THE PROBLEM
You're not going to like what happens to animals.
But in order to change things,
you have to know about them first.
You're not going to like what happens to animals.
But in order to change things,
you have to know about them first.
In order to produce meat, fish, milk and eggs, animals are intensively reared and deprived of all rights, ultimately including the right to life.
Animals are systematically mutilated to limit the amount of injury they can cause each other. A hot blade is used to cut beaks, horns and tails and male piglets are castrated (without anaesthesia) in order to avoid unpleasant odours in the meat.
Sows, hens, rabbits and calves are confined in small, bare iron cages that completely deny them the right to walk, fly or jump.
In farms and slaughterhouses we have often documented the use of sticks, kicks and blows to move animals, even wounded animals. Small animals are even thrown.
Inside farms, animals are forced to live under conditions of horrendous overcrowding. These conditions create high levels of psychological and physical stress and promote the spread of diseases.
Animals are killed by having their throats slit after being stunned by a bolt gun to the brain, an electric shock or in a gas chamber. In many cases, their throats are slit while they are still conscious.
Left languishing in corridors or in their own faeces, wounded or sick animals die in agony on farms without the necessary veterinary care.
The meat we eat comes from animals that are killed when still very young, most of them only a few weeks old.
On factory farms, no mothers get to raise their children: chickens and hens never even see them, calves are taken from their mothers a few hours after birth while sows and piglets spend only 20 days together.
A terrifying number (so high it is not even calculated) of marine animals are caught in the ocean or bred on intensive fish farms. Millions die of suffocation or are gutted while they are still alive.
The only time animals get to see the outside world is when they’re heading to the slaughterhouse. Terrified, they are loaded onto trucks and then travel sometimes thousands of miles, in often dramatic conditions.
600 millions in Italy
strong>8 billions animals slaughtered in Europe
0 laws defending rabbits
45 days the life of a broiler chicken
40 millions newborn male chicks of egg-laying hens killed
1% > 6 millions organically reared animals
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Sows spend 40% of their lives in iron cages so small they can’t even turn around. In these cages, they are artificially inseminated and give birth an average of twice a year. After 4-6 births, they are sent to the slaughterhouse at the age of 3. In nature, they can live for up to 15 years.
In accordance with standard intensive farming practices, one week after birth piglets are castrated without anaesthesia to eliminate bad odours in the meat. Their tails are also cut off to help prevent biting and aggression.
Pigs are slaughtered when they reach a weight of 100-150 kg. Growing an average of 700 grams per day, they remain confined in small concrete pens from 8 to 12 months of age. The lack of stimuli and coexistence with individuals of different characters generate a huge amount of stress, causing aggressive behaviour.
The transport, loading/unloading and slaughter phase are the most violent moments in the entire production cycle. When they arrive at the slaughterhouse, the animals can spend many hours in an unknown environment, enduring the screams of the other animals as they are killed and the smell of blood. A strong electric shock to the temples stuns them before a knife is used to slit their throat: this is how the life of a pig comes to an end.
There are no male chickens on egg farms, as they do not lay eggs and their meat is of no commercial value. Male chicks are therefore regarded as waste and are ground up alive or suffocated as soon as they are born.
In Italy, around 60% of eggs come from caged hens. The law stipulates an area of 750 cm2 per hen, less than one sheet of A4. When we understand that these animals need at least 1,000 cm2 to spread their wings, it is clear just how much this breeding system causes them serious suffering.
To reduce the problems that stem from overcrowding, limit injuries and prevent cannibalism, newborn chicks have their beak cut off with a hot blade.
Due to the high density of animals on farms, it is common to find chickens in an advanced state of decomposition alongside live hens. A serious non-compliance that creates health problems and negatively affects animal welfare.
Chickens lay eggs at unnatural rates, around 300 per year, on all intensive farms (including so-called “free-range” or “organic” farms). After two years of intensive exploitation, their production rates drop and they are slaughtered for second-grade meat.
Like all mammals, cows produce milk only after giving birth. In order to ensure maximum production rates and avoid “downtime”, they are continuously made pregnant by means of artificial insemination. Very often, they are even brought into heat through the use of chemicals.
On commercial farms, it is customary to separate calves from their mothers a few hours after birth and isolate them in small individual pens. In this way, the cow can immediately return to milk production. Male calves are slaughtered at about 6 months of age, while female calves enter the milk production cycle.
Whereas Friesian cows produced an average of 17 litres of milk a day in 1985, today they produce 28 litres: genetic selection and super-feeds have transformed these animals into milk machines and the consequences include lameness, mastitis and reproductive problems. These exhausted animals are exploited to such an extent that they end up at the slaughterhouse at the age of 5.
Rabbits are reared for meat in large enclosed structures, even on several floors, where thousands of them are imprisoned in iron cages. Under these conditions, they are deprived of any right to exhibit natural behaviours such as running, digging or jumping.
Females intended for breeding are inseminated approximately 8 times a year, 10-15 days after delivery. These intensive rhythms mean that they are slaughtered after about 2 years, or when their fertility drops.
The process of being captured from their cages and transported to the slaughterhouse creates a great deal of stress for the animals and can even cause them to die. Handled with no respect, they are subjected to electrical stunning and have their throats slit under the conscious gaze of their fellow rabbits.
Broiler (meat) chicken farms are artificially ventilated and lit concrete sheds into which as many as 30,000 animals are crammed. The stocking density can reach 20 animals per square metre on a floor that gets increasingly covered in their excrement day after day, making the air heavy with ammonia.
Genetic selection has transformed the bodies of these animals, creating a broiler with a huge breast that is ready to be slaughtered in just 40/50 days. Chickens now fatten 4 times faster than they did in 1950.
Industrial farming and genetic manipulation cause multiple physical problems for chickens: deformed legs and difficulty of movement, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, anaemia and a weakening of the immune system. Factory farms offer no provision for individual treatment, so sick animals waste away and die without receiving any veterinary assistance.
Grasped violently by the legs and crammed into cages; this is how farm workers load chickens so they can be transported to the slaughterhouse. Here, they will be stunned in gas chambers or by electric shock and then killed by an automatic blade that cuts their throats.
Fishing exposes animals to stress and prolonged suffering. Bottom trawling causes fish to become exhausted and crushed under the weight of their fellow prisoners. When brought up from deep water, the decompression of their internal organs causes intense pain. In trammel nets, they die after hours of agony or are strangled in their attempts to free themselves. Large fish are often harpooned alive and then loaded on board. Those captured using a longline, made up of a long line of hooks, can remain strung up for days on end.
Fishing makes no distinction and also catches animals of different species or a young age. This phenomenon, known as bycatch, has a significant impact on the ecosystem and affects the natural reproduction cycle of fish, reducing the population's capacity for renewal.
Fish farms do not meet the behavioural needs of fish and force them to live in unnatural and stressful conditions. Overcrowding, poor water quality, parasites, lack of environmental enrichment, food deprivation, transport, vaccination procedures and abdominal pressing to harvest eggs are the main problems encountered.
There is no legislation governing the killing of fish. They are not even required to be stunned before slaughter. They die while they are being gutted, frozen while still conscious or due to thermal shock when stuffed into crates of water and ice. Very often they are simply left out of water, where they suffocate to death. Various studies demonstrate that in these cases, fish can remain in agony for up to four hours before dying.
Shortly before giving birth, the sow constructs her nest with care to create a safe and welcoming environment for her piglets.
Females tend to live in small, stable groups of 2 to 6 individuals, developing strong emotional bonds.
In a natural setting, pigs are very clean animals and never soil their sleeping area.
Possessing remarkable cognitive abilities, their intelligence is superior to that of a three-year-old child.
The mother hen communicates with her little ones while they are still inside the egg.
Once they are born, the chicks recognise their mother and live in close contact for up to six weeks.
In the evening they fly onto branches to protect themselves from predators, each with its own place determined by their hierarchy and relationships.
A chicken’s beak is a sensory organ that is used for exploring and preening as well as eating.
Cows are mammals and only produce milk after giving birth, to feed their calf.
When the time comes to give birth the cows move away from the herd, isolating themselves as much as possible.
Cows are social animals, establishing hierarchies and forming groups with well-organised rules.
They make very strong connections, usually selecting a favourite partner with whom they spend most of their time.
Rabbits spend most of the day in their burrows that consist of numerous tunnels.
They can run at speeds of up to 35 km/h and jump to a height of 70 cm.
Groups of rabbits can join together to form vast colonies of hundreds of animals, occupying a territory of many hectares.
The females create the underground tunnel system, while the males defend the territory.
Intelligent and very sociable, their cognitive abilities are similar to those of some mammals and primates.
They have a complex language composed of different sounds, enabling them to communicate different situations.
Chickens develop very strong emotional ties.
Chickens have an excellent memory and are able to transmit information from one generation to the next.
Fish have the anatomy required to feel pain, they exhibit pain responses to stimuli and are able to experience prolonged suffering afterwards.
They can use tools, cooperate socially and have self-awareness, a prerogative that was previously only attributed to very few more advanced species.
It has been documented that fish experience both positive and negative emotions, suffer from stress, help each other when they are in trouble and even enjoy playing.
They can remember places, labyrinths and complex routes even a long time afterwards, better than many other animals.
It is not just fur but also many other products of animal origin (products that we can easily do without) that conceal a world of suffering.
By fur, we refer not only to whole garments made of fur but also fur trims that are applied to the garments. Various species are used by this industry: minks, foxes, stoats, chinchillas, raccoons and in some parts of the world even dogs, cats and seals. Approximately 85% of the fur on the market comes from fur farms, while the remainder comes from wild animals that are hunted for their fur.
This is the most widely used animal product in the clothing industry. Leather is mainly derived from the killing of cattle, which may be reared purely for this purpose. They are not the only victims, however: various kinds of deer, horses and other exotic animals are also slaughtered for their skin.
Feathers and down used to fill jackets, pillows or duvets come from geese reared using intensive methods, particularly in Eastern European countries and France. Several times in their lives, these geese are subjected to ‘live plucking’, during which the workers hold the animals between their knees and violently tear out their feathers by hand. This operation causes a huge amount of pain and stress for the geese.
PH. SOKO TIERSCHUTZ ©
Breeds capable of producing an unnatural amount of wool are selected. This characteristic, that allows for intensive production, creates numerous problems for the sheep such as parasitic infestations, excessively heavy fleeces and temperature changes. Around the age of 4, when the sheep start to become less productive and the quality of the wool begins to diminish, they are sent to the slaughterhouse to be replaced with younger animals.
PH. PETA ©
160 thousand minks killed in Italy in 2017
20 mink farms known in Italy
1 minute the time it takes to die in the gas chamber
86% of Italians in favour of the abolition of mink farms
36x70x45cm the size of a mink cage
60 minks killed for 1 fur coat
The farms consist of rows of cages raised from the ground, generally placed under open canopies. The feet of the mink never touch the ground but constantly remain in contact with the wire mesh, causing the animals discomfort and pain. A tiny box is the only place where they can shelter and hide.
The only contact they have with water is through a drinker that releases a few drops. This causes great distress to minks as they are semiaquatic animals, able to swim for miles and deprived of this fundamental element.
Due to the stress of captivity, mink continually exhibit stereotypical behaviour: every day they spend hours constantly pacing the few centimetres of their cage.
Stress also manifests itself in the form of aggressive behaviour and self-harm, with many animals injuring themselves or their companions. As a result of injuries or illnesses, some die prematurely. The minks are forced to witness their agony and spend days in their cage alongside the bodies of those who have not made it.
The animals are mated in March, the kits are born after about 45 days and remain with their mother until June/July. They are then sorted into other cages. Towards November, the breeder selects the minks that are most suitable for breeding and separates them from those that are killed for fur production.
In the gas chamber, the minks die from carbon dioxide asphyxiation and death occurs after around one long minute. The scratches we have documented on the walls of the gas chamber demonstrate their desperate attempts to escape and their terrible suffering.
These semi-aquatic animals live in forests near rivers and can swim up to 20 km a day.
Being solitary animals, they cannot bear the presence of their fellow species even within a very large territory.
Mothers spend a lot of time and care preparing the den to protect their kits.
They are very curious and love to investigate and explore their surroundings.
Unlike other animals, animals used for entertainment are not killed as babies but left to grow old in cages. Captivity is the lowest common denominator.
Lions, hippos, tigers, elephants, giraffes, zebras and horses, as well as seals and parrots, are the species most commonly used in circuses. In order to perform in shows, the animals undergo training that violates their nature and humiliates their bodies. When they are not being forced into performing humiliating stunts, they are shut into small cages or pens, or crammed into trucks and moved hundreds of kilometres from one city to another.
Species conservation, scientific and educational research. These are the stated aims of zoos, bioparks, wildlife parks and zoo safaris and still justify their existence. Despite the alleged or actual purposes claimed by these facilities, confining animals in artificial environments that do not suit the needs of their species (the ability to move freely, hunt, hide, mate and play) means that to all intents and purposes, these places are prisons.
Even if condemned to a life in captivity, animals are forced to reproduce in zoos because every newborn animal is a baby to be put on display and advertised. Older individuals, on the other hand, are killed because there are too many of them or they represent less attractive species. This logic, and all the commercial moves undertaken to attract more and more visitors, expose the true nature of these places: they are businesses.
Like zoos, aquariums impose on animals a monotonous existence in which their ethological needs are continually suppressed by imprisonment. Dolphinariums, like circuses, offer anachronistic entertainment based on the use of animals instead of the talents of acrobats who spontaneously choose to engage in this activity.
26 elephants present in Italian circuses
Around 5000 large animals in zoos
2 dolphinariums in Italy
650 Italian psychologists state that the use of animals for entertainment is anti-pedagogical
1 National Veterinary Federation has taken a position in favour of the abolition of animals in circuses
The methods that replace animal research receive little funding, an obstruction that leads to the continuation of experiments that are often very painful.
The animals used in experiments are born and raised on specialist farms. Arrival in the laboratory simply means a transition from one cage to another. They will never see sunlight, know the outside world or feel grass under their feet.
Although the use of anaesthesia is imposed by law, in Italy increasing numbers of experiments are carried out in derogation, i.e. it is considered that anaesthesia could invalidate the results. This also happens for invasive and highly painful tests.
PH. JO-ANNE MC ARTHUR / WE ANIMALS ©
Genetically modified mice and rats are now among the most widely used animals, with the aim of ensuring a more realistic model. As a result, the research begins even before the experiment itself, with the creation of animals and tests on their biological response.
Genetically modified mice and rats are now among the most widely used animals, with the aim of ensuring a more realistic model. As a result, the research begins even before the experiment itself, with the creation of animals and tests on their biological response.
Although cosmetics testing is banned, millions of animals across the EU are still subjected to painful injections, inhalations and forced feeding to test the toxicity of detergents and household products.
Most of the research concludes with the killing of the animals and the autopsy. Their short life of pain ends up in the trash, just like the syringes, bottles and other objects used in experiments.
PH. CHANNEL 4 ©
Approximately 600 authorised laboratories
2 breeding farms for research animals
600.000 animals used in research (2015)
540 dogs killed in labs (2015)
More than 12 milions animals used in Europe
Thanks to the important work of our Investigation Team, millions of people can now see the brutal reality of animal abuse inside factory farms and slaughterhouses. We need your support to continue to make a huge difference for animals!
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