidden World of Animal Suffering (Changemakers Books, 2013)
Herzog, Hal, Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight About Animals (Harper Perennial, 2021)
Imhoff, Daniel, The CAFO Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories
Joy, Melanie, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism (Red Wheel Publishing, 2020)
Kirby, David, Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment
Leonard, Christopher, The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business
Lyman, Howard, Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat
Marcus, Erik, Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money
Mason, Jim, Animal Factories: What Agribusiness is doing to the family farm, the environment and your health
McArthur, Jo-Anne, Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene
Michelson, Brittany, Voices for Animal Liberation (Skyhorse, 2020)
Moby (editor), Gristle: From Factory Farms to Food Safety
Morello, Alex, The Cruel Truth Behind Factory Farming: How Animal Rights Have Become A Thing Of The Past (What the News Won’t Tell You
Moussaieff Masson, Jeffrey, The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm Animals (Ballantine Books, 2004)
Nilbert, David A., Animal Oppression and Human Violence: Domesecration, Capitalism, and Global Conflict
Ninem, Nicolette Hahn, Righteous Porkchop: Finding A Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms (William Morrow, 2009)
Pachirat, Timothy, Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight (Yale Agrarian Studies Series)
Pollan, Michael, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Reese, Jacy, The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Activists Are Building an Animal-Free Food System
Rifkin, Jeremy, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture
Robin, Marie-Monique, The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of the World’s Food Supply
Rollin, Bernard, Farm Animal Welfare: School, Bioethica, and Research Issues
Sage, Nick, It’s a Cow’s World
Safran Foer, Jonathan, Eating Animals
Scully, Matthew, Dominion (St. Martin’s Press, 2003)
Scully, Matthew, Fear Factories: Arguments about Innocent Creatures and Merciless People (Arezzo Books, 2023)
Stull, Donald D., Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America
Wasik, Bill and Murphy, Monica, Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals (Knopf, 2024)
Articles:
Adachi, Fuka, Unseen Suffering: Exposing the Realities of Factory Farming (2024)
Adachi, Fuka, Unseen Suffering: Exposing the Realities of Factory Farming (2024)
Bauer, Gene, Issues in Factory Farming (2024)
Humane Foundation, Unveiling the Dark Side of Factory Farming (2024)
Knopp, Julie, Live Transport: What Happens to Farm Animals During Transport? (2023)
Robertson, Claire, Everything You Need to Know About Factory Farming (2022)
Stum, Casey, Violence in the Wool Industry: Truth and Rhetoric in PETA’s Claims (Medium)
Gentle Paws, for the Animal Lover 