The US meat industry threw birds out with the trash

You may have heard the term ‘depopulation’, or culling, used by meat industry executives, including John Tyson, Founder and Chairman of Tyson Foods. This horrendous practice is the process of killing and discarding the millions of animals who are caught in a ‘backlog’ due to disruptions in the supply chain.

The hyper-consolidated meat industry raises animals in massive facilities that are, effectively, controlled by a select few industry giants. Therefore, any disruption in the system—like slaughterhouse closings due to COVID-10 outbreaks—results in a bottleneck.

Focused entirely on efficiency and profit, the industry breeds the animals to grow abnormally fast and large. Due to the fast-rising cases and deaths of COVID-19 among slaughterhouse workers, these living, breathing, intelligent and curious animals were not able to be killed fast enough to keep up with our nation’s demand for meat.

Gruesome yet legal

While baffling, those raising animals for food are permitted to use any of the horrendous methods that are approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association to kill animals. What’s wrong with this picture?

The process of culling baby animals ranges from electrocution to suffocation. For instance, a lethal amount of foam is pumped into barns full of week-old living chickens while still conscious. The foam gradually creeps across the floor, immobilizes, and drowns the birds over the course of 15 minutes. For many suckling pigs, culling means blunt trauma to their skulls or death by hot steam. Since these practices are currently legal and regular practice, it can be expected that millions of animals will be killed this way.

Though heart-wrenching, these methods are no more cruel than traditional forms of slaughter used by the industry, and yet companies have been using this talking point to seek sympathy from their consumers and the general public. They cannot claim they never wanted to kill these animals when that’s exactly what they planned to do. Afterall, they breed and raise these animals by the millions, simply so they can become meat on a plate.

Living beings discarded

Millions of animals—on top of the tens of millions slaughtered for food every day in our country—are being killed off in these gruesome manners. After a short, but terrible life of suffering within this industrialized system, these animals will not end up in the food supply chain like many may expect, even at a time when food banks are desperate for donations.

The poultry industry, in particular, breeds chickens to grow so unnaturally large, so unnaturally fast, that they are unable to hold the weight of their own bodies. Their natural lifespans are cut drastically short as it is—at just seven weeks of age.

We can create change

Thanks to organizations like Animal Place, a sanctuary based in California, one thousand chickens were saved from their inevitable fate of being ‘depopulated’ by the industry. These egg-laying hens, who would have been killed off once their production slows down at 12-18 months, now have many years of life ahead of them. They can now be seen practicing their natural tendencies like perching, dust bathing, and socializing together, free from the unbearable confinement of the only life they ever knew.

The shameful industry practice of depopulation is just one horrific outcome of our already broken food system. No one, in good conscience, could excuse these cruel, senseless, and wasteful actions.

By taking action in our campaign against Tyson Foods, the largest poultry producer in the country, we can work together to reduce and ultimately end the abuse of animals raised for food.

Together, we can bring light to these hidden horrors of factory farming. Together, we can fix our broken food system.