The MSPCA believes farmed animals are creatures of intrinsic value, complexity, and dignity. The MSPCA further believes that the billions of animals raised each year in the United States for food, clothing, and other products are entitled to live free of unnecessary pain, suffering, and stress and to a humane death. To learn more about the MSPCA’s position on the humane treatment of farmed animals, read our statement of belief. You can also learn about the MSPCA’s Nevins Farm, an Animal Care and Adoption Center in Methuen. Nevins provides refuge for all farmed animals and is New England’s only open-door horse and large animal rescue center.
Learn more about farmed animal issues below. Scroll to the bottom for more information on factory farming specifically.
More About Factory Farming
Over the past several decades, industrial-type farm settings, commonly called factory farms, have replaced traditional, more natural farm settings. They aim to produce the highest output at the lowest cost, largely regardless of the implications for animal welfare. The MSPCA condemns factory farm practices that cause needless pain, suffering, and stress to the animals involved.
“Factory farms” are characterized by crates and cages that either completely isolate individual animals from others of their species or crowd many animals together to save space and increase efficiency. Other standard practices on factory farms include diet manipulation in ways that interfere with animal health, handling animals in stressful, dangerous ways, surgeries performed without appropriate use of anesthesia, procedures performed on animals solely to prevent injuries resulting from confinement-induced stress, and selective breeding practices that produce inhumane characteristics.
Factory farms routinely feed their livestock prophylactic antibiotics in order to sustain growth and reproduction under unhealthy conditions, a practice that increases antibiotic resistance — both for people and animals. Read about the FDA’s efforts to combat antibiotic overuse in farmed animals.
Many studies have been conducted on factory farms to better understand their impact on people, animals, and the environment. For example, the Pew Commission’s report, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America, calls for significant changes in factory farm milk, eggs, and meat production. Three of the Commission’s key recommendations are:
- Banning non-therapeutic use of antimicrobials in food animal production;
- Phasing out the most intensive and inhumane production practices (i.e., gestation crates and battery cages); and
- Overhauling the current farm waste system.
For example, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production released a 2 1/2 year analysis-based report, called Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America, which calls for major changes in the way factory farms produce milk, eggs and meat. Three of the Commission’s key recommendations are:
- Banning non-therapeutic use of antimicrobials in food animal production;
- Phasing out the most intensive and inhumane production practices (i.e., gestation crates and battery cages); and
- Replacing the broken farm waste system that we have today.
