What Would it Look if We Treated Our Pets Like Animals in a Factory Farm? (PHOTOS)

The disconnect between animals and food is something that gets a lot of discussion, especially amongst those who’ve noticed it. For a large percentage of us, the items that we purchase in the grocery store have been processed and packaged in such a way that we never even think about what (or more importantly, who) that item used to be. Let alone the process it underwent to make it to our plates.

But once that connection is made, once we realize that burgers, nuggets, omelets and bacon all come from an animal, an entirely new internal debate begins. Are these animals intrinsically different from other animals, so processing them into food isn’t so bad? Are they somehow less able to experience discomfort than, say, a dog or a cat?

Sometimes we all just need to reframe our thinking to see things in a different light. If we take a moment to picture just how unsettling we would think a cat in a battery cage or a dog in a veal crate would look, maybe we might be able to come to the conclusion that all animals are the same. Eating one and loving another doesn’t seem to make much sense when we realize that, at the heart of it, all animals deserve the respect that we only seem to give to some.

We would never crowd cats into a warehouse and call them “free range.”

Occupy For Animals

A dog in a gestation crate, with barely enough room to move and no room to turn around, is completely  unthinkable. 

Farm Sanctuary

The crowded and inhumane confines of a battery cage are no place for a kitten. Why would a chicken be happy in here, again?

Food Safety News

If dogs took the place of calves in veal crates, taking it off of the menu wouldn’t be much of a fight.

Force Change

Crowded in, fattened up and then sent off to the slaughter house by 18-months of age? We wouldn’t do it to our dogs. Why do we do it to our cows?

The Dairy Mom

Lead Background Image Credit: Thedairymom.blogspot.com