GoVeg

Life on the farm isn't what it used to be. The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes portrayed in children's books have been replaced by windowless sheds, tiny crates, wire cages, and other confinement systems integral to what is now known as "factory farming." Today the majority of farmed animals are: Fortunately, each one of us has the power to help end this suffering by simply choosing to eat vegetarian.media type="custom" key="3647715" ||
 * confined to the point that they can barely move,
 * denied veterinary care,
 * mutilated without painkillers,
 * and finally slaughtered -- often while fully conscious. ||

In the U.S., more than 41 million of these sensitive animals suffer and die for the meat and dairy industries every year. When they are still very young, cows are burned with hot irons (branding), their testicles are ripped out of their scrotums (castration), and their horns are cut or burned off—all without painkillers. Once they have grown big enough, they are sent to massive, muddy feedlots to be fattened for slaughter or to dairy farms, where they will be repeatedly impregnated and separated from their calves until their bodies give out and they are sent to die. Cattle raised for beef are usually born in one state, fattened in another, and slaughtered in yet another. They are transported hundreds of miles in all weather extremes to the slaughterhouse. Many cows die on the way to slaughter, and those who survive are shot in the head with a bolt gun, hung up by their legs, and taken onto the killing floor, where their throats are cut and they are skinned.media type="custom" key="3647729"