After viewing undercover video footage from factory farms and slaughterhouses, most people begin to question the laws designed to protect animals raised for meat.





A pig languishing in a gestation crate.



Unfortunately, not a single federal law provides protection to animals during their lives on factory farms, and the law that’s supposed to protect animals at the slaughterhouse, the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, only extends to cows and pigs, leaving chickens with virtually no protection from abuse.





A chicken's throat being slit on the kill floor.



As a new piece by Vox explains, “The US government has never really enforced these humane slaughter standards. There are inspectors, and they make note when they see horrifying cases of animal cruelty, but FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) rarely issues more than a slap on the wrist to even egregious offenders.”





A cow being dragged by a tractor on a dairy factory farm.



Because of this, a coalition of animal protection organizations, including Mercy For Animals, has filed a petition to FSIS demanding better regulations and enforcement regarding animal slaughter and highlighting the current lack of accountability.





A duck being force fed for foie gras production.



According to the article, “In a number of cases, FSIS issued slaps on the wrist (like ‘noncompliance records’ and ‘notices of intended enforcement’) even after documenting that animals endured minutes-long, painful slaughters.”





A cow's horns are burned out of its head.



And this was after auditors had announced their upcoming visits, meaning that these instances of abuse occurred when plant operators were on their “best behavior.”





Baby male chicks being ground up alive in a macerator.



As evidenced by the multitude of undercover videos exposing egregious cruelty, animal abuse runs rampant on modern farms. Luckily, we can all take a stand for animals subjected to cruel factory farm conditions by ditching animal products in favor of healthy, humane alternatives.





