Farm animal cruelty
From painful mutilations to rough handling and slaughter at a young age – animals on factory farms suffer on many levels.
Factory farming
What we do
Banner image credit: Misssheep
Globally, more than 80 billion animals suffer on factory farms each year, with the vast majority cruelly confined to low-welfare industrial farming systems.
Factory farming does not just inflict unimaginable suffering on billions of animals, but the intensive and cruel methods also lead to the destruction of habitats and release climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Environmental impact
Intensive animal agriculture causes billions of animals to suffer annually, and also causes significant harm to the environment.
How factory farming is funded
Factory farming operations are typically financed by banks and investors, who allocate resources to industries that yield maximum profits.
Public health
Approximately three-quarters of the world’s antibiotics are used in animals, most of which are living in miserable and unsanitary conditions on factory farms.
Live export
We have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the immense suffering of millions of sheep and cattle in the live export trade.
It is estimated that 75% of all antibiotics used globally are given to farmed stressed animals as a band-aid to stop them from getting sick due to the conditions they are kept in, rather than fixing the issues that lead to illnesses in the first place.
This can contribute to the rapid rise and spread of bacteria known as ‘superbugs’, which are resistant to medicines used to fight life-threatening diseases in humans.
It is not widely recognised that factory farming also significantly contributes to climate change.
Cows and sheep belch methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases are also emitted from animal manure and transport, and from deforestation for grazing and to produce feed for factory-farmed animals.
It is time we put an end to this cruel practice and transition to a high-welfare food system that is sustainable and will have fewer negative impacts on animals, human health, and the environment.
At World Animal Protection, we work tirelessly to ensure farmed animals live good lives by transforming the global food system and attitudes towards farm animal welfare.
Together, we can be the generation that ends factory farming. Forever.
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