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Animal Place: CATTLE: Not so free on the range

People often glorify the raising of cattle for "beef" as a proud American tradition, one steeped in western lore and romanticism. The truth of the matter is that the cattle industry today is not so pretty and there is certainly nothing romantic about it.

Life On the Range

Many cattle raised for human consumption begin their life "on the range" where they are born and raised for the first year or more of their lives. During this period, they are rounded up and branded with hot irons, have their ears pierced with tags, and the males have their testicles cut off. Some cattle may also have their horns gouged out. All cattle endure all these painful procedures without anesthesia.

Environmental Impact

Although they may roam freely on the land during this time, there is a high cost for this due to the destruction of the ecosystem by the cattle. The delicate balance between wildlife, plants and animals, is upset by these heavy, destructive and unnatural creatures who cause soil erosion and destruction of natural waterways.

 

Innocent Bystanders

Because natural predators do not know that the cattle "belong" to human beings, they may occasionally eat a sickly or weak calf. Though this is a rare occurrence, the federal government runs a costly, highly nonselective program to destroy all such predators, the vast majority of whom are innocent of any "transgression" against human beings. This is done with guns, traps, snares, poisons and other barbaric means of indiscriminate killing.

Feed Lots: Fat City

After the cattle have reached a certain age, they are then rounded up and loaded onto trucks for the next phase of their short lives. They are sold at auction to companies who then place them in feed lots. Here, they spend the next several months of their lives under filthy, crowded and barren conditions being "finished." This includes the feeding of hormones and antibiotics to cause rapid weight gain.

These drugs can then get into the human food chain causing potentially serious problems. The cattle are also fed a diet rich in carbohydrates and protein in order to fatten them up. Much of this diet is made up of grains which are produced on land which could have been used to produce food for direct human consumption. From here, the next stop is another auction yard and then to the slaughterhouse.


What You Can Do

There are many non animal replacements for all kinds of products, including the flesh of cattle and leather products. When considering the issue of using nonhuman animals for human food and fiber production, it should be kept in mind that the products made from the animals are not essential for sustaining human life. You can live quite well and more healthfully, on a completely vegetarian diet. Such diets have less risk of cancer and other health problems than those based on animal protein and fat. More importantly, you can feel good knowing that you are not responsible for the inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms.

CATTLE FACTS

  • Cows have great senses of hearing and smell. They can hear better than people and detect odors up to six miles away.
  • Cattle were domesticated about 7,000 to 8,000 years ago in the region now called Iraq.
  • About 41 million cows are raised and killed each year in the U.S.
  • To produce a pound of steak from steers in feedlots, factory farmers use 2,500 gallons of water, a gallon of gasoline in energy and destroy 35 pounds of topsoil due to erosion.