1) 52 billion animals

"Globally, the number of animals slaughtered for food in 2003 was 52.7 billion, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization."

2) Massive population of animals

"The growing consumption of meat, poultry and dairy products has created an explosion in livestock population worldwide."

3) Simply cannot be met by traditional or free-range farming methods - they necessitate intensive farming practices

"It is not practically possible to rear animals for food on a large scale without inflicting considerable suffering. Even if intensive methods are not used, traditional farming involves castration, separation of mother and young, breaking up social groups, branding, transportation to the slaughterhouse, and finally slaughter itself. It is difficult to imagine how animals could be reared for food without these forms of suffering. Possibly it could be done on a small scale, but we could never feed today's huge urban populations with meat raised in this manner."

4) Intensively raised animals

"A producer of broilers (table chickens) gets a load of 10,000, 50,000, or more day-old chicks from a hatchery, and put them into a long, windowless shed - usually on the floor, although some producers use tiers of cages in order to get more birds into the same size shed….

"Broiler chickens are killed when they are seven weeks old (the natural lifespan of a chicken is about seven years). At the end of this brief period, the birds weigh between four and five pounds (2 - 2.5 kilos); yet they still may have ....less than the area of a sheet of standard (A4) typing paper (450 square centimetres)....Under these conditions, when there is normal lighting, the stress of crowding and the absence of natural outlets for the birds' energies lead to outbreaks of fighting, with birds pecking at each other's feathers and sometimes killing and eating one another. Very dim lighting has been found to reduce such behaviour and so the birds are likely to live out their last weeks in near-darkness."

"Disease and behavioural abnormalities are rife in Australia's factory farmed pig systems... Lack of space is linked with aggression between animals. Barren pens, where nesting materials are absent, are linked with increased savaging of piglets by sows….

"The confinement of pregnant sows in stalls is an appalling practice. The stall is so narrow that it prevents the sow from turning round. The only exercise that the pregnant sow can take, during her four months confinement, is to stand up or lie down. If she lies down, she frequently has to do so in her own excrements."

"In a natural environment cattle are ruminant creatures that spend up to 12 hours a day grazing, seeking a variety of grasses. Not surprisingly intensive husbandry practices come with a variety of disorders and this is becoming more prevalent in feedlots. The Animal Research Institute in Queensland is seeking ways of dealing with new disease threats associated with intensive management of cattle. These include tick fever; buffalo fly; bovine herpes virus (BHV1); bovine respiratory disease (BRD); acidosis; feedlot bloat; liver abscesses; sudden death syndromes; botulism and pink eye. Causes of feedlot lameness include - toe abscesses; mechanical injury to the hoof; footrot; swollen joints; broken bones and muscle damage."

"Over the latter part of the 20th century wild catches of fish have increased by 500% to nearly 100 million tons per year and consequently wild fish populations have been decimated.....Agribusiness profiteers have exploited this situation and intensive farming of fish has doubled in the past decade. Approximately 1 in 5 fish consumed today have been reared in captivity......Fish crowded in these "farms" are susceptible to disease and suffocation. Agrichemicals are necessary to kill bacteria, disease and vegetation. Intensive factories of any kind bring with them unavoidable cruelty, disease, stress suffering and are environmentally devastating."

5) Even using non-intensive methods

"...it is not only intensive farming that causes animals to suffer. Suffering has been inflicted on animals for human benefit whether they are reared by modern or traditional methods. Some of this suffering has been normal practice for centuries. This may lead us to disregard it, but it is no consolation to the animal on whom it is inflicted. Consider, for example, some of the routine operations to which cattle are still subjected. "Nearly all beef producers dehorn, brand, and castrate their animals. All of these processes can cause severe physical pain... "Other animals are treated in similiar ways when they are raised for food. And finally, in considering the welfare of animals under traditional systems, it is important to remember that almost all methods involve the separation of mother and young at an early age, and that this causes considerable distress to both."

"The modern dairy cow is a milk machine, she will be milked twice, perhaps three times each day for ten months, she will be milked until about 6 to 8 weeks before her next calf is due and then again as soon as her calf is removed. This intense cycle of pregnancy and hyperlactation places an overwhelming toll on her and at around 5 years of age she will be sent to slaughter."

6) Natural life span

"Animals [cows] that can live into their mid-twenties are exhausted after two or three pregnancies and are slaughtered."

"Broiler chickens are killed when they are seven weeks old (the natural lifespan of a chicken is about seven years)."

7) Food animals suffer horribly before and while they die

"Transportation of animals includes more than the final trip to slaughter.... Animals placed in a truck for the first time in their lives are likely to be frightened....The motion of the truck is also a new experience, and one which may make them ill. After one or two days in the truck without food or water they are desperately thirsty and hungry.... If the journey is in winter, subzero winds can result in severe chill; in summer the heat and sun may add to the dehydration caused by the lack of water.... Others die before reaching destination, or arrive with broken limbs and other injuries."

"All animals fear when they're going to die. If he don't want to go, if he falls down, they beat him with pipes, kick them, hit them with pieces of wood, stick them with knives. If he still won't move, you wrap the cable around his neck and drag them with the hoist. You drag them while they're still alive. Choke them to death."

8) Respect life - keep animals off your plate

"I don't like the idea that to have a piece of steak or a chop on the table, a living creature has to have its throat slit and be skinned."

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