“Meat and Milk Factories” by Peter Singer and Jim Mason

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Jessica Hall ENG 140 6/19/2012 Week 7 Assignment “Meat and Milk Factories” by Peter Singer and Jim Mason In the essay “Meat and Milk Factories,” Peter Singer and Jim Mason discuss the cruel treatment of animals, which is inflicted to them by their caretakers. Although several farmers simply refused to talk to Singer and Mason, a select few invited the duo to their farms. Singer and Mason visited these particular “ranches,” which were located throughout the United States, and collected information on the issues from each of them. The effects of their tours were atrocious. There are many instances throughout the essay when they detail the poor treatment of pigs and cows in the US. These farmers receive no consequences for their ill actions towards the livestock. Singer and Mason suggest that altering the words used to refer to these animals could possibly help reduce the amount of mistreatment towards them. Most livestock animals are kept in stalls that reduce or restrict their ability to move around comfortably. These animals are forced to repetitively give birth, either for creating more meat or producing as much milk as possible, without any concern for their health or wellness. "Is it part of the gulf we draw between ourselves and other animals that leads farmers to talk of animals as 'farrowing' rather than 'giving birth,' 'feeding' rather than 'eating,' and 'gestating' rather than 'being pregnant'?” (p. 341). Changing these words in such a way is meant to make it easier for people who drink milk from a store or eat pre-packaged meat to enjoy such fruits of nature without worrying about the lives of the animals from which they came. Most people do not want to know about the enormous number of animals being confined to small pens, the techniques used to get cows to over-produce milk, or how the animals are slaughtered. The farmers producing these animals

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