Tricked Into Buying ‘Humane’ Meat? Tell Us Your Story!
As people learn how factory farming hurts animals and begin to demand changes, meat producers are making improvements―to their labels. If you were misled by the labels, PETA wants to hear from you. The meat case at any given supermarket is well stocked with packages of flesh bearing reassuring pledges that the animal was “humanely raised,” hoping compassionate consumers will eat it up. Literally. But what do those labels really mean? Here’s the scoop:
In all our years of eyewitness investigations, PETA has yet to find a “humane factory farm”―one on which pigs aren’t castrated, chickens’ sensitive beaks aren’t cut off, and calves don’t have to endure branding and dehorning. None of these animals is given painkillers. By anyone’s standards, treating animals humanely doesn’t involve cramming them onto feces-filled feedlots or into warehouses where the stench of ammonia burns their eyes.
Humanely raised animals wouldn’t be denied basic rights such as sunlight and fresh air. They wouldn’t have their infants torn away from them. And they would never know the horror of looking on as other animals are hung upside down and have their throats slit. With no escape, they can only wait for their turn to come. Animals can experience all this and more, and yet, in a final act of injustice, companies can still decorate their packages of meat with stickers that proclaim, “natural,” “free-range,” “cage-free,” “sustainable,” and “humane.”
Are you one of the many people who feel tricked by “humane meat” labels? PETA would like to hear how you feel you were misled. Please e-mail us your story.