18
votes
Accepted
What percentage of farm animals are mistreated in some way?
Chickens
Egg-laying hens
An estimated 95% of all eggs in the United States are produced in conventional cage systems, sometimes called battery cages. [They] typically provide each laying hen an ...
17
votes
Accepted
Can birds suffer?
Yes. This article from 2005 summarises the scientific knowledge on birds feeling pain.
It's worth taking a moment to define pain, as there is often confusion about this. The definition of pain from ...
- 2,384
11
votes
Does the production of down typically involve killing or hurting birds?
Down is almost always collected from a live bird or from a bird killed for meat.
There are 3 main ways:
Live plucking, which you seem to already know about. The feathers are plucked from the live ...
- 2,400
8
votes
Does a live animal tracking system for vegetarian products exist?
There are no live animal tracking systems like what you describe.
I tried looking for live video streams from farms and I was able to find one video feed from a farm sanctuary in NY but of course ...
- 7,128
7
votes
How much money do I need to donate to charity to justify not being vegan?
It would certainly be an amount greater than you spend on animal products, and even then, that money donated to whatever charity you choose doesn't cancel out the effect of your vote for the things ...
- 1,172
7
votes
Accepted
Why is keeping backyard hens inconsistent with veganism?
One of the philosophies vegans use is that it's wrong to use animals. This relates to other ethical philosophies that advocate treating people as ends in themselves and not as means to our own ends.
...
- 11.9k
6
votes
Accepted
How are cows harmed in dairy farming?
In the most ethical dairy farm I could imagine while still having real cows and real farmers, but maybe not real economics, the dairy cows are harmed by having to give milk much longer than their ...
- 392
6
votes
Accepted
How many animals are required by the average North American omnivorous diet?
Getting the exact figures requires a lot of effort, so I am going to concentrate in getting the order of magnitude. Also, another factor that makes the effort grow considerably is the various types of ...
- 3,631
6
votes
Do bivalves such as oysters feel pain or fear?
It's highly unlikely, due to them not having any brain or central nervous system. All they have is a small nerve network and two ganglia near their esophagus.
The whole nervous system is basically ...
- 2,400
6
votes
Accepted
How can animal cruelty be considered legal based on "cultural heritage" argument?
The question has a strong normative undertone. I believe the community agrees that foie gras production is cruel and should be outlawed, so I will not comment on the normative aspect of the question, ...
5
votes
Accepted
Has any government banned animal slaughter for human consumption? Was it effective for increasing animal rights?
I am pretty sure there has never been governmental (or feudal/whatever) ban on animal slaughter and/or consumption, so I do not see your original question being answered. There can, however, be some ...
- 6,009
5
votes
Accepted
Are black truffles vegan?
There's really not any information on the subject. This is on of the only article in English I've found which seems to contain factual information. And there is this testimony of someone who went on a ...
- 401
5
votes
How are cows harmed in dairy farming?
If you only look at the body count: to have milk, there must be a calf. That animal won't get the food it needs (since we are taking the milk) and is slaughtered if it's a male (a female baby cow will ...
- 401
4
votes
Why is keeping backyard hens inconsistent with veganism?
@Zanna makes some good points and considers that:
"It may be the case that the kept hens have been rescued and would not
be safe in the wild, and in such a scenario there might seem to be no
...
- 506
4
votes
What's the difference between legislation protecting pets and lab animals (etc) and farm animals in the U.S.?
So far as I know there is no federal legislation protecting farm animals on the farm (in the U.S.A.), with some legislation (but perhaps insufficient enforcement) protecting them at the slaughter ...
- 249
4
votes
Is there a way to determine what kinds of fish tend to feel the smallest amount of pain?
Death, especially the way they are all handled, requires pain and suffering. An individual's death experience is not something you can replicate. Their pain, suffering, and death is just as traumatic ...
- 169
3
votes
Has any government banned animal slaughter for human consumption? Was it effective for increasing animal rights?
In 675AD, Japan forbade the killing of animals for meat, due to the adoption of Buddhist beliefs.
This, while not perfectly observed, did result in a significant cultural change over the next several ...
- 131
3
votes
Does the production of down typically involve killing or hurting birds?
Eiderdown is collected from the eider nests. Eiders are a duck that live on northern European and American coasts. They line their nests with the soft feathers from the duck's breast. The original ...
- 147
3
votes
Accepted
How big would the populations of farm animals be if not artificially raised by humans?
I would say that, if we stopped keeping farm animals, the numbers of those animals would be reduced to effectively zero.
This doesn't include farmed animals kept as pets (rabbits or guinea pigs) or ...
- 707
3
votes
Which animal species is the most negatively affected by indirect human activities?
I think the most affected species are/were those that are either (completely) extinct or on. brink of extinction. A list of these species is found on this Wikipedia page (unfortunately the page is not ...
- 3,631
3
votes
How much money do I need to donate to charity to justify not being vegan?
The animal welfare portion of this question already has a complex answer, before even beginning to consider the complexities of climate change and carbon offsets. Therefore in my answer I will focus ...
- 7,128
3
votes
Accepted
Are there any dairy farms that don't kill cows or calves?
Ahimsa Milk in the UK operated between 2014 and 2017 and during that time they collected and sold cow's milk according to their Ahimsa Manifesto. However they seem to have suspended their operations ...
- 7,128
3
votes
Milk not associated to cow slaughter
Entrepreneurs will do whatever it takes to make money and sugar coat the story. The reality is that even if no slaughtering may not be involved, please consider the following:
Cows must still be (...
- 476
3
votes
How to access cat meat from animals that were not killed
What did the animal die of though?
If it's a disease then you'd have to hope it's not one that can transmit to your cat (or from your cat to you). Some diseases such as tuberculosis can transmit cross-...
- 2,420
3
votes
How is taurine for cats synthesized?
From The Wikipedia article on Taurine:
In 1993, about 5,000–6,000 tonnes of taurine were produced for commercial purposes: 50% for pet food and 50% in pharmaceutical applications.[12] As of 2010, ...
- 179
2
votes
What happens when an animal gets spooked on the way to slaughter and refuses to continue?
Just a review, from here:
Federal law in the United States requires that animals should be
stunned before they are slaughtered. The following types of stunning
are used: captive bolt stunning and ...
- 345
2
votes
Eating 100 small fish or 1 big fish
Surely from a vegetarian's point of view, it is the one big fish. You are killing one being rather than one-hundred. However, if the species of large fish is endangered, then the question is 'Is ...
- 207
2
votes
How are cows harmed in dairy farming?
Humans are the only creatures who drink milk even after the very first years of their life, and they don’t use their own milk to drink; in the dairy industry they force cows to become pregnant all the ...
2
votes
Benefits for the used animals when producing according to the EU Eco regulation?
Short answer
Yes, Alice reduces animal suffering by buying animal products bearing this logo
Long answer
Wikipedia mentions briefly animal welfare as a topic covered by regulation:
This agreement ...
- 3,631
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible