There are loopholes in most animal welfare legislation that afford basic rights (such as the right not to be tortured) only to companion animals. However, when these laws are applied to animals who are unfortunate enough to end up on the dinner table, animal welfare is always secondary to the monetary interests of the corporations which profit from them.

Everyone who cares about animals must make themselves aware of the hidden cruelties that affect animals on factory farms. A compelling online documentary exploring factory farm abuses can be found at www.MeetYourMeat.com.

This cow (right) was left to die with a broken neck. Cows are handled so violently during transport that neckbreaking, legbreaking and various other injuries are commonplace. These cows are found, they are thrown onto a "deadpile" and left to languish with other dead and dying cows.

Cows raised for meat are forced to live in the foul smelling confines of "feedlots" (right) in the final few months of their lives until their eventual slaughter. The cows are fed unnaturally rich feed in order to induce rapid weight gain, which causes bloating and discomfort. The cows are packed together tightly, and air is heavy with the pungent odor of feces from the manure pits packed with infection and disease.

CLICK TO READ ABOUT THE CRUELTY OF MILK PRODUCTION.

Birds on factory farms are "debeaked", a process which involves the severing of the bird's unanesthetized beak. This process is done with either a machine (as seen on the left) that chops the beak with a hot blade or with scissors. This results in severe pain which causes many ducks, chickens and turkeys to die of starvation because the pain of eating is too great.

This duckling (left) was found dead under a heat lamp in a commercial duck farm. This duckling is one of the many found dead by Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) investigators. Others ducklings were found completely immobile on their backs due to foot and leg injuries resulting from the grated floor the ducks are kept on. These ducklings are routinely left to die of starvation on their backs.

Ducks and chickens on factory farms always live in intensive crowding. They live above wire grating, which causes severe foot infections, such as "bumblefoot". This creates severe pain for the entirety of the birds' lives.

Birds on factory farms are so crowded together that they literally live on top of each other, many pressed against the dead and decaying bodies of their fellow cagemates.

CLICK TO READ ABOUT THE CRUELTY OF EGG PRODUCTION

This pig (right) was left for dead in a commercial pig farm. Pigs often die from unanesthetised castration, unanesthetised "tail docking", infection, and violent handling.

Pigs are intensively confined in cages barely bigger than their bodies. This leads to mental breakdown. The pigs begin to exhibit stereotypical signs of psychological breakdown. They are surrounded by death and dying, overpowering stench, and they cannot move at all.

The smell on commercial pig farms is so foul that it is difficult to breath without an aspirator. The crates the pigs are kept in are slanted downward so that their urine and feces run into a pit in the middle of the floor. It is hard to breath without choking on the thick air in these farms reeking of the overpowering smell of infection, death and feces.