This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

In late 2019, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act was enacted to make the intentional crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, and impaling of living mammals, birds, reptiles or amphibians a federal crime—yet it completely excludes farmed animals who are routinely mutilated, crushed, burned, and sexually abused to produce food. Please urge legislators to extend these minimal protections to farmed animals too!

A reasonable person would assume that practices such as crushing, burning, or sexually abusing farmed animals are already illegal, but they are not…

Ground up alive: male baby birds are routinely ground up alive because they’re considered useless to the egg industry.

Tails, beaks, and teeth cut off: pigs routinely have their tails and teeth cut off, while chickens and turkeys have a portion of their beaks sliced off—all while fully conscious and with no anesthetic or pain relief.

Burning: numbers are seared into the sensitive skins of animals using metal rods that are heated up to 400°F or dipped into liquid nitrogen. The budding horns of young calves or lambs are also burned with hot irons to prevent growth. Another method involves applying a paste of acidic chemicals to burn their growth rings – all with no anesthetic or pain relief.

Anal electrocution: rectal probes are routinely inserted into the anuses of animals (bulls, turkeys, roosters, and pigs) kept for breeding and electrocuted to force the release of semen. Their semen is then collected to artificially impregnate females. Natural methods of breeding are not considered viable because there is less ability for genetic control and it doesn’t allow for pregnancy/birthing in batches.

Patches of skin sliced off: in a standard practice called mulesing, sheep have patches of skin sliced off on each side of their anuses right down to the backs of their knees while fully conscious and with no anesthetic or pain relief.

Forced masturbation: humans forcefully masturbate male turkeys using their hands to collect semen. Their feet and legs are locked into clamps with a worker lifting one of the turkey's legs over his head and neck to ensure the turkey stays in position. The turkey’s anus is squeezed until it opens up. The worker then grabs the turkey’s penis, stroking and masturbating it until the turkey ejaculates.

Smashing to death: a standard pork industry practice to kill sick piglets involves grabbing them by the hind legs and smashing them headfirst into concrete.

Suffocation and crushing: while being caught, fish are suffocated and crushed to death under the immense weight of other bodies in huge nets. Their deaths are slow and can take over nine minutes. Other standard and cruel ways of killing fish involve being frozen to death, bludgeoned, and decapitated.

The only federal animal welfare law that exists in the United States (the 1966 Animal Welfare Act) also excludes farmed animals from all legal protections. Most state anti-cruelty laws exempt “standard practices,” which includes many of the acts listed above, which are just as horrific as the abuses the PACT Act has criminalized.

Congressman Buchanan, one of the legislators who introduced the PACT Act, stated at its signing ceremony that, “The torture of innocent animals is abhorrent and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

We completely agree, but this should extend to all innocent animals who are capable of suffering. Turning a blind eye to the legalized torture and abuse of farmed animals is no longer acceptable, and the law should reflect that.

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.