Gelatine/Gelatin

NOTE: For the purposes of label-reading, it’s important to note that it can be spelled two ways: the U.S spelling is ‘Gelatin’ and the rest of the world usually adds an ‘e’ to the end.  However, it is the same product.  

Sweets, lollies, candies – depending on what part of the world you grew up in, there’ll be a child-like, playful term in common usage to describe confectionary and sugary snacks.  A nod to childhood nostalgia, simpler times and seemingly innocuous treats.  However, this deliberate marketing strategy belies the ingredients often contained within.  A common component of our modern sweet treats is the presence of Gelatine: a protein obtained from animal raw materials that contain collagen. 

Gelatine is desirable due to it’s thickening properties when hydrolysed.  Many cakes, jellies, gummy sweets, biscuits and marshmallows contain gelatine.  It can also be found in our bathrooms as an ingredient in our shampoos and face masks.  It’s so pervasive it can be challenging to avoid, making it’s way into photographic film, capsule coating vitamins and an agent in ‘clearing’ wines. 

But what exactly is Gelatine/Gelatin?  Put crudely, gelatine is the stuff that the slaughterhouse would otherwise hose down a drain.  Ligaments, tendons, skin, horns, bones, and cartilage.  Most gelatine is derived from cow and pig carcasses.  Due to the sheer scale of live animals that are forced  through the killing and dismembering process, as many parts of the animal as possible must be assigned a purpose.  Otherwise, we would be left with countless tonnes of biohazard waste and no adequate method of disposal.  Bear this in mind the next time someone justifies killing animals by maintaining we use as much of the carcass as possible.  As long as we are killing animals, we have no environmental alternative but to give these largely inedible parts a purpose. 

The process of making gelatine is straightforward, simply boil this hazardous melee of animal bones, tendons, ligaments, skin, horns and cartilage in water for 6-8hours until it thickens.  After this time a yellowish, odourless and glue-like substance is produced.  This substance is then a key ingredient for confectionary companies to produce tempting treats that they cleverly market to parents and children alike.  

The good news is gelatine is significantly avoidable, and we don’t have to consume a soup of body parts that the slaughterhouse rejected.  There are many sweet treats on the market that use gelatine alternatives.   There are vegan beauty and bathroom products that can be swapped out for those that contain gelatine.  For any recipes requiring gelatine, it is easily replaced for agar-agar, derived from a type of seaweed, that has the same thickening properties.

Author: Catherine Wright
Occupation: Project Administrator
Animal Rights Activist

Cover image by Sylvanus Urban on Unsplash

“To recognise someone’s desire to live and live well, then take that from them anyway is the ultimate betrayal.” Vegan Rising

An account from a small-scale egg production system employee…

“The first thing I notice is the noise; the second the smell. The hens provide a constant chorus of clucks and the ammonia burns my nose. The farmer tells me to come in and I’m scared to show them that I’m nervous. The chickens flock at my feet. There are hundreds around me and I struggle to move at all. The farmer doesn’t care, he just steps as he pleases telling me the birds will move and to hurry up.

We make our way to the caravan where the eggs will be- but not before the farmer cleans up a dead bird from the grass. “One a week”, they tell me. They lose at least one bird a week for “no particular reason”. 5-10% of this flock. I’m told that this farm is lucky because they don’t have to worry about foxes here, but the birds of prey are always active. Lucky seems such a foreign word in this context.

 I see birds that are missing feathers and plucked raw. I point to them and ask, but the farmer just shrugs it off and tells me its normal on these small-scale farms to see feather plucking and cannibalism. “That’s why I trim their beaks”. The farmer tells me that they lock the birds in the caravan overnight and the overcrowding stresses them, causing them to peck.

Over 75% of the eggs are covered in blood, or faeces, and I learn this blood is from cloacal hemorrhage; ruptured blood vessels from the constant pressure of daily laying. The farmer says it doesn’t really matter anyway, the birds will only be here for a year and as long as they keep laying then no one worries. I’m told it will be my job to clean the eggs and package only the best ready to be sold. It’s very important to make sure all the eggs are clean.

The farmer tells me that the eggs aren’t his main priority; it’s the cattle on the farm. The hens are just an “easy” side gig to make some extra profit. I’m told that the tourists in the area “go nuts” for these eggs, and that the farm can sell them at an even higher price than standard free range eggs. The farmer laughs at this thought, and after a few days on the farm I start to understand why.

I feel sick, partially from the ammonia and dust, but mostly because this is one of the ‘good’ farms. Or so I am told. A small-scale free range farm. The best of the best. Yet all I can see is negligence, suffering and the lives of sentient animals being turned into someone’s hobby to follow a trend.

I cannot believe that people boasted about their “ethical” choice to buy free range. Under what moral code was imprisoning, exploiting and slaughtering innocent non-consenting beings ever an ethical choice?

For the rest of my time on that farm the constant clucking could only sound of cries for help and my ears would be left ringing long after I returned home.”

The consumers demand for eggs is changing, and in order to stay relevant so too is the production of eggs. In the 2017/18 financial year Australians consumed 245 eggs per capita with the industry worth $819.6 million. There was a major push away from caged eggs and an increase in demand for free range eggs, which now take up over 50% of the market in grocery stores. To complicate matters further, the niche market for small scale rotational free-range farms also boomed.

The market share for volume and value of all types of eggs, from the 2018 financial year

If no one is buying caged/barn eggs then farmers need to change their game to make profit. Cue the free-range trend and the ‘modern day’ consumer. A consumer that believes the reassuring label of ‘free-range’ or ‘pasture raised’ magically erases the cruel and inhumane conditions and practices laying hens are forced to endure. So, what does the facade of free-range really mean for our laying hens, and why does it have us all so fooled?

What is free range?

It’s the same practices from cage/barn eggs, with a shiny new reassuring label and a 30% price increase. Farmers are allowed to continue the same cruel exploitative practices by simply making a few small changes; give the hens access to the outdoors during daylight hours, abide by a 10,000 hens per hectare limit and give the hens the ability to roam and forage outdoors. These are the 3 keys to legally labelling eggs ‘free range’. (For more on standard ‘free-range’ practices visit our page ‘Chickens Used For Their Eggs’).

On small scale rotational farms advertising as ‘pasture raised’ the stocking density is kept below 2,500. However, behind these guidelines lies the same cruel and inhumane exploitation and abuse that caged and barn laying hens endure.

It is clear that the marketing of these eggs has got Australia fooled.  Many free-range producers manipulate the consumer with images of green fields and a very small number of hens, often highlighting such words as ‘natural’, ‘happy’ and ‘healthy’. The eggs from hens on smaller rotational farms are often labelled ‘pasture-raised’- creating an image of hens pecking down on green grass all day. Grass that hens do not even have the physiological mechanisms to break down into energy, thus still requiring grains for their primary food source.

Within the industry hens will always be seen as mere egg producing machines. The more eggs they lay, the more profit the farmer makes. Therefore, these free-range systems are packed to the brim with hens, conduct cruel routine animal husbandry, have a high turnover of hens and slaughter the unwanted by-products of the industry. (For more on standard chicken slaughter practices, for all chickens including those from so-called ‘small scale systems’ read ‘Chickens Used For Their Eggs’ here).

Lifespan/Turnover

The most common laying hen is the Isa Brown (a cross breed designed specifically for laying). These hens have a natural life span of 6-8 years, and in the wild would only lay up to 20 eggs a year. Through extensive breeding and genetic modification the modern day laying hen produces around 6 eggs a week- over 300 a year. The energy demanded from this intensive laying regime leaves the hens exhausted, and after a year of laying, their eggs become larger with lighter weaker shells. At just 1.5 years old the Isa Brown is no longer producing a ‘profitable’ egg, and the once valuable hen is now a burden on the farmer. These hens have not been bred to have a large breast muscle and so are unsuitable for the standard meat industry, leaving them destined to be slaughtered and ‘composted’, or sold as a low-quality meat (just like the expensive ‘gourmet’ food you feed your pooch for dinner).  And so a new cycle of hens begins…

In most free range systems the laying hens come to the farm already at sexual maturity (4-5 months), leaving little to no dirty work for the farmer. Then hens have spent the first 4-5 months of their lives at the hatchery where they were incubated and sexed. The hens are trained to lay inside by being cruelly locked inside some form of shed or caravan for 2-4 weeks. These structures can be quite small, particularly on farms with a 10,000 per hectare ratio, and can lead to a high fatality rate due to suffocation, pecking and even cannibalism.

What about the males?

When talking about eggs it can be easy to forget about the entire male population. Quite simply; males do not lay eggs and so are not profitable, and sadly are deemed an unwanted by-product of the industry. At just 1 day old the birds are sexed, and the males are slaughtered by being ground up alive in a large macerator or gassed to death. That’s 50% of the birds. The weak are also culled at this stage and those that remain may have their beaks trimmed via infrared. This trimming is repeated using a hot blade at 12 weeks old.

The Environmental Impacts

Like all farming practices, there is great unsustainability in free range egg systems. It is easy for the chickens waste to become unmanageable (particularly on small scale farms), and go on to pollute the environment and nearby water systems. The water consumption in egg production is also huge, with 1 egg requiring around 200L of water. This water use is known as “virtual water” and covers the water indirectly used to produce eggs. Everything from water intensive supplementary grains, bird hydration to maintenance of pasture. Every forgotten egg in the back of the fridge is 200L of water wasted. It must also be considered that the grains used as supplementary feed could be used directly for human consumption, but instead are being farmed and fed to free range chickens. Even on small scale farms these eggs require copious amounts of water, energy and land.

There is nothing ethical about the consumption or production of free-range eggs; from the blatant abuse and misuse of the chicken, right down to the exploitation of valuable land and resources. The glossy labels of ‘free range’ and ‘pasture-raised’ may sound reassuring to the masses, but ultimately these systems do not stray from the barbaric and torturous practices found in all egg production systems.

Author: Isabelle Hally
Occupation: Animal Attendant & Student

Isabelle studied animal health and disease at Melbourne University, focusing on veterinary science and animal welfare. She is currently doing her masters in Environmental Science at RMIT.

References:

Fukumoto, G.K, 2009, Small Scale Pastured Poultry Grazing Systems for Egg Production, Livestock Management, (LM-20)

McCormack, M., 2017, Australian Consumer Law (Free Range Egg Labelling) Information Standard https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2017L00474

CSIRO, 2002, Primary Industries Standing Committee Model  Code of Practice for the welfare of Animals, Domestic Poultry SCARM Report, 4

Feltman, R. 2014, It takes 53 gallons to produce a single egg, https://qz.com/171698/it-takes-53-gallons-of-water-to-produce-a-single-egg/

Annual Report, 2017/18, Australian Eggs Limited

Rabbits occupy contradictory positions in Australian society. Simultaneously, they are considered beloved companion animals, destructive feral pests, and “livestock”. In the state of Queensland and the Northern Territory their breeding and keeping is illegal for any purpose, while in all other states they are promoted as a profitable farming opportunity or an ideal child’s first pet. Due to this diverse categorisation, rabbits are not protected by the usual state-based welfare codes that cover other companion animals.

Tragically, due to a lack of understanding of the nature and needs of rabbits, the pet rabbit has long been treated as little more than a garden ornament, existing in solitary confinement in small hutches, receiving little attention, denied their necessary diet, and veterinary care. In backyards across Australia possibly millions of rabbits have endured lives of emotional and physical deprivation and discomfort. But, fortunately, with the increase of the “house” rabbit trend we are seeing greater consideration given to these complex creatures, and by many people, they are no longer treated as a replaceable impulse item, but as a loved family member.

This positive shift in our treatment of companion rabbits is in stark contrast with the legal conditions endured by rabbits used for meat production.

Until 1987 there was a nationwide ban on rabbit farming throughout Australia. Introduced wild rabbits had long been considered a threat to primary producers; competing for grass eaten by animals exploited for human consumption, devouring crops, and creating vast underground warrens that pose risks to heavy, hoofed animals such as horses and cattle. The ban on rabbit farming was one measure to limit the potential for escaped rabbits but in 1987 it was lifted in Western Australia and all other states and territories except Queensland and the Northern Territory, soon followed.

When the rabbit calicivirus was released in 1996 decimating the wild rabbit population, interest in rabbit meat production increased.

The beginning of the 21st century saw a boom in rabbit farming, with between 80 and 100 farms in operation across the country but estimates now predict that fewer than 40 rabbit farms remain. Unreliable survival rates of offspring and the prohibitive cost of the calicivirus vaccine (between $6 and $9 per year per rabbit) are reasons given by many famers for leaving the industry.

But even with this decline in rabbit farming there are still thousands of rabbits currently exploited for their flesh.

The most common breeds of rabbit farmed in Australia are the New Zealand White and the Californian, they are chosen for their large size and fast-growing qualities. These breeds are fundamentally no different to rabbits kept as companions.

Rabbit farming across Australia is governed by a “voluntary” code of practice and there is no legal requirement for producers to adhere to it. The following is a list of the basic conditions recommended by the Victorian Code of Practice.

• accommodation which provides protection from the elements and does not harm or cause undue discomfort;
• freedom of movement to stand, stretch, turn around and lie down;
• readily accessible food and water,
• rapid recognition and treatment of injury and disease,
• protection from predators and insect-borne diseases,
• an environment which permits a level of social interaction so that individually housed rabbits can see and are aware of other rabbits.

These recommendations don’t come close to ensuring the level of care, and social and environmental enrichment required by rabbits and the reality is, rabbit farming in Australia does not even meet these grossly inadequate guidelines.

BREEDING

Rabbits are housed in large sheds containing rows of raised wire cages, often stacked. Ammonia from accumulated urine and faeces permeates the air in the sheds, burning the eyes and respiratory passages of the rabbits.

Female breeding rabbits known as does are confined to a space of approximately half a square metre and are continually mated to produce on average 7 litters of up to 14 babies, known as kits, a year. Rabbits gestate for between 28 and 32 days before kindling, the term used by breeders and farmers to denote the birthing process. They will be impregnated again approximately 4 weeks after giving birth. Their babies are taken from them before the 8 weeks at which she would naturally wean them and moved to “grow out” cages.

Well short of the ten years a healthy, happy rabbit can live breeding mothers will be slaughtered at about 18 months of age when their breeding capabilities diminish. The stresses of confinement, lack of health care and constant reproduction take a heavy toll on their fragile bodies.

Bucks, the males used for breeding, are kept in isolation apart from when does are introduced to their cage for mating. They are accorded the same half a square metre of a barren wire cage as the breeding does. Rabbits are highly social animals and if given the opportunity will bond with a mate for life. The isolation inflicted on bucks is unnatural and harmful to their emotional and psychological well-being. Bucks are culled and replaced on average every three years. Their bodies sold, along with spent does, as low-quality meat for human consumption or pet food.

Litters containing anywhere from 5 to 14 young are born to breeding does about every 7 weeks. Exact information on what age they are taken from their mothers is not available, but eye witness accounts of rabbit farming facilities confirm they are removed well before the 8 weeks of age a mother would naturally wean her young. The babies are moved into cages that allow for .07 square metres per rabbit, that is a smaller size than a typical bread and butter plate.* At 12 weeks of age once reaching a weight of 3 kgs they are slaughtered onsite or placed in crates and transported by truck or trailer to a rabbit slaughter facility.

CONFINEMENT

During their time in production rabbits suffer immensely both physically and psychologically. The harsh wire floors of the cages inflict painful injuries on the soft feet of the rabbits. It is not unusual for rabbits to get their feet stuck in the gaps in the wires and die from dehydration or starvation, unable to reach water and food. They also suffer from painful infections caused by injuries from wires or from fighting with other rabbits. Naturally territorial rabbits do not accept unknown rabbits easily and will often attack each other. This is a particularly common occurrence when does are introduced into buck’s cages for mating. As with all intensive farming, individual care is not cost effective, so injuries are often left untreated.

Illness and disease are also common within rabbit farms. Due to toxic air caused by a build up of waste, poor ventilation, and even dead rabbits left in cages to decay, respiratory diseases are rife, breeding does also suffer from painful uterine infections, mastitis and of course myxomatosis and rabbit calicivirus, both being government sanctioned diseases released to control the wild rabbit population. Ear and eye infections are also common, resulting in severe pain and often deafness and blindness.

SLAUGHTER

When the desired slaughter weight of 3 kgs is reached, rabbits are loaded into crates and trucked to a processing facility. The Code of Practice recommends rabbits be electrically stunned or otherwise made insensible to pain before their throats are slashed and they are bled out. Most rabbits are stunned using blunt force trauma, the rabbit is held upside down by their paws and given a blow to the back of the head with a heavy implement, other methods are cervical dislocation where the spine is removed from the base of the brain and skull, and decapitation via the use of a guillotine. None of these methods ensure a painless death and as is common across the industrialised slaughter of all species, rabbits are often improperly stunned and have their throats slashed while still conscious. It’s also not uncommon for slaughtering to take place in view of terrified rabbits waiting their turn to be killed.

Smaller producers sometimes choose to slaughter rabbits themselves. This is often done by the procedure known as cervical dislocation as mentioned above. Rabbits are held upside down by their back legs, a broom handle or similar object is placed across their neck, and stood on, their legs are then jerked violently over their head to snap the spinal cord from the brain, their throats are then slashed, or they are fully decapitated, to be bled out.

According to The American Veterinary Medical Association; cervical dislocation is only considered “humane” and effective if a rabbit weighs less than 1 kg. As rabbits are usually slaughtered for human consumption once reaching 3 kgs one can easily surmise many rabbits killed with this procedure suffer from protracted painful deaths. As a side note, it is important to mention, any use of the word “humane” in reference to slaughter is absurd. No matter how painless a death is, if it is done against the will of the individual involved or for any purpose other than to relieve suffering, it cannot be described as humane.

WILD RABBITS

While many Australians do kill and eat wild rabbits, food safety regulations limit commercial viability. Slaughtered wild animals, known as game, must be processed in approved abattoirs if they are to be sold to restaurants or butchers. The scarcity of these facilities prevents most shooters from selling rabbit carcasses for human consumption.

Wild rabbits that are commercially available for human consumption have been shot in the head or sometimes the neck, to ensure their flesh is intact and undamaged, their deaths are almost instantaneous. Their body parts are then marketed as ethical and sustainable meat. However, numbers of how many rabbits suffer protracted deaths from inaccurate shots making their bodies unviable for sale are unknown. The pest status of rabbits affords them no protection from authorities and little respect from hunters and so, wild rabbits often endure horrific, painful deaths. The killing of female wild rabbits also condemns their offspring, known as kits, to a slow death from starvation, as they wait in the family warren for a mother who will never return.

CONCLUSION

The life of rabbits bred and exploited for their flesh is short and tortured. Confined to their barren, wire prisons they are denied the ability to express natural behaviours such as digging, running and the joyful display known as binkying, they never see, feel or eat green grass, they never enjoy the warm sun or a refreshing breeze, they suffer with painful injuries and diseases, and maybe most tragically are prevented from forming the powerful life long bonds with a mate that are so profoundly important to their enjoyment of life. These complex, sensitive beings exist in a state of continual reproduction and loss, their minds stripped bare in life as their bodies are in death, the only relief from this misery coming after a brutal, terrifying slaughter.

Wild rabbits while not enduring the torture of confinement that farmed rabbits do, also suffer, their lives stolen from them prematurely, their babies left to starve, and their social groups destroyed.

We humans must learn that there is no humane way to turn a sentient being into food and the fact we do this out of greed not need makes it unethical. Inhumane and unethical is no way to eat. Please, leave rabbits off your plate.

Author: Felicity Andersen
Director of Blackwood Fields Animal Sanctuary and Radio Host Animal Nation

https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/75882/Farming-meat-rabbits-in-NSW—Primefact-104-final.pdf
http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/animal-health-and-welfare/animal-welfare/animal-welfare-legislation/victorian-codes-of-practice-for-animal-welfare/code-of-practice-for-the-intensive-husbandry-of-rabbits
https://www.aussiefarms.org.au/kb/rabbits
http://downtherabbitholes.org/bunny-meat
http://www.freedomforfarmedrabbits.com.au/farms/the-voluntary-code-of-practice/

Cows* have complex social lives; like humans, they’re picky over who gets to be their friend, they have best friends, with whom they experience separation anxiety, they hold grudges with those they dislike, and they have social hierarchies. Herd leaders are established by who is most intelligent, confident, and inquisitive. Cows have close family bonds, and babies naturally suckle their mother for up to a year of age. Cows stress and mourn the separation of family members, especially the separation of mother and child. Calves are playful and cheeky, they play fight together, wagging their tails like dogs so the adult cows know their ‘hustles’ are just for fun.

Cows are individuals and when testing their responses to different stimuli this is very clear. Some are timid, some are boisterous, and I see this in the cows I have rescued and the friends that they live with. I’ve seen them flirt, be sneaky, be nervous. I’ve seen them exclude certain members of the herd and run off with their best friend, just like you might in a school playground. I’ve seen them as the loving, complex, funny, feeling, sentient beings that they are. The below image is of a cow I rescued called Elira, right before she gave me a big slobbery kiss. If she had not been rescued, in under a month she was going to be chopped up and eaten.

This article is about the flesh of cows that gets packaged up and labeled as a ‘food’ called ‘meat’. About beef. About meatballs, about mince, sausages, steak, and even veal. About an industry that kills these beautiful animals, so that we could mindlessly consume them.

Beef is flesh. By the time it gets to us, that’s sometimes forgotten. We don’t meet and pet these cows, we don’t see them being killed, being skinned, being sawn apart, chopped into pieces. We just see the pieces of ‘meat’ on shelves in supermarkets and butchers stores. Or we see it straight on our plate. Even when cows flesh is so clearly flesh, like in the case of ‘steak’ –  by even naming it that – we keep our minds so far away from the victim of that product, of who’s flesh we are eating.

The first and most important message to put forward is that there is no humane way to kill someone who does not want to die. Someone can be so different to us as humans, in their ability to express themselves in a way we understand, in their cognitive abilities, in the way they live, only one similarity matters. We all feel. We all feel the warmth of love and affection, and the cold of fear and pain. Many people are against animal cruelty and violence against animals, yet seem to forget that the most violent thing we can do to someone, is kill them.

There is no humane way to kill someone, just as there is no humane way to buy a piece of someone’s body for a few dollars. We would accept this if we were talking about dogs or cats, but in the Western World we are culturally conditioned to see these animals as somehow different to others, like cows.

We are in a world that ignores this simple truth, we are in a world where killing animals like cows and eating them is normal. So let us go into some more depth, what all of this really entails.

At the start of a cow’s life, he or she is subjected to torture. This torture is completely legal and supported under Australian ‘codes of practice’. In Australia, we can lawfully castrate, dehorn, and brand cows with burning metal, without any pain relief.[i]Imagine having your flesh burnt, your skin cut open and your testicles cut out, your fingers cut off (fingers have a similar amount of nerves as horns, as they are connected to a cow’s sinuses, skin and bone), while you were fully conscious.

All of this torture is done in the name of ‘easy farming’. It’s simply easier for a farmer to not go to the trouble and financial cost of providing pain relief. It’s less effort if you don’t need to deal with horns getting in the way as they try to herd animals to their death.

The majority of cows in Australia are also kept on large farms and stations. This may seem more ethical than factory farming, but these large farms mean that cows are infrequently monitored, and so any injuries and sickness can go untreated, unnoticed, uncared for, for long periods.

A perfect example of this is Yowie. Yowie was found in a big field, his eye hanging out of his face. He was rescued from this farm, where he had been neglected. I think of Yowie often when I am in the Victorian countryside. My family has a holiday house just out of Castlemaine, and sometimes I go on big walks that take me through other people’s land at certain points. It is common for me to see decomposing cow bodies on these walks, despite farms being no more than 100 acres up there.

While farms up in that part of Victoria are smaller, many of the cows farmed in Australia are on enormous stations, where they are mustered from over 10km away. This is exhausting for the cows, and subjects them to dehydration over heating and stress. Mustered into holding pens only once or twice a year, In Australia, according to industry reports, 9% of steers (castrated bulls) and 6% of heifers die before the slaughter, likely from long and painful deaths. If Yowie had not been found, and his eye not been seen to, the bacteria and flies that had been eating at his wound would have likely diseased, and over time, painfully killed him.

According to the RSPCA (an ‘animal welfare’ organization who make regular attempts to justify the killing of animals) a humane killing is the ‘death of an animal without pain, suffering or distress’, and ‘instant unconsciousness followed by rapid death before regaining consciousness’.[i]

Almost every piece of beef, is from the body of a cow who was trucked off to a slaughterhouse, as on site killing is incredibly rare. In Australia it is legal not to give food or water to cows in transit to slaughter, in fact it is industry standard. Imagine being in a truck packed full of other frightened beings, it could be a boiling hot day, and you have no food or water. This is not ‘without distress’, even before arrival at the slaughterhouse.

‘Humane killing’ of cows involves the use of a captive bolt to the head. Done correctly, a captive bolt goes straight through a cow’s brain, instantly stunning him or her. However, for this to occur, a specific part of the head must be shot, and slaughterhouse workers do not need to have any anatomical knowledge.

Researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences looked into the efficiency of captive bolt stunning at a commercial Swedish abattoir. [iii]A total of 998 cattle were observed during a ‘normal day’ at the abattoir for five consecutive days. The facility monitored during the study processes, on average, 200 cattle a day, 30 animals an hour. Scientists evaluated stunning procedures in terms of adequacy and accuracy, and created a stunning protocol to measure the stunning they witnessed against. Inadequacy was defined as the presence of consciousness symptoms in stunned cattle that would then be slaughtered. The study found that out of the 998 observed cows, just 84.1% were adequately stunned. The cows still partially or fully conscious, were then either repetitively shot in their brain, or slaughtered while being semi-conscious.

Please spend just 7 minutes to see what this means for the cows. This footage captured in an Australian slaughterhouse demonstrates this very experience for repeated failed stunning attempts and semi-conscious slaughtered cows

Confirming some results of previous research, bulls displayed inadequate stunning symptoms three times more frequently than other cattle. 445,000 cattle annually slaughtered in the small country of Sweden are male. In Australia we kill 8 million cattle annually. If this study were to be generalized, that would be an enormous amount of cows having their throats slit open while semi conscious.

After closely observing the skulls of the killed cows, researchers found that in total, 10.4% of cows who were shot accurately were still stunned inadequately. Of those cattle shot inaccurately (not shot in the correct part of the head), 35% showed signs of inadequate stunning.
14 bulls were shot more than three times before slaughter. Calves were exposed most frequently to inaccurate shots (14%). The researchers deemed that poor stun gun servicing and limited shooter experience were to blame for this. Scientists noted that ‘the least experienced shooter…seemed fearful of the cattle, often hesitating just before shooting’.

I cannot imagine being in a position where my job was to shoot cows in the head. Empathizing with slaughterhouse workers means having an understanding of how mentally damaging the job would be, and how often an inexperienced worker would inadequately stun cows, leading to painful, bloody deaths. Most people would struggle to even watch the below 4 minutes yet they support such violent actions every single day by their purchasing choices.

While it has never been justifiable to needlessly kill an animal for the sake of food, as more vegan meat alternative products become available, it becomes more and more cruel and irresponsible to continue the barbaric killing of kind cows just like Strongheart, who I’m chilling out with below.

Please think of him next time you look at a piece of ‘steak’, or a ‘beef patty’, and remember it’s the cut up body of someone who desperately wanted to live.

Author: Emma Hakansson
Producer/Ethics Consultant at Willow Creative Co

*For the sake of best connecting with the reader we have mostly used the term ‘cows’ for all bovine rather than the correct terminology of bull, cow, heifer, steer, calf.

[i] http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/animal-health-and-welfare/animal-welfare/animal-welfare-legislation/victorian-codes-of-practice-for-animal-welfare/code-of-accepted-farming-practice-for-the-welfare-of-cattle

[ii] http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-do-we-mean-by-humane-killing-or-slaughter_115.html

[iii]http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ufaw/aw/2013/00000022/00000004/art00009

Bees are fascinating, incredible creatures. They are arguably the most hardworking, efficient and organised inhabitants of our planet and play a crucial role in maintaining the health of Earth. Humans have been exploiting bees for centuries, perhaps without awareness of the complexities of these insects and the incredible amount of work honeybees put in to produce honey intended for their own use most importantly as a food source during the winter months. This is not only to the bees’ detriment, but also to humans and our environment.   

The honeybee was introduced to Australia in the 1820s aboard a ship from England. The abundance of nectar found in Australian flora saw the rapid naturalisation of honey bees and the introduction of different species from all over Europe soon followed. There are approximately “673,000 registered hives in Australia, producing not only honey and beeswax but also live bees, and other products such as pollen and royal jelly. Around 467,000 hives are…considered to represent the commercial industry”(1)

In any beehive, there are three different types of honey bees, each working tirelessly to support and maintain the health of the hive’s ecosystem: The Queen bee, Drones and Worker bees. 

The queen bee is the largest bee and is at the centre of life in the hive, having been fed royal jelly, a gelatinous, nutritious substance by the worker bees during the beginning of her life as larva. After destroying all the other potential queens in the hive at around 5-12 days, she will leave the hive once, mate and lay eggs above the cells of the honeycomb, all the while being protected and fed by her worker bees. Usually an older less productive queen and her loyal swarm will have left the hive to make way for the new younger queen for this to occur. One queen can produce up to a million eggs in her short 2-5 year lifespan.   

The drone bees’ sole purpose is to wait patiently and compete with other drones to mate with a queen when she makes her mating flight. They do not have the capacity to collect pollen or nectar, are unable to defend the hive due to their lack of a sting, and usually cannot feed themselves, instead relying on the worker bees to place nectar on their tongue for sustenance. Only the quickest drone will mate with the queen, and once this is done their swift death ensues. The slower, unsuccessful drones return to the hive and will eventually die of starvation during the winter months.    

The worker bees have the important role of collecting pollen and nectar, converting this into honey, feeding the drones and queen, and producing wax to create honeycomb and cells in which the young larvae grow. Their task is momentous. The worker bees anatomy is engineered so that incredibly they may carry close to their own body weight in nectar or pollen- their two sources of food. When the worker bee collects nectar from the anthers of flowers, it is stored in a special “stomach”- once full it is transferred to other bees in the hive. It is then passed from bee to bee in a process whereby the nectar thickens and eventually becomes honey. The worker bee will also sustain herself with this nectar via a valve in her nectar sac. Despite their continuous efforts and tireless work, a worker bee will produce only approximately 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their short 6-7 week lifetime. “It takes 300 bees about three weeks to gather 450g of honey” (2)

Additionally, bees have the ability to communicate with each other via an extraordinarily complex system of vibrations to convey information such as the site and distance to nectar-abundant plants in the area- amazing! 

WHY IS HONEY CRUEL?

Although bees are naturally hard-working and extremely productive, to increase yield beekeepers will house bees in unnaturally large hives so that bees must work harder to collect enough nectar and pollen to insulate the space and create enough food to last the winter when food sources are scarce. Overworked bees are likely to die prematurely because of this.

Beekeepers will extract the honey from the hive usually during Autumn when production is at its peak, leaving bees without their crucial food source during the winter months. Beekeepers will replace the highly nutritious honey with cheap, nutrient-deficient artificial sweeteners such as sugar water or corn syrup, resulting in bee malnutrition and death.  Poor nutrition also results in the colony becoming more susceptible to disease. 

Bee farmers often rent out their bee colonies to commercial crop farmers to pollinate farms and increase productivity. The bees are transported in large trucks in often extreme weather conditions which is highly stressful for the bees. The monocrop bees are usually exposed to once at their destination do not satisfy their need for a diverse range of nectar-producing plants for optimum immunity. Disease and pest infiltration of the hive occurs as a result. Furthermore, honey bees are typically not the superior pollinators- in many cases certain native bee species are more efficient.  Some producers use their supposed interest in conserving declining bee populations as a reason to continue farming the insects and using them to produce honey. There is also a growing trend of small-scale beekeeping in urban areas supposedly for this purpose. However native bees are competing directly with honey bee populations for food, thus having the opposite effect.

After the queen bee’s initial mating flight, she will not leave the hive unless she dies, becomes less productive than a younger queen or if the colony becomes too large to inhabit a single hive. In the latter case the queen will take approximately half the swarm (up to tens of thousands of bees) to create and colonise another hive.  To prevent the queen bee and her swarm from leaving the hive and thereby reducing honey yield and profit, beekeepers will cruelly clip her wings with scissors. Bees are known to have a central nervous system and would no doubt feel immense pain during this process- one which also completely restricts the queen’s natural behaviour and movement. 

Additionally, queen and drone bees are subjected to extreme cruelty during artificial insemination, a practice carried out by beekeepers in order to produce the most productive bees thereby increasing potential profit, with absolutely no regard for the welfare of the bees. During this process drone bees have their heads crushed and are then milked for their semen. The queen bees are gassed using carbon dioxide to render her unconscious so she does not resist- according to NSW beekeeper Casey Cooper “this is to knock her out so she will stay still while we do the procedure”. The queen bee is then positioned upside-down within a plastic container while semen is inserted into her via a sharp needle. Up to 15 drones can be killed for their semen for every queen bee. Casey Cooper also states that “once the queen has been impregnated she is locked back in a hive, which she cannot fly out from” and a day later “she is gassed again to encourage her to lay. The queen bees are kept separate from the other bees including queens in the hives that are producing honey” (3). This is entirely contradictory to what would occur naturally once the queen bee is impregnated in the wild and is none other than the inhumane factory farming of bees.

As people become more aware of the cruelty involved in the farming of bees and commercial honey production, there has been an increase in the number of so-called “bee-friendly” honey producers who are cashing in on the growing sustainable food movement.  However, these producers still exist and reap financial reward by way of exploitation of bees who cannot consent to having their life’s work taken from them for our unnecessary consumption. BEES NEED THEIR honey to survive and thrive. They are sentient, extraordinarily complex creatures who exist for their own purpose, NOT to produce honey for humans.  

HONEY ALTERNATIVES

There are myriad honey alternatives such as molasses, maple syrup, agave nectar and rice syrup, all of which have the same rich sweetness as honey minus the guaranteed exploitation and harm. These products are readily available in supermarkets and health food stores. 

Author: Kathryn Ryan
Vice President Vegan Rising

1. “The Economic Value and Environmental Impact of The Australian Beekeeping Industry” Diana M H Gibbs and Ian F Muirhead.

2. “How bees make honey” Australian Honey Bee Industry Council.

3. “Taking the sting out of a bee’s sex life” ABC News Country Hour by Michael Cavanagh.

Domestic goat’s (Capra aegagrus hircus) are a subspecies domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. They are a member of the Bovidae family who are closely related to sheep, both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are approximately 300 distinct breeds of goat. Female goats are referred to as ‘does’ or ‘nannies’, intact males as ‘bucks’ or ‘billies’; their offspring are known as kids.

There are 6 recognised dairy goat breeds within Australia: Saanen, Toggenburg, British Alpine, Anglo Nubian, Australian Melaan, Australian Brown. Goats are patient, highly nurturing mothers. It is highly stressful for both mothers and babies when they are separated. In the wild, a female would spend her whole life close to her mother. Research has discovered that goats will always recognise the call of their family members. Mother goats are known to foster orphaned or rejected lambs, kids and even calves. Does can and do have 2 to 3 babies at one time. However, on goat farms, including so-called “organic”, “ethical” or “family-owned” they are cruelly torn from them.

SEPARATION

Goats are well known for their mothering abilities, as well as their ability to nurse other animals’ young, such as lambs. On most dairy farms the maternal needs of both nannies and kids are almost immediately ended after birth. The female kids will typically be removed from their mothers after one feed and subsequently fed milk replacer, replacement goat’s milk or even cow’s milk, so that the mother’s milk can be harvested for human consumption. Billy goats are killed at birth or shortly after, as they are seen as a waste product of the dairy industry.  Their flesh is sold as “capretto”, which is Italian for kid flesh.  These kids are killed at about 5 weeks, although some will be killed at up to 11 months.  The market is saturated with “spent” does who are of no use to the dairy industry. 

Sometimes the kid and mother will not even have that initial interaction, as many young are fed immediately by bottle to manage colostrum intake. On intensive units, kids are machine fed in large groups. Nannies are then typically milked for 18 months. Unlike cows used for their milk, goats do not have a dry season where they are not milked.

BREEDING

The does are either artificially impregnated or more commonly, “stud billies” are used from high milking stocks. Goats have a five-month pregnancy and lactating can continue for up to 2 years after they give birth, in a non-pregnant goat. Usually, lactation decreases so farmers will ensure does are pregnant yearly.  Goats are mammals and must have been pregnant to lactate.

There is a system that some farmers use which utilises an intravaginal hormonal sponge.  The sponge involves implanting a sponge impregnated with the hormone progesterone into the vagina for 11 days. Two days before it’s removed the goat is injected with pregnant’ mare’s serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) and prostaglandin. The hormones stimulate the goats to come into oestrus (heat) one to two days after sponge removal. If AI is used, the goats are inseminated 42 to 44 hours after sponge removal.

Through this selective breeding, whether AI or “paddock joining”, farmers manipulate the lives of goats to suit their bottom dollar. Words such as “increased cost”, “husbandry input” and “capitalise” are commonly used.

Male Goats (bucks) are often masturbated by humans to collect their sperm.  Quite often this sperm can also be sent overseas for sale also. An artificial vagina, such as the picture below, is used to collect the sperm. 

There are several methods that are used when using the AI to transfer to the sperm to the females.

The images above demonstrate perverted and exploitative processes that have been normalised in our culture. The forced impregnation and masturbation of individuals is common practice in all areas of animal agriculture. We must see it for what it really is, the hijacking of another’s reproductive organs for ones own personal gain.

THE GOATS MILK MYTH

Many people switch to goat’s milk and cheese in the belief that it is healthier. In fact, goats milk has very close to the same lactose content as cow’s milk.  Goat’s milk also contains many hormones which are to assist their kids to grow into an adult goat as quickly as possible.  One of these hormones is IGF-1 – the same hormone found in cow’s milk that is known to promote the growth of cancer cells. IGF-1 survives pasteurisation and can cross the intestinal wall and enter human blood. Even small increases in levels of IGF-1 increase the risk of several common cancers including breast, prostate, lung, and colon.  Another hormone present in both cows’ and goats’ milk is oestrogen, though at a lesser concentration in goat milk. Again, it has been particularly linked to hormone-dependent cancers such as breast, ovary, and prostate. 

Goat’s milk is higher in saturated fat than cow’s milk and also contains levels of somatic cells (pus).  Somatic cells are counted in milk sold for human consumption as there are legal limits as to how much it can contain. Somatic cells are the white blood cells that are the defence against bacteria that invade the udder and can cause mastitis.  So, one teaspoonful of milk can have two million pus cells!

Where animals are used as commodities, they are exploited.  More often than not the farmers keep the animals in large herds, meaning sickness, lameness and birthing problems are not always seen, or are just neglected, so they don’t have to pay for the care of the animal. 

THE RAW MILK MOVEMENT

Unpasteurised goat’s milk is sometimes hailed as a safer alternative to raw cows’ milk. A UK study examined 131 frozen and fresh samples of unpasteurised goat and sheep milk from 79 retail outlets and around half failed the legal standards.(1) They were rife with pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria, many of which indicated faecal contamination. Scientists conducting the study suggested that unpasteurised goats milk should be banned. Unpasteurised goats milk products are not legal in Australia.

HUMANE WASHING BEAUTY PRODUCTS

An industry that is ever growing that the dairy industry has become a part of is the beauty industry, selling items such as goat milk soap, creams and shampoo and conditioners.  Many of these items are packaged as “organic” giving the false impression that this may also mean “cruelty-free”.  People have to remember that these items come from an inherently cruel system, a system that steals the milk from mothers, takes their babies from them and kills the male kids. None of these items can ever say they are cruelty free, as the very event of taking milk from the doe is cruel.

Author: Jaysherrie Terraqueos
Founder of Melbourne Goat Save

According to the Goat Industry Council of Australia:

• Goat flesh is the most widely consumed meat in the world, mainly due to the few, if any, religious taboos limiting goatmeat consumption. 
• Australia is a relatively small “producer of goat flesh, but it is the world’s largest exporter of goat flesh.
• Australian Goat slaughter in 2017 was 2.07 million (MLA)
• Traditionally, Australian bush goats (Rangeland goats) and Boer goats are used for meat production.
• In 2011 – 2012 Australia exported 71,895 live goats

Goats reach the meat industry from many situations.  “Spent” goats (does once used for their milk) who can no longer produce babies, or enough milk to keep themselves “viable” are sent to slaughter for their flesh.  Male kids from the dairy industry are a “waste” product of this industry and are also sent off to slaughter. Their flesh is sold as capretto, which is an Italian delicacy.  Goats from the fabric industries who no longer produce “up to standard” hair, are also sent to slaughter for their flesh.

Boer Goats and Rangeland Goats (existing specifically for the meat industry) were previously identified as ‘feral’ and the Kalahari Red. 

Goats used for their flesh are sent to slaughter anywhere from 3 months to 3 years when their natural lifespan can be anywhere from 8 to 12 years and in some cases up to 15 years of age.

WHO ARE RANGELAND GOATS?

Australia has established populations of wild goats.  These goats were goats who escaped, were abandoned or were deliberately released.  The Agriculture industry is now calling these wild goats, “rangeland” goats.  Rangeland introduced as a marketing term to avoid the use of the word “feral” and the negative connotations which come with this word.  This is a poignant demonstration of how labels, when applied to how we view animals, can change and either be detrimental to an industry or not.  If goats are classed as “feral”, which they were for many years, they are bad, but by calling them Rangeland goats, their ongoing existence can be supported and a profit made from exploiting them.

The Rangeland goats are managed by the releasing of “quality” bucks to the wild. This is known as “infusing” the wild population with certain genes which produce “bigger and more consistent” quality goats for slaughter.

Approximately 90% of goat flesh produced in Australia comes from Rangeland goats.

LIVE EXPORT

Rangeland goats are rounded up in rural Australia and are then packed into crates to be shipped overseas for slaughter.  Then forced on board a ship they spend 35 days at sea, thousands dying en route due to the dirty, cramped and hot conditions. Finally, when the goats reach their destination, there is absolutely no protection for them. They are exposed to shockingly cruel treatment from the moment they are rounded up to the moment they are killed, which is weeks sometimes extending into months.

At slaughterhouses, many goats are not properly stunned. In some slaughterhouses, they are not stunned at all whilst having their throats slit and are still conscious while workers skin them.

CONFESSIONS OF AN AUSTRALIAN SLAUGHTERHOUSE WORKER

“Are there any memories of the slaughterhouse that have particularly stuck with you?”

‘The scream of the goats. It would sound like a child being tortured.

And they would scream a lot of times when you didn’t electro-stun them properly – they’d scream, and they’d jump, and they’d bark.

They’d bash their heads on the side of the race and open up wounds.

And seeing other people, as I say, take crowbars and chains to animals.

Its going to stick with me for the rest of my life.

But particularly the screams of the animals – it sounds too human.

You know they know it’s not right and you know within yourself it’s not right.

But in pursuit of the almighty dollar many people will do many things.

Read the full interview here.

Author: Jaysherrie Terraqueos
Founder of Melbourne Goat Save

We call them Donald, Daffy and Daisy. They are the subjects of story books, adults’ metaphors and children’s dreams. They are completely wild yet pose no danger to us. They see the world in 360 degrees with a greater spectrum of colour than we will ever see, including ultraviolet light. They are protective, social, curious and alert. They are very smart! You can rarely surprise them because they are always alert, watching, always waiting and, often, literally sleep with one eye open. If a mother duck senses a threat nearby, she will feign injury to distract the predator from her offspring. If left alone they can live up to 20 years. They can walk on ice without getting cold and they can travel up to 500 km per day. They are comical and lift our spirits.

Whether they’re gliding across the smooth surface of a lake or soaring through the sky in perfect formation, most people don’t know much about ducks. They are adept in water, land, and air, and they fly hundreds of miles each year to warmer climates. Ducks swim in formations that reduce air and water resistance for the birds in the rear. They look out for their companions and are very protective of their mates and their young. They live in couples or groups and mourn when their partners die.

Each kind of water bird demonstrates distinctive behaviours of play, morality, mating and breeding. They have gender specific behaviours, and are unique in ways in which they nest, feed, communicate and travel. Within each species of ‘duck’ there are distinctive social groups and families. And within those, every individual water bird has her or his idiosyncratic personality. Most of us feel spontaneously joyful when we come across them in their natural environment.

Outgoing, social animals, ducks are meticulously clean birds who display great pride in maintaining their nests. They preen their feathers with natural oils and flaunt their beautiful plumage. They use body language to communicate, but they ‘talk’ as well. Ducks even have regional accents like us! Country ducks have gentler, smoother voices while city ducks have a more honking sound so they can be heard over urban noise.

How remarkable that such fascinating and sweet individuals are some of the most exploited animals in the world. The acts required to kill ducks for food would be crimes if committed against our own species, but because the victims are members of another species, we call these crimes ‘standard farming practice’ and we even pay people to commit those crimes.

We are all animals within the biological classification Kingdom Animalia. They are ducks and come from the species family Anatidae. We are humans and come from the species family Hominidae. We humans are natural land animals, but ducks are natural water animals; They are found in wetlands, marshes, ponds, rivers, lakes and oceans in all countries of the world aside from Antarctica. Yet, in Australia, it is standard farming practice to deny them water. Imagine; their bodies are under constant stress without any relief. Imagine; as a natural land animal spending your entire life in water, never allowed to stand on solid ground.

The Duck Meat Industry

The industry relies on growing ducks as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible and killing them as young as possible. Because of this unnatural rate of rapid growth, the legs of animals can’t keep up with their body size. Even when they develop at a normal rate, their bodies depend on the buoyancy of water to hold them upright. In the case of factory farmed ducks who are deprived of water, their rapid and unnatural increase in body weight in factory farming often causes their legs to break.

The two intensive producers in Australia primarily responsible for this horrid treatment of ducks are Pepe’s Ducks in NSW and Luv-a-Duck in Victoria. Between them they kill roughly 170,000 birds every week reaping around $AU100 million.

The stress of living in a factory farm is highly abnormal. Ducks are reared intensively inside large, closed sheds. Fifty ducklings are confined to 1 square metre of floor space. The environment makes it impossible for them to behave naturally. Out of fear and stress, they uncharacteristically peck at each other, injuring each other. It sometimes even leads to cannibalism. [Imagine how we would be if we were not allowed to bathe ourselves, feed ourselves, go for walks, or socialise in small groups as is our want, but rather we had to fight for food and water, shit and piss where we stood, whilst being housed in noisy, vomit and faeces ridden sheds with a whole lot of humans our age, all in various stages of pain, fear and misery. It’s likely we would take it out on each other as well.]

The industry creates this initial problem, and then to counteract the pecking, which is the direct result of industry-caused stress, the industry sears the sensitive ends of their beaks off, creating another form of suffering, all the while calling it an act of ‘animal welfare’. 

Animal rescuers have gathered footage that shows ducks with physical deformities, injuries, and covered in faeces and vomit. Day-old ducklings are systematically ground up alive, and there is routine cruelty and neglect in farms, despite their claims to the contrary. We are told not to worry and to leave it in their hands. This is all ‘standard farming practice’.

Humane Slaughter is a Lie

Australian consumers often believe they are doing something ethical when they “only eat white meat”, this ensuring that birds are the most exploited animals in Australia. Animal industries claim that Australian ‘animal welfare’ laws are the best in the world. However, evidence shows that our current laws embed pain and suffering into their business models, justifying routine cruelty.

After ducks have lived their entire 6-7 week lives in confinement without water, workers throw ducks into transport crates, and squash them down to fit more in, often causing acute wing and leg injuries, but plastic crates are the most expedient way to send them to slaughter.

Ducks face distinct horrors when they are sent to be killed. Each duck is taken from the crate and is shackled upside down against her or his will often suffering dislocations and broken legs and wings. The next step in the line is an electrical bath designed to render the bird’s unconscious. Some birds understandably raise their heads to avoid it. After the electrical bath, all birds, both conscious and unconscious arrive at the de-heading machine. Here, each bird has her or his head pulled through a blade until they are decapitated. Their headless bodies are then put through a scalding bath after which their bodies are waxed and defeathered, the feet are sliced off, the guts removed, and body parts sold for consumption. Often the label will show a false picture of a happy duck on the package. This is to ensure that well-meaning and ethical humans will continue to participate in a horrid and cruel industry built on systems of suffering. The entire industry is built on a lie and is sustained by making consumers believe the lie.

Disease and Illness

Factory farms are filthy places, soducks in intensive farming systems are vulnerable to highly contagious diseases. This poses risks to both them and us. One in particular is Anatipestifer Disease (AD). This is a global and contagious neurological disease. Birds are often infected from small cuts on their delicate feet or by being bitten by insects in factory farms. Ducks may suffer from diarrhoea, severe abdominal discomfort and lethargy. They may experience respiratory distress and demonstrate mucousal discharges similar to when we have a bad cold. The infection often reaches their heart, and easily extends to the liver, spleen, and lungs. The birds have highly sensitive pain receptors and so probably feel this as an unrelenting deep ache in the effected organs. When AD progresses to the central nervous system birds experience extreme weakness and lack of coordination. They may adopt unusual body positions such as lying on their back paddling their legs, involuntary arching of their head and neck, and persistent neck twisting. They can suffer paralysis, convulsions, coma, and death.  AD usually kills 5-30% of birds, with numbers sometimes as high as 75%.

Eating Ducks

In factory farms, it is common to see birds’ feathers heavily stained with fetid faeces. Autopsies conducted on birds who die in factory farms reveal the presence of Bacteria and disease that are dangerous to humans, such as Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, meningitis, bacterial septicaemia and Streptococcus. Vaccines and antibiotics are given to birds to try to reduce the incidence of disease. These become embedded in the flesh of ducks. We then, strangely, eat all of this, feeding it as well to our families and friends.

Ducks are used in a variety of dishes around the world, most of which involve roasting them to make their skin crispier. Balut which is a developing bird embryo boiled and eaten from the shell. Czernina is a sweet and sour Polish soup made of duck blood. Turducken is a headless turkey, stuffed with a headless duck, stuffed with a headless chicken. Americans eat it. Long Island roast duckling involves roasting an entire baby bird. Most of her fat melts off when she is being cooked. They serve her body with a cherry sauce.

Ducks naturally live up to 20 years. We kill them as ducklings after 6-7 weeks of abject misery. And then we eat them. What has happened to us? When we come across ducks in their natural environment, we so often watch them with a sense of wonder and delight, our hearts gladdened by the chance to see free water birds behaving naturally and happily. If we find a hurt or injured duckling most of us would do our very best to save her and ensure her comfort. Yet, we very same people, without thought, purchase the dismembered body parts of birds who have been scared, and suffered for 6-7 weeks before being horribly killed. All for a fleeting taste on the tongue.

Cover Image by Bear Witness Australia Witness #1

Author: Dr Tamasin Ramsay
Medical Anthropologist
Animal Liberation Activist

Nothing quite prepares you for the broiler shed – the lives that passed before you arrived decaying and being cannabalised among the faeces, the lives that leave this world in the short time you are there, and those you leave behind knowing only suffering lay ahead before they meet their brutal fate. The only comfort to your overwhelming sense of helplessness as you look over the 40,000+ individuals, many struggling to walk and struggling to breathe, is in knowing their pain will be short lived, killed at only 35-60 days old, yet ironically that short life span is the very cause of most of the suffering they will endure.

The life and death of a chicken born and raised for their flesh is one of immense suffering, no matter what ‘situation’ they are born into and the method used to steal their life.

Chickens raised for their flesh today are a far cry from their ancestors, the Red Jungle Fowl who were subjugated over 5,000 years ago from the jungles of Asia. Once colourful, active, capable of flight and living to well over 10 years of age, the rare chicken today spared from being killed as a mere baby in a giant body is considered extremely lucky to reach just one year old.

THE CURRENT COMMERCIAL REALITY

The Lovely Family Tree
Breeder Birds – Great Grandparents, Grandparents and Parent Birds

The selective breeding of chickens with ‘desirable’ ie ‘most profitable’ traits is key to this industry that seeks to ensure one chicken will grow to produce the most consumable amount of flesh possible in the shortest amount of time. Whilst reproductive fitness, feed conversion efficiency, leg strength and resistance to metabolic conditions and disease are now also considered in the selective breeding process, unlike in the 1960’s where the entire focus was on rapid growth, this is not due to concerns for the individuals welfare, but further attempts to maximise profits.

The ‘nucleus’ of these very carefully and continuously ‘improved’ ‘Great Grandparent’ birds (as the industry refers to them) are imported as fertile hatching eggs from the USA and Europe into Australia and around the globe. They are hatched inside quarantine facilities where they will spend the first nine weeks of their lives. Never experiencing the loving nurture of their mothers, they will be tested regularly for disease before being transported to sheds, called ‘breeder farms’. Here they will live inside at all times, crowded and under unnatural lighting, scheduled to maximise laying, with one male to every 10 females who will be mated continuously. If she survives the year, each Great Grandparent hen will lay approximately 100 fertile eggs before being killed along with the roosters at just one year old. She will never have the opportunity to brood over her own eggs or nurture her babies once they hatch, as all her fertile eggs will be taken from her and transported to a hatchery.

Here, once hatched, will be the ‘Grandparent’ flock, who, if holding ‘desirable traits’ will endure a similar life, however, will be transported to a shed at just one day old. Further selective breeding will occur as approximately 120 fertile eggs per hen are produced before all are killed at just 14 months old. Their babies, the ‘Parent’ birds will also enter this world in a sterile hatching facility before being transported into large sheds. For much of their 15 months of life the frustrated males will repeatedly mate the hens who cannot escape and will in turn lay approximately 160 fertile eggs throughout their miserable lives. The unnatural large size of these chickens and continuous mating by roosters they cannot escape results in painful wounds on the sides of the hens’ bodies that will never receive veterinary attention and care.

These Parent birds chicks, also born inside a hatchery, will be the dead chickens that wind up on our shelves to be eaten, falling under all categories including “free-range”, “ethicurean”, “organic”, “paddock-to-plate”, but not before they too also endure a short and miserable existence to be explained shortly.

When hatching birds in all three of these processes of Great Grandparents, Grandparents and Parent birds, excess males who are naturally 50% of the hatched chicks and therefore resulting in many who are unwanted, will either be ‘culled’ ie gassed to death or ground up alive at just one day old, or allowed to live to 5-8 weeks old to be slaughtered for their flesh[i]. Also throughout these three processes regular ‘grading’ takes place to maintain the desirable traits. Any birds outside the uniform weight; those displaying spine, feet or leg deformities; those with poor beaks or poor feather development; those with poor comb colour or eyes that are not bright will also be killed.[ii]

Every decision made, every step taken, is taken in regards to getting the most money out of one individuals life in the shortest amount of time. The ability for chickens to reproduce so quickly compared to other species, with eggs only taking 3 weeks to hatch, is one of the reasons they are seen as such a valuable commodity to exploit on such a mass scale over being seen for the wonderful individuals they are.

THE LIFE ENDURED BY THE DEAD CHICKENS PEOPLE EAT

According to the Australian Chicken Meat Federation (ACMF) approximately 99% of the chickens raised for their flesh in Australia are raised in broiler sheds. Transported in crates at just one day old they are dumped like worthless objects onto the shed floor where they will be left to fend for themselves for the next 5-8 weeks, if they survive that long.

Just one broiler shed will confine anywhere from 40-60,000 birds. Each bird will be allocated the space of approximately an A4 sheet of paper – 28-34kg/m²[iii]. This makes it impossible for the chickens to establish a pecking order as they would in a naturally occurring small flock resulting in constant mayhem and confusion where no one knows their place.

Chickens, like all birds, daily living cycles are dictated by the rise and fall of the sun. Even this very natural and basic process, essential to their general sense of wellbeing is taken from them, as unnatural and drawn out lighting schedules are used to encourage less rest and higher consumption of constantly available, high protein feed. This, combined with their genetic manipulation results in birds growing three times their natural body weight in just a few weeks. Their skeletons find it immensely difficult to hold up their own weight from the moment they are hatched, so birds will often be in immense pain, suffering deformities, fractures and dislocated joints, often becoming crippled under their own weight. Many struggle and are even unable to walk the few steps to access feed and water. Those humans who consume the carcasses of these tortured souls may have noticed the dark red patches on the knee joints as they devour their flesh. This is the result of hock-burn from chickens spending long amounts of time crouched in the faeces they are forced to live on throughout their short lives.

The Australian broiler chicken industry boasts of the death before slaughter rate as being “only about 4%”[iv]. What they fail to highlight is that in an industry that breeds and murders over 650 million individuals per year, that equates to 26 million chickens who will die often slowly and painfully in the sheds each year as tiny chicks or oversized babies from heart attacks, or drowning on their own fluid due to their organs being unable to cope with their unnatural size.

Dehydration and starvation is prevalent due to crippled chickens being unable to access feed and water however this is lessened to some extent due to workers checking the sheds to remove dead birds and ‘culling’ the sick and injured when they can be seen among so many. These ‘lucky’ ones will be trampled to death by workers or have their necks snapped.

It is common practice for broiler sheds to be emptied out over several stages, known as ‘thinning out’. This practice allows companies to sell chickens at varying weights and also creates more space in the sheds for the ever-growing size of the chickens who remain, meaning the exploiters can maximise the profits made on each populated shed cycle. Workers violently throw chickens into crowded crates which are then slammed onto transport trucks. Many bones are dislocated or shattered in the process. The trip is long and dangerous, as the birds are thrown around in the crates as trucks accelerate and break. I have personally witnessed countless dead and dying birds inside these crates on arrival at the slaughterhouse.

CHICKEN SLAUGHTER

The animal flesh industry refers to this as ‘processing’ rather than ‘slaughter’, ‘killing’, or ’murdering’ as it further helps the consumer detach from what it is they are actually supporting. Chickens used for their flesh are slaughtered in the same way as chickens used for their eggs. As just babies, they will be shackled upside down at the slaughterhouse to a metal stirrup attached to a conveyor belt. Terrified, they will panic, flap and fight to live as they are electrically stunned before being automatically dragged along a blade which is intended to slit their throats. Birds who have not been sufficiently stunned can be active when coming to the blade and therefore miss or partly miss the blade, causing them to be plunged into boiling water designed to loosen their feathers whilst alive and fully conscious. This was documented in a recent investigation which featured chickens used for their eggs, however chickens used for their flesh are also killed at this facility under the same process.[v] Gas stunning is another method used in Australian slaughterhouses. Essentially the chickens experience painful asphyxia to death or near death before being shackled and having their throats slit.

Taking the life of someone who wants to live is a task most humans would prefer to not engage in. Those employed to do the dirty work of the majority, do so often out of necessity. Slaughterhouse workers often have very limited employment options through lack of education and/or through being recent migrants to Australia experiencing language and other barriers. The work of killing in fast paced production lines is highly dangerous and classified as one of the most physically dangerous jobs by Human Rights Watch. The mental health and social implications are also horrifying with violent crimes including rape showing shocking increases in occurrence once slaughterhouses move into areas.[vi]

RSPCA APPROVED, FREE-RANGE, PASTURE-RAISED, PADDOCK TO PLATE AND SO ON

Significant growth in the free range sector occurred; from a market share of less than 1 per cent in 1998 (when the first commercial scale ‘free-range’ chicken brand was launched) to almost 20 per cent two decades later.[vii] The “free-range” flesh industry has served as nothing more than a marketing tool designed for consumers to continue on with the same choices whilst allowing themselves to feel better about it.[viii] The vast majority of remaining birds (approximately 65%) are approved by RSPCA which means nothing to the chickens on the ground. They simply require a few steel perches to be erected throughout the shed and what the RSPCA refer to as “enrichment” to be available during their short lives. This usually comes in the form of plastic chains or CD’s dangling from the feeders here and there. Having been inside these sheds, it is clear the birds are suffering in all the same ways as any other ‘unapproved’ shed and the silly bits of hanging plastic make a further mockery of them in their abject misery.

A miniscule number of chickens, comparatively, are raised in the growing sector of self-termed ‘small-scale producers’, ‘regenerative farmers’, ‘ethicurean producers’, or ‘pasture raised systems’. These systems are very misleading and exist not for the benefit of the chickens but for their exploiters who can charge a premium price for the animals whose dead bodies they claim “taste better”, whilst often also putting themselves up on a pedestal as messiahs saving the planet.

One process of raising chickens in these small-scale exploitation industries is to house them in 4 x 4 metre aluminium and wire mobile pens that can be moved around the farm onto fresh grass regularly. Chickens are still crowded into these pens at a rate of approximately 5 birds per square metre. One self-proclaimed ‘kind’ exploiter casually referring to them as “couch potatoes that are like weird pugs” in an attempt to justify keeping them in such confined spaces. These chickens have still been purchased as one day old Cornish Cross Cobb or Ross breeds, bred from the same horrific three stage systems of suffering listed above. They maintain all of the physical ailments of their less fortunate shed bound relatives, cannot develop important social structures, nor roam freely in open spaces and of course are killed just the same whilst only babies. It is not possible to purchase heritage breeds to scale in Australia but if it were and they were raised under this less cruel although still confined system, the cost to purchase one dead chicken from the supermarket shelf would be approximately $60.

Industry sources estimate three million chickens were produced for meat in Australia in 1950-1951, compared with around 653 million in 2016-17.[ix] The scale of the torture and abuse from this utterly shameful industry is hard to fathom. Few species are as vulnerable as the humble chicken. Their cruel exploitation says a lot about our species and the cowardly way we will subject such immense suffering and ultimately the taking of life onto individuals just because we can.

Anyone who has lived with chickens liberated from the meat industry as I have been fortunate enough to do knows just how unique these individuals are from one to the next. Yet, one thing is always common. Their desire to live and live well is infectious. They are cheeky and inquisitive, their daily exploration of a large garden only just enough to satisfy their curiosity as they peck, dust bathe and stretch their legs and wings out in the sun. communicating with each other in ways we as onlookers are not privileged or skilful enough to fully understand. Stopping often to rest as they tire under their own weight, they are back up again as soon as they are able, getting the most out of every moment. Even once their bodies have begun to breakdown from premature arthritis, heart conditions and obesity they persevere until the very end.

I have held in my arms too many dying chickens from this atrocious, and despicable industry to count, from tiny chicks, to 18 month olds trapped in the bodies of very old men and women.

These are the lucky ones.

Author: Kristin Leigh
Occupation: Communications Manager & Volunteer Coordinator
Founder and President Vegan Rising

[i] https://www.chicken.org.au/chicken-meat-production/#Breeder_Flocks

[ii] http://en.aviagen.com/assets/Uploads/AA-GP-GuideJan2011.pdf

[iii]https://www.chicken.org.au/chicken-meat-production/#Comparison_Table_of_the_Main_Commercial_Meat_Chicken_Farming_Systems_and_Accreditation_Schemes

[iv] https://www.chicken.org.au/chicken-meat-production/#Rearing_the_Meat_Chicken_Flock

[v] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-16/chickens-boiled-alive-inside-melbourne-abattoir/9157186

[vi] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1086026609338164

[vii] https://www.chicken.org.au/history-of-the-industry-in-australia/

[viii] http://www.frepa.com.au/standards/meat-standards/

[ix] https://www.chicken.org.au/history-of-the-industry-in-australia/

One trillion silent screams

When I was a kid I always lived near a beach, Williamstown snorkeling or Bondi body surfing, that was what interested my friends and I the most growing up. Discovering that wonderland just under the waves was magical to a young kid. When you swim with a school of garfish or disturb a stingray sleeping on the bottom, or see an octopus out for a stroll for the first time, it’s an experience you’re not likely to forget. Just drifting with the tide and watching the sea life going on around you can be therapeutic.

Then you get older, and life’s responsibilities take hold, and you forget the things that brought you the most enjoyment in life. One day you wake up and see what we are doing to the billions of fishes and their habitats, which covers 2/3rds of our beautiful planet. To think of the amount of suffering we inflict daily on the inhabitants of our oceans is mind-boggling, yet we hardly give it a second thought, as we reach for that can of tuna on the supermarket shelf. Individual figures are hard to obtain because fishes are treated as weight and tonnage rather than the individuals that they are. In 2017 alone, the amount of fish caught worldwide was 174 million tonnes^[i] plus 26 million tonnes of illegal fishing^[ii]. This is 24% more than the 140.7 million tonnes caught in 2007.

Studies predict the total collapse of wild sea fish by 2048.[iii] A few years ago I would have thought that was impossible but if you watch the videos on youtube and see the quantities of fishes we are slaughtering daily you realise it is not only possible, it is inevitable.

The individual numbers are unimaginable, the estimates globally of fish killed start at 970 billion and run as high as 2,700 billion annually without by catch^[iv] (2007)

The Question is not “Can They Reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” (Jeremy Bentham 1789 English Philosopher)

YES, IT’S OFFICIAL: FISH FEEL PAIN AND SUFFER

Victoria Braithwaite, biologist of Penn State University and other fish biologists from around the world, have produced substantial evidence that fish experience conscious pain. It is possibly different from human pain, but it is still a kind of pain. At the anatomical level, fishes have neurons known as nociceptors, which detect potential harm, such as high temperatures, intense pressure, and caustic chemicals. Fishes produce the same opioids—the body’s innate painkillers—that mammals do. And their brain activity during injury is analogous to that in terrestrial vertebrates: sticking a pin into goldfish or rainbow trout, just behind their gills, stimulates nociceptors and a cascade of electrical activity that surges toward brain regions essential for conscious sensory perceptions (such as the cerebellum, tectum, and telencephalon), not just the hindbrain and brainstem, which are responsible for reflexes and impulses.[v]

A FEW THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT FISHES

Fishes, more than 37,000 species

Fishes have been evolving for 500 million years

Fishes learn hook and net shyness and avoidance and commit it to long-term memory

Fishes develop cultural traditions

Fishes recognise themselves and others

Fishes are social animals, love to hang out with friends

Fishes primary senses are just as good as humans and in some cases better.

Fishes level of mental complexity is on par with most other vertebrates

Fishes can watch TV, some have better eyesight than humans so the TV must be HD

Fishes can find escape routes in trawling experiments after 4 trials and commit it to long-term memory

Fishes are aware of what other fishes are thinking about them

Fishes practice reconciliation and cooperation using Machiavellian intelligence

Fishes use tools

Fishes are individuals within their group the same as humans

There are many more fishy things that we will keep for later dates.

WHAT A FISH KNOWS

Marine biologists in the Bahamas studying giant manta rays found that they can recognise their own reflections. This indicates self-awareness, a mental attribute previously known only in great apes, dolphins, elephants, and magpies.

The Frillfin Goby is a smart little 12 cm doe-eyed fish with a pouting mouth. At low tide, Frillfins hide in rocky tide pools. But if danger lurks – a hungry octopus, say – the Goby will jump to a neighbouring tide pool, with remarkable accuracy. They accomplish this feat by memorising the tide pool layout while swimming over it at high tide. They can do this in one pass and can still remember it after 40 days.

A Greenland Shark caught recently was aged at 392 years old and he may have been middle-aged as he was in very good health.[vi]

Hunting partnerships between groupers and moray eels have been observed on the reef. By working together these two top predators have devised a system that is to their mutual benefit. The moray eel will flush out their prey from the small crevices where the grouper can’t go. In open water or an enclosed channel, the prey becomes an easier target.

An orange-dotted tusk fish has been videotaped digging up a clam then swimming a distance and using a rock as an anvil to open the clam. This type of tool use has been reported in different parts of the world and shows that fish are more intelligent than they have previously been given credit for.

Busy cleaner fishes with a good reputation sometimes have a cue of client fish waiting their turn to be cleaned.

Friendly groupers swim up to divers like dogs for a pat and moray eel will cuddle a trusted diver. Even some shark species like getting a belly rub from an experienced diver.

Fishes on a reef system have been recorded talking to each other with over 80 different species communicating with sound.

FISH CAPTURE AND SLAUGHTER 
(Things we do for the dinner table)

If we consider that fishes are sentient beings, have an inherent interest in living and can feel pain, then we know that all methods of capture and slaughter are inhumane. Some of their suffering is listed below,

• pursued to exhaustion by nets
• crushed under the weight of other fish in trawl nets
• raised from deep water and suffer decompression effects e.g. burst swim bladders
• snared in gill nets
• confined in constricted seine nets
• spiked with hooks (gaffed) to bring them aboard
• caught on hooks, often for hours or days
• thrown live to tuna as bait
• impaled live on hooks as bait

Fishes caught on long lines and gill nets can struggle for hours or even days before they are brought onboard the fishing vessel. Once landed most fishes are left to asphyxiate or will die during processing, which may include gutting alive, filleting alive and freezing while still alive.

The time taken to die will depend on the species, treatment, and also on the temperature. In a Dutch study, the time taken for fishes to become insensible was measured for fishes subjected to gutting and to asphyxiation without gutting. This was done for several species of fishes (herring, cod, whiting, sole, dab and plaice). It was found that a considerable time elapsed before the fishes became insensible, as follows:

• gutting alive (gibbing in the case of herring): 25-65 minutes;
• asphyxiation without gutting: 55-250 minutes

Sometimes fishes are put onto ice as they suffocate, or into iced water. This is likely to result in rapid chilling. It is sometimes believed that cold-blooded animals become less sentient as they cool due to slowed nervous metabolism. However, the process of chilling has been shown to be stressful to fish and may cause violent escape behaviour. It is likely that putting wild-caught fishes onto ice, as they suffocate, will increase the severity of their distress. This practice may also cause them to suffer for longer.

TRAWLING

Fishes caught by trawling are chased to exhaustion by a bag-shaped net towed through the water. Once exhausted, the fish become overrun and swallowed by the net. Then they will start to panic and thrash their tails in attempts to escape. Collisions with the sides of the net and with other fishes may cause scale damage. As the fish collect in the narrow end of the net (cod end), they may be suffocated in the crush of other fish, or die from circulatory failure. Fish may experience decompression injuries, such as a burst swim bladder when raised from the deep water. The trawl tow may last for many hours. For species that have a closed swim bladder, the sudden change in pressure caused by raising them from some depth results in rapid decompression. Parts of the gut may be forced out of the mouth and anus, eyes may be forced from their orbits and the swim bladder may burst. Trawling especially shrimp trawling results in high levels of bycatch, it also destroys fish habitat.

PURSE SEINING

Fishes that are caught using this method are fishes that travel in large schools near the surface or mid depth of ocean They include tuna, sardines, mackerel, herring and anchovy. 

There are 3 types

1 Free School Purse Seining

   A free-swimming school is chased down and encircled

2 Dolphin-set Purse Seining

   In the Eastern Pacific Ocean dolphins are known to swim with large schools of tuna. Fishermen encircle both dolphins and tuna.

3 Floating Object Purse Seining

   The nets are set around floating objects (eg. logs or seaweed) or around man-made structures called fish aggregating devices or FADs

In purse seining, a school of fishes is gradually surrounded by a long wall of netting hanging in the water (about 200 metres) and towed into a circle (about 2 kims circumference). Once the loop is complete, the net is drawn together like a draw-string bag from the bottom, constraining the fishes. Fishes are likely to experience fear during this encirclement. The eventual crowding and confinement has been shown to be very stressful. Panicking fish are liable to incur injury and scale loss from collisions with other fishes and with the net walls. Fishes released at this stage (sometimes deliberately to avoid excess catch) often die, as a result of these injuries. Fishes can also incur further injury as they are transferred to the fishing vessel. The duration of the whole fishing operation is probably generally shorter than in trawling but fishes are still injured as they are crushed into a confined space as the Purse Seine tightens and is dragged onto the fishing vessel. The by catch includes turtles, dolphins, sharks and manta rays, even whales.

GILL NETS

A gill net is a wall of netting, hanging in the sea, which is invisible to fish. Fishes of a certain size, swimming into a gill net, will pass through it only as far as their head and become snared by the gills as they try to reverse. As the fish struggles to free itself, it may become yet more entangled, and is likely to experience fear and panic. Constriction of the gills by the netting can stop the fish from being able to breathe properly. Struggling results in cuts to the skin and scales. Sometimes snared fishes are attacked by predators, such as seals, leaving them wounded. Fish sometimes remain like this for many hours or even days, and some die before they are landed. Further injury can be caused during landing e.g. when fishes are gaffed (i.e. their bodies spiked with a hand-held hook) to bring them on board.

HAND LINE & ROD AND LINE FISHING

In hand line and “rod and line” fishing, the fish is caught individually with a hook and line. In trolling, lines bearing baited hooks or lures are towed through the water by a slow-moving vessel. Hooking is stressful to fish and causes an alarm response in which they will struggle to become free. This can lead to severe exhaustion. Hooking fishes causes injury which is sometimes severe, especially when fishes become hooked through the gills. Live fishes are sometimes impaled on hooks as bait in all forms of hook and line fishing. Sometimes fishes are gaffed to bring them aboard.

POLE & LINE FISHING

In “pole and line” fishing, the fishers create a feeding frenzy in a school of fish by scattering bait fishes such as anchovies and sardine, usually alive, over the side of the vessel (a practice called “chumming”). In this feeding frenzy, the fishes snap at barbless hooks attached to the fishers’ rod and lines. When a fish becomes hooked the fisher swings the rod, bringing the fish flying onto the deck behind and disengaging it from the lure. Sometimes live fish are impaled on hooks as bait. From the point of view of the target fish (as opposed to the bait fish) this method, although still horrific, may cause less suffering than others on account of the short duration of capture. The use of live bait fish greatly adds to the welfare cost of this fishing method.

LONG LINE FISHING

Long line fishing, or long lining, is a commercial fishing method that uses hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks hanging from a single line which may be 50-100km long. Unlike the other hook and line fishing methods discussed, which catch fishes quickly, fishes caught on long lines are landed hours or days later when the gear is hauled up. In this method of fishing, it is common for live fishes to be impaled on hooks as bait. The target fish, once hooked, may themselves be subsequently attacked by predators. Many sharks that are caught on long lines are “finned”. Their fins are cut off and they are thrown back into the sea, often still alive where they will endure a long, drawn-out death on the ocean floor. Long lines kill seabirds, sea turtles, sharks, and other non-target fish, which are attracted by the bait.

AQUACULTURE

Over 50% of global fishes produced come from aquaculture.

Fishes are crammed into pens like all the other intensive farming methods (think battery hens and dairy cows) where they are unable to perform their natural behaviours. Atlantic salmon, for instance, are deprived of swimming the great distances they would normally swim in the wild. Trout larvae hatch from eggs deposited in a stream bed. As they mature they gradually move downstream to live in a river or a lake or in the case of seagoing populations in the sea. Then as adults, they migrate upstream to lay their eggs.

Halstein T. 2004. writes that under intensive farming conditions, fishes “may reach the outer limit of their physiological margin due to maximal exploitation and stress, making them susceptible to a wide range of diseases, threatening ethical and welfare standards”.

Some production related diseases include skeletal deformities, soft tissue malformation, cataracts, and associated blindness.

High stocking densities can also lead to fin damage, fin lesions. bruising, scale loss, reduced growth, and feed intake.

University of Alberta researcher Martin Krkosek and University of Victoria’s John Volpe have predicted that some salmon runs in British Columbia will disappear because of aquaculture and its associated sea lice. The sea lice are suspected of killing baby salmon as they pass by the farms on their way to the ocean. Alexandra Morton moved to the Broughton Archipelago in British Columbia in 1984 to study the Orcas in the area that were plentiful. These days they are a rarity. The numbers of wild salmon have depleted and the orcas have gone. Other animals with salmon on the menu are the bears, eagles, and seals. So, it is expected to see a decline in their numbers as well.

Humans who eat fishes for their health are being duped yet again when it comes to omega-3 fatty acids. Because of the cost of feeding fishes smaller fishes, some farmed fishes are being fed corn and soy or other foodstuffs that contain little or no omega-3. On top of that farmed fishes are routinely dosed with antibiotics, which can cause antibiotic resistance in humans.

OUR RELATIONS WITH THE FISH WORLD

It is true that many people empathise less with fishes than they do with mammals or birds. For a start fishes are covered in mucous, and it’s not like you can cuddle them like you would a dog or cat. They also have a “public relations” problem in that their physiological and behavioural responses to painful or distressing events are not always obvious to humans. Fishes lack the ability to make facial expressions – they don’t blink and their vocalisations can’t be heard out of the water, so we can’t hear them scream if they’re in pain. But the more we learn about them, the more we find similarity with other animals.

Charles Darwin taught us that evolutionary continuity, in which variations among species are differences in degree rather than differences in kind. Then it follows, that a dog or chimpanzee or human pain experience may be different to a fish or a lobster pain experience. Still, each individual suffers his or her own pain.^[vii]

Some humans have clearly evolved more than others and have found that having respect for all life on earth is the only way that we will survive. There is no need to eat fishes or any other animal for that matter. All our dietary needs can be sourced from plants except vitamin B12 in the amount we need (due to current food production practices) so we supplement in tablet form. The freedom of knowing I am not intentionally hurting a single animal makes me wonder why it took me so long to become vegan.

“True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which is deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.”

― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Author: Steve Bacon
Occupation: Retired
Animal Rights Activist

Article cover image by Unparalleled Suffering

^[i] https://www.statista.com/statistics/264577/total-world-fish-production-since-2002/

^[ii] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/can-technology-help-tackle-illegal-fishing/

[iii] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/salt-water-fish-extinction-seen-by-2048/

^[iv] http://fishcount.org.uk/fish-count-estimates

[v] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fish-feel-pain-180967764/

[vi] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/shark-oldest-living-animal-greenland-age-400-death-caught-by-fisherman-alive-during-shakespeare-a7186521.html

^[vii] Marc Bekoff Professor of Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology