Pros And Cons Of Animal Slaughter

Words: 1936
Pages: 8

“Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight,” Albert Shweitzer. The “suffering” is referring to the current methods of animals slaughter and meat processing in America. There are a variety of mistreatments that occur in slaughterhouses, including the debeaking of chickens, shock paralysis of cows and a life lived in captivity for all factory farmed animals. Due to these vulgar methods, there have been many scenarios in which the health of the workers, community and food have become an afterthought. In other countries around the globe animal slaughter is more supervised by the government and culturally based; making the quality of life for the animals much greater. The College Board stimulus material touches on …show more content…
The current methods for animal slaughter are harsh and painful to the animals. And they are set in place to provide for large corporate industries in the least time consuming and labor intensive way. Due to these self derived motives, many slaughterhouses lack sufficient safety and health regulations, which result in work related injuries and widespread foodborne illnesses. This problem is not as concerning in other areas of the world because their government has monitored slaughter more closely by implementing specific laws and regulations. Other areas have oriented their forms of slaughter around their cultural traditions and religions which are often humane and painless. This explains how America is lagging behind other areas in its meat processing industry. In order to achieve humane animal slaughter there needs to be reforms implemented with stricter punishments. The USDA needs to be granted more authority; giving them the ability to recall unsafe meat products and possibly shut down facilities that have had multiple infractions and safety violations. Also industries need to focus less on the amount of work and clean-up employees will be required to do, and more on how the animal is being treated. For example, Halal slaughter produces more blood spilled and the slaughterer must be professionally trained; but the animal dies instantly avoiding any pain. The effort made for animal welfare is worth it. As Mahatma Ghandi once said, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are