Crammed together, animals must stand in their excrement while exposed to extreme temperatures in open trucks, sometimes freezing to the trailer.¹⁰ Approximately 200,000 pigs arrive dead at U.S. slaughter plants each year;³⁴ many of these deaths are caused by a lack of ventilation on trucks in hot weather.³⁵

Workers shock the animals with electric prods, which increases the incidence of “downers”—animals too sick or injured to stand.^10,35 Downers are hauled from the trucks with skid loaders and forklifts.¹⁰

See this 2008 Washington Post article and HSUS video about the treatment of downers.

Right: Animal Protection Institute photographed this sheep in 108-degree weather. (M. Engebretson, “Long Distance Transport,” Satya, November 2006, p 48.)

Above: Turkeys stacked for tranport (photo courtesy of Compassion Over Killing); downer pigs left in a holding pen (photo courtesy of Farm Sanctuary); piglets stacked for transport. Below: A downed, disemboweled calf left to suffer at a Pennsylvania stockyard, where workers refused to humanely euthanize him (photo courtesy of Farm Sanctuary); a pig who has collapsed in his vomit at the slaughterhouse; and a “deadpile” of pigs (photo courtesy of PETA). Click images for larger views.

What About Fish?

Fish caught in net (photo courtesy of David Falconer).

An article published in the Journal of Fish Biology explains:

The scientific study of fish welfare is at an early stage compared with work on other vertebrates and a great deal of what we need to know is yet to be discovered. It is clearly the case that fish, though different from birds and mammals, however, are sophisticated animals, far removed from unfeeling creatures with a 15 second memory of popular misconception.…

[I]t has been argued that the longer the life span of a given species of animal and the more sophisticated its general behaviour, the greater its need for complex mental processes similar to those that in humans generate the conscious experience of suffering. In this context, therefore, it is relevant that the longest-living vertebrates are found among the fishes and that fish behaviour is rich, complicated and far from stereotyped.… Indeed, current literature on fish cognition indicates that several fish species are capable of learning and integrating multiple pieces of information that require more complex processes than associative learning.¹²

Aquaculture is the fastest growing animal food–producing sector; nearly half the fish consumed as food worldwide are raised on fish farms rather than caught in the wild.¹³ As with other forms of animal agriculture, the practices employed by fish farmers are designed to increase profitability but can reduce the well-being of the fish. Welfare concerns include: poor water quality, aggression, injuries, and disease associated with inappropriate stocking densities; health problems due to selection for fast growth; handling and removal from water during routine husbandry procedures; food deprivation during disease treatment and before harvest; and pain during slaughter.¹²

In the world’s marine fisheries, more than 80 percent of fish stocks are already fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted.¹³ A UN Chronicle article on overfishing warns that “oceans are cleared at twice the rate of forests” and “the dramatic increase of destructive fishing techniques destroys marine mammals and entire ecosystems.”¹⁴ It’s estimated that, each year, hundreds of thousands of dolphins, seals, and other marine mammals die in fishing nets worldwide.²³

See also: NOAA “Ecological Effects of Fishing” report (PDF); “Would You Like Mercury With Your Sushi?”; “Science-based assessment of welfare: aquatic animals” (PDF) from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE); USDA ERS Aquaculture Outlook report for 2006 (PDF).

Wildlife

	Bison killed to prevent “competition” with livestock (click for larger image; courtesy of PETA).

USDA APHIS Wildlife Services and livestock producers kill wildlife to protect farmed animals.

Having eliminated native populations of wolves and grizzly bears,⁴ federal government hunters now kill about 100,000 coyotes, bobcats, feral hogs, bison, and mountain lions each year.¹⁵ They are shot, caught in steel-jaw leghold traps or neck nooses, or poisoned with cyanide.¹⁵

If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls