Why not require video cameras be installed in factory farms, and have footage independently reviewed? I feel like a lot of this abuse is due to poorly educated workers in a stressful environment and no observation.
The videos may seem troubling to someone unfamiliar with farming, said
Kelli Ludlum, the group’s director of Congressional relations, but
they can be like seeing open-heart surgery for the first time.
“They could be performing a perfect procedure, but you would consider
it abhorrent that they were cutting a person open,” she said.
I do, however, think that there is real animal cruelty that is going on. How big a problem it is I don't know, but we are civilized enough that we as a society should be taking steps toward stopping it.
I think this attempt to simply redefine abuse is pretty deplorable. Equating it to open heart surgery is simply madness. If we were talking about the actual slaughtering process, then yes, that analogy would have weight. Seeing a cow get killed and then chopped up would be similar on a "shock" level to seeing someone have open heart surgury. But that's now what we're talking about. That's not what these videos show.
A better analogy would be someone breaking your knees in the waiting room, and then forcing you to crawl to the operating room where you'll finally receive your open heart surgery.
The bulk of the farm videos I've seen all involve the terrible treatment of animals in their days to day lives. It's tough to buy "That's just the way it is" when "the way it is" doesn't need to be abusive.
Of course the legislative trend in this area is quite obviously in the opposite direction, and away from, not towards, tighter regulation of such facilities.
Everything else be damned.