How Are Factory Farms Cruel to Animals?

So what exactly is factory farming, and is it cruel to animals?

What is factory farming?

Factory farms—also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—are a form of intensive animal agriculture designed to maximize output at scale. Virtually all animal products in the United States are produced on factory farms, and while the model originated in the US, it is becoming increasingly common worldwide. Terrestrial systems encompass pigs, cows, chickens, and sheep. Aquaculture—raising large numbers of salmon and other fish in controlled facilities—is also considered factory farming.

Is factory farming cruel?

Factory farming is engineered to produce high volumes of food at the lowest possible cost. Animals require continuous food, water, and shelter to reach slaughter weight or to produce high quantities of milk and eggs. Cost‑saving measures—smaller cages, high stocking densities, and extreme confinement—keep animals alive and productive with minimal inputs. The result is that animals—along with industry workers and the environment—often bear the costs of efficiency.

Because farmed animals are legally property, they are frequently treated as production units rather than as the sensitive, emotional, and intelligent individuals they are. Across their short lives, many are prevented from performing natural behaviors, subjected top ainful procedures without anesthesia, and/or repeatedly impregnated with offspring removed soon after birth.

How does factory farming affect animals?

Across species, factory farms use routine mutilations, intensive confinement, and other interventions to optimize production. These practices benefit output but are generally harmful to animals.

Confinement

Confinement is a defining feature of industrial systems. Beef cattle may spend time on pasture, but they are typically “finished” in crowded feedlots where animals stand closely together, often in their own waste. Many other species spend their entire lives indoors.

Layer hens are frequently kept in battery cages—small wire enclosures that provide each bird about a sheet of printer paper’s worth of floor space and are typically around 15 inches high. Birds cannot spread their wings without striking the cage or another hen. In these cages, the hens are virtually unable to perform any of their natural behaviors, including dust‑bathing, nesting, and scratching.Female pigs are confined to cages not much bigger than their bodies.

Breeding sows—female pigs used for reproduction—are commonly confined to gestation crates during their roughly four‑month long pregnancies and again after giving birth. Sows are unable to turn around, including when nursing, and their piglets are typically removed permanently within weeks. Several countries have limited or banned gestation crates due to welfare concerns; the US continues to allow their use.

Birds are debeaked

Mutilations often begin on day one. Within hours of hatching, many chicks are sent through a debeaking machine that removes portions of the upper and lower beak. The procedure aims to reduce injurious pecking—behavior that is often observed in crowded, stimulus‑poor environments and is associated with chronic stress. Beyond acute pain, evidence suggests many birds experience long‑term pain and sensory impairment after the procedure.

Cows and pigs are tail-docked

Tail docking—the removal of part or most of the tail—is common and often performed without anesthesia. In pigs, tail‑docking is intended to deter tail‑biting, a behavior that emerges under intensive confinement. In dairy cattle, docking is performed to reduce disease transmission and ease milking, but these claims carry little weight compared with the pain and health complications cows can suffer.

Genetic manipulation

Through selective breeding and other genetic techniques, traits that increase yield are intensified—larger breast muscle in chickens, higher milk output in cows, and faster growth in pigs—boosting productivity and profit.

• Chickens growing larger pectoral muscles (breast meat)
• Cows producing higher volumes of milk
• Pigs growing larger in shorter periods of time

Selective breeding and other genetic interventions don’t just increase output; these interventions reshape animals’ bodies in ways that can compromise their basic health and comfort. In meat chickens, rapid growth concentrates mass in the breast. Many birds develop painful lameness, joint disorders, and contact dermatitis from prolonged sitting; some collapse under their own weight or suffer cardiopulmonary issues such as ascites and sudden death syndrome. Around 30% of broiler hens are unable to walk properly, reflecting the scale of mobility problems tied to extreme growth rates.

In dairy cows, genetic selection for milk production can leave them persistently underweight despite eating high quantities of food, especially after calving. This metabolic strain is associated with higher risks of ketosis, displaced abomasum, impaired immunity, mastitis, lameness, and reduced fertility. Agricultural scientists have even reflected, “The transition from the pregnant, nonlactating state to the nonpregnant, lactating state is too often a disastrous experience for the cow.”

Similar trade‑offs appear in other species. Breeding sows, for example, selected for prolific litters are more prone to shoulder sores and reproductive complications. Across systems, the through‑line is clear: when animals’ bodies are engineered primarily for output, their welfare often deteriorates.

Violence and inhumane treatment

Definitions of “inhumane” vary. Producers often assert that animals’ needs are met; advocates argue that intensive confinement and early slaughter are intrinsically harmful. Lifelong indoor confinement without access to sunlight or natural environments can reasonably be viewed as harmful. Killing animals who are still juveniles—as is common for chickens, pigs, lambs, veal, and beef cattle—and repeatedly impregnating females while separating them from offspring are practices many consider violent.

Factory farms are predicated on violence and treating animals inhumanely. Even if perspectives on “humane” differ, a core critique is that industrial systems prioritize output in ways that normalize practices many people see as inherently inhumane.

How are factory-farmed animals killed?

Slaughter systems are designed for throughput. When line speeds are high and stunning is incomplete, animals may experience avoidable suffering. Faster lines also increase injury risk for workers, especially when animals are still conscious and moving.

Cows

Cattle are guided into a chute while their heads are restrained. A captive‑bolt gun—firing a retractable metal bolt—is applied to the skull to render the animal unconscious, after which the animal is hoisted by a hind leg, the throat is cut, and the carcass is disassembled.

Fish

Common methods for fish slaughter include percussive stunning (a blow to the head). Many fish are instead left to asphyxiate in air or on ice—an approach increasingly viewed as inhumane because fish can remain conscious for minutes to hours after removal from water, and growing evidence indicates they feel pain.

Pigs

Pigs may be electrically stunned using a head‑to‑body current or exposed to CO₂ gas. Although CO₂ is often described as more humane, it can cause significant distress before loss of consciousness.

Chicken

Chickens are commonly slaughtered using live‑shackle systems. Birds are inverted and their legs fixed into metal shackles—often causing fractures. They pass through an electrified water bath intended to stun, then to a neck‑cutting blade, and finally into scalding tanks to loosen feathers. Ineffective stunning means some birds drown in scald tanks or die from blood loss while conscious.

Is factory farming a defensible practice?

Factory farming imposes costs on animals, people, and ecosystems. Many commentators and advocates argue it is no longer defensible—especially given the growth of plant‑based alternatives to meat and dairy. Whether one agrees or not, the ethical questions are increasingly central to policy, corporate sourcing, and consumer behavior.

Animal cruelty on factory farms: statistics

Selected data points illustrate the scale and nature of concerns:

• Pneumonia is common among factory‑farmed pigs, with one report finding infection rates of 80 percent.
• Around 30% of broiler hens are unable to walk properly due to genetic manipulation.
• Five‑to‑ten percent of hens die during “forced moultings,” where layer hens are deprived of food and water to induce further laying cycles.

Laws to protect factory-farmed animals

Legal protections exist but are limited and inconsistently enforced. In the US, livestock welfare standards are relatively lax, and two federal laws are most often cited.

The 28-Hour Law

Transport—moving animals from farms to slaughterhouses—causes stress. The 28‑Hour Law requires that livestock not be confined in transit for more than 28 consecutive hours without being offloaded for rest, water, and food; carriers can request extensions up to 36 hours.

The Humane Slaughter Act

The Humane Slaughter Act mandates humane handling and effective stunning for covered species in federally inspected facilities. Notably, the act excludes chickens and other birds, leaving billions of animals outside its scope.

Laws protecting factory farms

Industrial animal agriculture is supported by substantial financial and political resources. In several US states, so‑called “ag‑gag” laws criminalize or deter the documentation of conditions inside agricultural facilities by workers, advocates, or journalists. While there is no federal ag‑gag statute, state‑level provisions have proliferated—often in response to undercover investigations.

What can you do to change the industry?

Billions of animals endure industrial conditions each year. As long as demand persists for cheap meat, dairy, and eggs, factory farming will remain dominant.

There are practical ways to support change. Consumers, employees, investors, and companies can set standards that reduce the most severe forms of confinement, increase transparency, and reward better practices. The movement to end practices such as battery cages for hens is gaining traction. You can add your voice by asking corporations to do better for animals and by supporting initiatives that prioritize credible commitments and verification. Together, incremental steps can drive measurable improvements across supply chains.