The number of chickens and poultry birds worldwide exceeds three times the human population. Each one possesses the capacity to feel pain and acute discomfort, just as humans do. Yet they are routinely subjected to extreme cruelty in factory farm conditions and during transit. The familiar phrase "as free as birds" has lost all meaning for chickens; more apt analogies might be "as caged as a chicken in a factory farm" or "as degraded as a factory farm chicken."
Chickens are trapped in such crowded conditions that each may be allocated space equivalent to a single sheet of typing paper. They live and sleep in filth, sometimes in their own faeces. Their pointed beaks are often cut off in highly painful ways. Broiler chickens are genetically manipulated to gain weight rapidly, affecting organs in painful ways—some become unable to drag themselves to access food and water. Egg-laying hens may be deliberately starved or deprived of water to prepare them for another laying cycle. In transit to slaughter, chickens may be held upside down and subjected to acute discomfort.
Humanity carries out these practices against a species that serves us selflessly yet has no means of protesting the most extreme forms of pain inflicted upon it. This is done to a species three times more numerous than humanity. Imagine the scale of distress inflicted daily—no questions asked, no tears shed except by a small number of animal rights activists.
This is just one aspect of the many-sided injustice caused to birds, animals, and other species. While the need for wide-ranging reform of world farming and food systems has been increasingly voiced, one relatively neglected aspect concerns improving animal welfare and protecting animals from manifold cruelties. As family farms are replaced by factory-type operations in increasingly industrialized agriculture, the condition of farm animals deteriorates rapidly—a dominant trend at the world level.
Factory farming pursues increased production single-mindedly while ignoring animal distress. Naturally clean animals are forced to remain for long hours in their own excreta. The reckless pursuit of quick, fleshy growth for profit leads to equally reckless searches for cheap protein sources that may be unhealthy and unethical. Cows are given oxytocin injections to extract milk they are not ready to yield, causing pain and harming their health. Indiscriminate exposure to chemicals and antibiotics has become widespread.
The extent of dehumanization is evident from advice given by a leading magazine for "pig production engineers": "Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him like a machine in a factory. Schedule treatment like you would lubrication." Such an attitude, based on complete insensitivity to pig suffering, translates into terrible cruelty. As Gayle Hardy describes: "After having been 'served' on a 'rape rack' the female pig is tethered in a metal-barred stall where she is unable to take more than one step backward or one step forward during her entire pregnancy."
Another distressing aspect is that animals are considered merely for their market value, with hardly any value attached to them as living beings. When wool prices fell in the international market some years ago, millions of sheep were simply killed in Australia and buried in mass graves. Time magazine reported on January 14, 1991: "Across the rolling countryside, the normal peace of rural life is being shattered these days by volleys of gunfire... rifle shots echo over the rangelands as sheep farmers execute one of the largest animal holocausts in history."
This is intolerably cruel—an extreme example of human-centric injustice. The message is clear: we keep sheep as long as they earn for us; when they do not, we kill them by the millions. The worth of sheep is only monetary; there is no consideration of them as living beings. A glaring contradiction emerges: 20 million sheep are killed to "rescue" the wool export market.
These farmers feel terrible about the killings but feel bound by the market system in which they are trapped. Why not opt for smaller-scale, low-cost, organic, close-to-nature mixed farming systems producing diverse products so farmers are not unduly affected by price downslides of any single product? If problems exist in adopting such farming under present systems, why not work to change those systems?
One lesser-known aspect of the COVID-19 period was the deliberate suffocating, drowning, and shooting of millions of farm animals and birds in the meat industry—largely reported in the USA but likely occurring elsewhere with similar conditions. Approximately 10 million hogs and as many hens were killed in painful ways by late 2020.
Methods for killing pigs included gassing, shooting, anaesthetic overdose, and "blunt force trauma"—which critics noted included "slamming piglets against the ground." One approved method was shutting down ventilator systems with added CO2 so animals suffocate—described by critics as "essentially cooking the pigs alive." Many hens were smothered by water-based foam.
While the word "euthanasia" was frequently used, critics pointed out this cannot apply to these killings, as most were highly painful. The full scale across all countries is difficult to determine as the industry has not been keen to share information.
Even the revealed portion has been reported as something that happened in the special context of COVID-19, suggesting we can forget and move on. This is absolutely wrong. Instead of forgetting, we should learn lessons to prevent repetition. Such cruel killings did not occur in most countries. We must identify what was special about conditions in the USA meat industry.
One important factor: concentration and consolidation in the USA meat industry has been very high. In normal times this suits the industry, enabling more profits. However, once big processing plants shut down, other avenues become unavailable—a key factor creating conditions for mass cruel killings.
Second, the meat industry and factory farming linked to it have been so obsessed with profit-making that vital animal welfare aspects have been largely forgotten, resulting in routine cruelties even in normal times. Because of routine neglect of animal welfare, the extreme cruelty during COVID-19 could be readily accepted.
These problems persist today. Instead of dismissing COVID-19 cruelties as forgettable, we should learn from this tragedy to initiate urgent reforms increasing animal welfare and avoiding routinized cruel practices.
Now consider a different form of mass killing in "modern" farming. If a prize were offered for guessing which life form has served humanity most valuably with greatest continuity and selflessness, few would suggest earthworms. Yet earthworms have performed a most valuable role without asking anything in return, with their selfless service continuing 24/7 throughout the year.
If asked which friend of humanity has been treated most cruelly, the answer would again be earthworms. While humanity left them alone for most of history, during recent decades it has inflicted nothing less than genocide—billions have perished under the assault of agro-chemicals and related factors.
Charles Darwin called earthworms "builders of human civilization," and for good reason. Their contribution, along with other soil organisms, for building organic content and maintaining natural soil fertility is immense and irreplaceable. Earthworms contribute through their natural activities—feeding, excretion, and movement within soil—needing no feeding or prompting, only the elementary courtesy of not being disturbed.
Their movements maintain and increase soil porosity, improving water absorption and retention—helpful during rains to prevent floods and later during droughts. However, using poisonous agro-chemicals has caused colossal declines in earthworm numbers. As the World Resources Report notes, in intensive monocultures using heavy chemical doses, "wholesale elimination of helpful soil-dwelling insects and micro-organisms that build soil and plant nutrition sometimes occurs, essentially sterilizing the soil."
The best friends of humanity and farmers have been killed in billions by human activities promoted by big business interests and allied officials and scientists. Before such disruption, a single village's land could shelter millions of earthworms; now there has been a sharp decline.
This harm cannot be undone by bringing earthworms from elsewhere as manure. Living beings cannot be reduced to manure, and one species cannot play the same vibrant role in distant lands. There is no alternative to re-creating healthy soil where earthworms and micro-organisms can return on their own.
Unfortunately, this great reduction has occurred when we need earthworms most. In times of climate change, soil organic content becomes even more important for maintaining fertility and absorbing carbon. Soil porosity is also more important amid increasing droughts and floods. Revival, protection, and care of earthworms and soil-dwelling organisms should be accepted as essential responsibilities in village farms and urban gardens worldwide.
Butterflies are recognized worldwide as the most beautiful insects. Watching them fly or sit on flowers brings joy—children can spend hours doing just this. However, butterflies are not just a source of happiness. They are important pollinators contributing to farming, biodiversity, and food supplies.
So it is deeply worrying that butterfly numbers are declining fast in most parts of the world. Studies show declines of 30 to 90 percent. Several species have become extinct; many more are on the verge. This is happening due to wider factors and some cruel practices specific to butterflies.
Wider factors include widespread chemical pesticide and herbicide use, GM crops, biodiversity loss, and decline of indigenous plants and flowers. Chemical pesticides have proved most harmful for these gentle, fragile insects. Climate change is another adverse factor whose impact will increase.
Ironically, their very beauty has become the reason for cruel exploitation by forces seeing butterflies mainly as commercial profit sources. According to a 2005 study, illegal butterfly trade was estimated at 100 million dollars annually worldwide. This takes forms from ornaments to knick-knacks like paper weights and pen-stands—some made in ways involving much cruelty.
Many butterflies are smuggled from various countries. Live butterflies are ordered online and sent frozen, often dying in transit. Some procure large numbers for release at special events; these often die soon or spread diseases among local species. Others capture butterflies for study, experimentation, and decoration.
All these factors cause pain and distress to butterflies while leading to their rapid decline. Butterflies need more ecologically protective conditions for survival. All cruel practices against them should be strictly banned and bans strictly implemented—especially necessary in regions like the Himalayan region and Western Ghats where illegal activities are known to exist, and which are home to much sought-after butterfly species.
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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril and A Day in 2071. His website is bharatdogra.in and his YouTube channel is Bharat Dogra | Save Earth Campaign
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