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Darya Hariri
Professor Batty
English 113A
1 December 2015
Animals Have a Say
The United States Declaration of Independence states that we as humans have
unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If this is the case, then why cannot
all living creatures have access to these ideas? Farm animals are confined into tight and
unsanitary living conditions before being slaughtered for the human consumption. Animals
should be able to live a peaceful life without having to be tortured before being slaughtered to
death. Animal welfare is crucial in the matter of this subject. People seem to get the terms animal
welfare and animal rights a bit confused. Animal welfare is the well being of animals and
providing for their mental and physical needs while animal rights is the idea that animals are
entitled to the possession of their own lives. Animal rights seems to come as a shock to most
people because consuming meat is very popular in the United States. This is why animal welfare
should be taken more seriously. People should consider animal welfare as an option because
animals have the right to a humane, pain free life, and ethical environment before consumption.
Animals should be granted a humane environment. Most farm animals spend most of
their life being enslaved in farms with endless amounts of pollution, dust, and bacteria in the air.
People in the United States may be blind to the fact that they are consuming animals who have
been exposed to all of that pollution for most of their lives. In the article, Factory Farms, author
Jennifer Weeks goes into depth about living conditions on factory farms, also known as CAFOs
(Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). While focusing on that subject, she keeps the

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readers wondering whether it is humane or not to confine animals in such a harsh way. Weeks
introduces the article with a few factual statements, While they efficiently produce abundant
supplies of affordable food, CAFOs also raise questions about animal welfare, public health and
environmental degradation. Large livestock farms create huge quantities of animal waste, which
produce noxious air emissions and contaminate water supplies when storage facilities leak or
overflow (Weeks). Like mentioned earlier, animal welfare is the idea of the well being of the
animal while living here on earth. Public health is all about preventing disease and prolonging
life and health. And environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through
depletion of resources. Animals should not have to live in such nauseating environments. We as
consumers will eventually be exposed to what those animals are exposed to prior to death. It is
not only unfair to the animals, but to the humans as well who have to hear about this unsanitary
environment that farm animals have to live in throughout their whole life. In addition to all of
this, Weeks goes on to say that the, Overuse of antibiotics to keep animals healthy in crowded
conditions helps generate drug-resistant bacteria and spread infections in humans. And many
critics argue that long-term confinement in small enclosures or cages harms farm animals
(Weeks). From birth, farm animals are confined into tight narrow crates until they are
slaughtered, preventing them to grow and develop normal muscle tissue. These animals should
not have to live like this for their entire life. They should at least be able to live a free and
healthy life before being killed. The antibiotics that are being taken by these animals is what we
as humans consume into our own bodies. That is the type of stuff that causes infections and food
poisoning in the human body. Finally, Jennifer Weeks mentions that, Organic and free-range
meat and eggs are increasingly popular, but they are more expensive than conventional meat and
dairy products, and some organic suppliers are adopting industrial-style methods to keep up with

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demand (Weeks). It is usual that when meat products are labeled organic, they will be higher
in price. But it is a much better deal to spend a couple more bucks on something that is better for
ones health, rather than spending a couple hundred bucks on doctor visits and medication after
becoming ill due to the spread of bacteria in the meat. It is all in the humans favor, but if
humans get to live a tortured free life, then animals should too.
The treatment of animals is crucial in the United States. Animals deserve to live in a pain
free environment. In the article, Animal Rights by Marcia Clemmitt, she touches upon three main
topics. Those being whether society is doing enough to protect farm animals, whether animal
research is necessary, and the overall question, should animals have rights. She goes on to
describe how people are concerned about the conditions provided for animals in factory farms,
and how animal welfare is becoming a more popular topic in the publics interest. Clemmitt
mentions an argument from another source, While most people are less familiar with pigs,
chickens, fish and cows than they are with dogs and cats, animals used for food are every bit as
intelligent and able to suffer as the animals who share our homes, says the group on its
GoVeg.com blog. All evidence that the animals have a right to live free of suffering and
brutality imposed by humans who raise and slaughter them for food (Clemmitt). It is simply
inhumane for humans to treat farm animals the way they do. These animals have the same
mindset as a home pet would have. Of course not every American is going to stop consuming
meat, but the way these animals are being treated before death should drastically change. If we as
humans have the right to freedom, then so should these farm animals while breathing on earth. If
the animals have to be slaughtered for human consumption, then so be it. But they should not be
tortured during the process before hand. The connection that people feel with dogs and cats, is
the same connection they could feel with a pig if it grew up in a home. If dogs and cats are not

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going to be in contaminated factory farms from birth, then farm animals should not have to go
through that either. There is a better and efficient way to go about treating these animals before
death, and suffering should not be one of those tactics. Animals in factory farms deserve to live
their life on earth pain free.
All farm animals should be privileged a life to live in an ethical environment. This
pertains to morals and the principles morals have. Morals relate to the right or wrong behavior of
a person. In this case, it means whether the way animals are treated in factory farms is moral or
not. In the article, On Eating Animals, author Namit Arora gives an overview of explaining the
difference between farm animals and house pets. Both contain the same brain skills and sense of
emotion, yet it is acceptable to mentally and physically abuse a cow in a farm, but not a dog.
Arora goes on to explain the tragic events that happen inside these factory farms and
slaughterhouses, To reduce fights and injuries due to overcrowding, animals began to be
routinely mutilatedfor instance, their beaks, horns, or tails might be chopped or burned off
without anesthesiaand they were often confined in tiny crates in windowless rooms (Arora).
Imagine if people had to have surgeries with no drugs. That would probably be extremely
painful. That is the pain that these farm animals have to go through day by day. This is why
animal welfare plays an important role in this issue. These animals are going to be killed no
matter what, but they should at least be able to live a normal, free life before entering the
slaughterhouse. Further into the article, Arora gives a shocking statistic about animals in the
farms, In the United States, farm animals make up a whopping 98 percent of all birds and
mammals humans use, the rest being pets, victims of research and sport, or those held in zoos.
We cant ignore this 98 percent and still claim to be serious about animal welfare (Arora). If one
is willing to be active in supporting animal welfare, then change needs to start now. Animal

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welfare is exceptionally fundamental when granting a better life for farm animals. It is the
perfect solution for people who love consuming meat but still care about the animals well being.
Animals deserve to live a life free from pain and misery, and if the conditions they are in now
continue, then those farm animals will still suffer everyday until their death. Farm animals
should be granted a life where they can live in an ethical environment.
The standard way of thinking about animal welfare has it that people should not matter
about this topic because they are animals and we are humans. Many people assume that since we
consume these animals, they must not produce any feelings or emotions. Unfortunately for those
who think all of this, it is all wrong. It is factually proven that farm animals think and produce
emotions just as house pets do. Although some people may brush this issue off to the side, it
makes we as humans look completely inhumane as a whole. Jennifer Weeks, author of the article
Factory Farming, states, To prevent excessive antibiotics from entering the food chain, animals
treated with antibiotics must be held for a withdrawal period before being slaughtered so the
drugs can clear from their systems (Weeks). Now some people may use this as a
counterargument saying that the antibiotics given to these animals will not affect humans
consuming the animals in any way. But Weeks goes on to add, But some develop antibioticresistant bacterial strains that can pass to humans through either the food supply, use of their
manure as fertilizer or direct contact between animals and farmworkers (Weeks). In other
words, there is still a fair chance that it can indeed be passed down to humans who consume
these animals. Not only is animal welfare important for the well being of animals, but it is also
extremely important for the humans health. Marcia Clemmitt, author of the article Animal
Rights, mentions someone who used to not see the big deal about animal welfare, At one time,
I viewed factory farming as one of the lesser problems facing humanity a small wrong on the

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grand scale of good and evil, but this view changed as I saw a few typical farms up close,
said Matthew Scully, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush (Clemmitt).
Factory farms are very discrete about their jobs inside the farms, which makes it more
complicated for people to understand what really goes on in there and why it is so inhumane. It
may be difficult to comprehend why animal welfare should be considered the basic norm in
society, when people are not exposed to factory farms to see what they truly are. There are videos
and endless amounts of articles that go into depth what goes on in those factory farms, but for
some people, they will only believe it when they see it with their own eyes. Animals have a heart
too. They should be treated with respect while living on this earth with us. We are already
slaughtering them, so might as well treat them with a little more gratitude when they are alive.
Animal welfare is important for numerous amounts of reasons.
People all over the United States seem to care about the farm animals well being, but do
not know how to go about it and take action to fight for it. Animal welfare is crucial in the matter
that it is the most humane way they can live. People seem to get confused why this topic matters
so much, but really, it is the fact of being more respectful towards other living creatures here on
earth. It should not be in the peoples nature to be inhumane towards other living species.
Humans and animals are all on this earth as one. Just remember there is this one impactful
saying, Treat others the way you would want to be treated.

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Works Cited
Arona, Namit. "On Eating Animals." Humanist 73.4 (2013): 26-31. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Clemmitt, Marcia. "Animal Rights." CQ Researcher 8 Jan. 2010: 1-24. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.
Weeks, Jennifer. "Factory Farms." CQ Researcher 12 Jan. 2007: 25-48. Web. 11 Nov. 2015.