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Chapter 6.5 Mutilation of Farm Animals
Farmed animals are commonly mutilated. Animal mutilation is removing or destroying part of an animal for non-healing purposes. Mutilation is an attempt to make the animals fit the conditions of the farm, rather than fit the farm around the animals. Conditions on factory farms are so severe that animals may injure and even cannibalise one another. Farmers try to suppress such behaviour by cutting off bits of the animals. The beaks of hens and the tails of pigs and sheep are normally cut off on farms with a high animal density. Farmers give varied reasons for mutilating animals (see the Table below). The actual purpose of mutilation is to maintain the efficiency of the farming system, that is to minimise costs and maximise profits. Some authorities prefer to call mutilations 'surgical operations' or ‘surgical procedures’, but this is clinical rambling that does not convey reality. It is not surgeons but farmhands - with no special training and no anaesthetic for the animals - who most often carry out mutilations. Their treatment of animals ensures that many animals suffer chronic as well as acute mental and physical pain.
Further InformationMutilations (Permitted Procedures) (England) Regulation 2007. Britain may have relatively the most stringent animal welfare laws; conditions for animals in other countries will be as bad or worse.Stevenson, Peter. For Their Own Good: a study of farm animal mutilations. 1994. Published by Compassion in World Farming. www.ciwf.org.uk. A relatively old document but the practice of mutilations it outlines continues largely unchanged. ›› To Entries & Home |
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