ANIMAL WELFARE

The CAFO dilemma

CAFOs are designed to keep the largest amount of animals possible in the smallest amount of space. These animals often don't have enough space to move let alone perform normal behaviors. This leads to disease and stress. 

Here are several welfare and health concerns common on CAFOs

• Cages and overcrowding.

• Physical alterations like teeth-clipping or tail-docking, performed without anesthetic

• Indoor confinement with poor air quality and unnatural light patterns

• Inability to engage in important natural behaviors, like laying eggs in nests or roosting at night

• Breeding for fast growth or high yields of meat, milk and eggs that compromises animal health and welfare

• Illnesses and injuries left unnoticed or untreated, often due to an unmanageable ratio of animals to workers

• Reliance on antibiotics to compensate for stressful and unsanitary conditions

• Rough or abusive handling by workers, often due to a lack of training, frustration at poor working conditions, unreasonable demands by superiors or poor design of facilities 

Source: ASPCA

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 In addition to these violations of freedoms, several practices are allowed on CAFOs without pain relief such as those listed below from the Animal Welfare Institute.

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If the welfare of animals does not concern you, consider reading about the ways poor animal welfare impacts animal health, which directly impacts human health through increased risk of food borne illness (food poisoning) and antibiotic resistance.