Over 50,000,000,000 farm animals are tortured to death annually in the United States due to the cruel system of Factory Farming. Chickens are hung by their feet on conveyer-belts, dragged across spinning razor blades, dipped into electrocuting water to paralyze them, and boiled to remove their feathers, all while they are fully conscious. If chicks are males or have any sort of "defect" they are either ground in large machines or suffocated in trash bags. Cows and pigs are often burned, shocked and beaten, but are most commonly hung by their hind legs to be split and skinned alive.

Just thinking about this subject long enough to write all of this out makes me sick, but I know that this needs to be addressed because their lives are no less important than ours; they feel the same emotions and pains that we do, and since they cannot speak up for themselves, I have a lot to say. Speciesism is something that affects many more aspects of the world than most people realize. This is not just about the immediate reaction that takes place in the slaughterhouses, but also the long-term damages that are done.

The stress of living in confinement often causes the animals to develop diseases and mutations. By their time of death, 90% of chickens end up with leukosis, and 70% of pigs with pneumonia. Their illness and the amounts of antibiotics put into their bodies transfers into those who eat their flesh, causing all sorts of diseases from cancer to Campylobacter poisoning.

Not only does more than one half of the US's and 70% of the western states drinking water go towards raising livestock for food, but one pound of wheat requires only 25 gallons of water to produce while one pound of meat uses 2,500 gallons: 90,000 cows and calves are being killed each day, and 14,000 chickens and chicks every minute. The one billion tons of waste that remain after slaughter is dumped into streams, killing millions of fish and contaminating drinking water. 

The amounts of resources that are being used to fuel these factories could much more efficiently be used on providing fresh water and crops to people in poverty. Just to give you an idea of how much money is spent to promote this, McDonald spends over $800,000,000 on advertising alone, while the amount spent by National Cancer Institute to promote fruits and vegetables is only $1,000,000. 

Finally, the worst part about all of this for me is that there's really no way to avoid funding this systematic massacre. Even without eating meat, U.S. Taxpayer money is used on factory farms. My goal is to stop tax money from being used to promote murder and use it instead on natural methods of food harvesting, and to spread awareness of the seriousness of what we're dealing with. Honestly, if I can keep just one person from eating a burger or inspire someone to try a vegan recipe instead, I'll be doing the best thing I can for both the planet and myself. Please support me on this quest to bring love and compassion back to this planet <3