Beef cattle, after birth, would generally spend the next four to five months grazing with their mothers. The calves are then weaned. Some are then sent to a back grounding lot, where their diets are changed from grass to hay and grains to begin fattening them for slaughter. All cows are moved to feedlots when they reach about 400 kilos. There they are forced to live in crowded conditions. Some feedlots can have up to 40,000 cows. Moving the cattle to feedlots also destroys the established social groupings of the herd on the range, which causes distress to the animals. Cows are fed a diet consisting mainly of hay and forages, with their feed gradually becoming 90% grain. Grain feed causes the cattle to gain weight more quickly than grass, thus making them fattier and their meat more appealing to consumers. However, grain feeding wreaks havoc with the animals digestive systems because cattle are ruminants suited to eating grass, not grains. Grain can cause bloating, diarrhea and extreme discomfort. Painful procedures, such as branding (pressing a hot metal bar against the animals body, causing third-degree burns), castration and dehorning are commonly performed on the animals—all without painkillers. After short, dismal lives, cows are jam-packed into metal trucks where they suffer from injury, freezing cold and blistering heat, overcrowding, hunger, and thirst. In the winter, cows routinely arrive for slaughter frozen to the sides of transport trucks, frozen to truck bottoms in their own feces and urine, and injured or dead from the journey. Frequently collapsing during the ride, many cows arrive at the slaughterhouse unable to walk off the backs of transport trucks and are instead dragged off with chains, bones breaking as they hit the ground. In the slaughterhouse, cows are stunned by a mechanical blow to the head, hung upside down, bled to death, and skinned. The high speed of assembly lines that often process up to 400 cows per hour results often in improper stunning, leaving them conscious. Each year, millions of cows are consequently skinned and dismembered while they are still kicking and crying out in terror. |
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