Factory Farms Make Animals, People, and the Environment Sick

Injustice on the farm is passed on to farmers, workers, and consumers

During Hurricane Florence, toxic factory farm waste lagoons spilled out into the Cape Fear River and surrounding communities. Photo by Compassion Over Killing.

In 2018, a small poultry farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, that sold both meat and eggs was shut down for animal cruelty and filthy conditions. These birds were suffering from various medical conditions and had evidently been denied veterinary care. After officials discovered the state of the farm, more than 100 chickens were killed to alleviate horrific suffering and unsafe medical conditions. This wasn’t big news, and as farms continue to mistreat animals and workers, dupe consumers, and destroy the planet, that’s a huge problem.

The Maryland farm was a small example of animal cruelty, but this — and worse — happens on factory farms across the country every single day.

Sadly, the treatment of birds that led to this has become the norm in our country. The heartwrenching images from “Happy Farm” (a poignantly ironic name) sadly represent the conditions for chickens in unregulated industrial agriculture in Maryland and nationwide. While operations like “Happy Farm” are being closed and farmers are being prosecuted, hundreds of millions of birds are suffering in the supply chains of large corporations like Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, and Mountaire Farms. These injustices are passed on to farmers, workers, and consumers.

Though the poultry and egg companies often advertise happy chickens in rolling green fields, the reality could not be further from that imagery. Enormous poultry operations, contracted by larger corporations, are pressured to produce as much meat as possible, as quickly as possible, and with as few resources as possible. Such meager profit margins mean consistent overcrowding of thousands of birds in dark, ammonia-filled sheds with little ventilation. Most will spend their lives without ever setting foot on grass, and their first breath of fresh air will be on a truck bound for the slaughterhouse.