Introduction a)attn getter: Michael Spector, a longtime writer for the New Yorker visited a chicken 'farm' in 2003 and said that he, "...was almost knocked to the ground by the overpowering smell of feces and ammonia. My eyes burned and so did my luns, and I could neither see nor breathe. There must have been 30,000 chickens sitting silently on the floor [...]they didnt move, didnt cluck [...] they lived in total darkness and they would spend every minute of their six week lives that way." Over 9 billion chickens are raised on factory farms every year in the US, and over 9 billion of these chickens are treated inhumanely and savagely. But chickens arent the only animals to suffer at the hands of insensitive factories-cows and pigs are also subject to disgusting living conditions and paniful deaths. b)thesis: Today i will be talking about the inhumane treatment of animals in America. c)preview: First we will talk about the animals living conditions on the factories, second we will discuss the actual slaughtering process, and lastly, why and how the inhumane treatment of animals is important to us and the rest of society. Body a)Chickens raised for their flesh, called 'broiler chickens' spend all their lives crammed in windowless sheds that usually hold as many as 40,000 birds..before being trucked off to slaughter. With such crowded quarters the chickens often peck at each other in frustration which usually causes injury, infection, and death-although some try to prevent this by simply cutting off their sensitive beaks. The overcrowding is also cause for much filth and disease. Laying hens are stacked in battery cages where the feces of hens on top drop down onto hens towards the bottom. Each 18x20 inch cage may hold up to 11 hens although McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendys allow a maximum of 5 birds, which is still very overcrowded. The hens cannot lift a wing. Millions of male chicks who are useless to the egg industry are suffocated in trash bags or thrown into high speed groudners while they are alive accoring to Mench and Siegel, two animal rights activists who went undercover during to 90s to factory farms. Cows are also fed an unnatral diet to fatten them up.According to a study published in the Journal of Animal Science the diet causes potentially fatal liver abscesses in up to 32 of cattle raised for beef. Dairy cows are artificially inseminated repeatedly throughout the year and can be heard calling for their seperated calves. Due to hormones, genetic manipulation, and intensive painful milking whcih takse place several times a day, cows produce about 10x more milk then they would naturally. Pigs also lead miserable lives, often going through various forms of mutiliation including cutting off their tails, pulling out their teeth, and castration or taking out the testicles without pain medication. These are done to prevent cows from biting eachothers tails which is common for pigs to do out of boredom and frustration and the stressful living conditions of the factory farms. Pregnant sows live in gestation crates during the entire length of their pregnancy. These crates are only 2 feet wide, not wide enough for her to turn or move at all. The practice is so barbaric that these gestation crates have been banned in Florida, the UK, and Sweden and will be banned in the European Union in 2013. b)Now we wiill discuss the inhumane slaughtering of animals. For those animals that do make it to the slaughter house, there is no relief as they will be die as mercilessly as they lived. The journey from factory farms to slaughterhouses may be hundreds of miles long, throughout all kinds of weather. Most animals are not fed or watered through the trip. Once chickens get to a slaughterhouse, they are put upside in shackles and dragged through an electrified water bath meant to only paralyze the chicken, not make it unconcious. A blade cuts their necks but most chickens flap so much the blade misses them. Finally, they are scalded in the defeathering tanks. Cows and pigs are also sometimes conscious, as both are intended to be stunned with stun guns. Due to the quick lines in teh factory and poorly trained workesr, however, most are still concsious when they are killed and scalded. c)The inhumane treatment of animals effects all of us whether we realize it or not. People who work in factory farms often get disease and injuries and are virtually disposable to large companies. Repetitive stress injuries are 35% higher then other manufacturing jobs. The speed of the lines cannot be slowed down and workers often get injured butchering the animals as they struggle to escape. The inhumane treatment of animals hurts animals and it also hurst workers. It also effects world hunger. It takes 16lbs of grain to create 1lb of edible flesh. With 840 million people going hungry, some would say that inhumane factory farms are contributing to world hunger. The meat industry may also contribute to global warming. Methane and nitrous oxide, which is about 300x more potent as a global warming gas then carbon dioxide, are emitted in mass amounts from factory farms. According to the UN the meat, egg, and dairy industries account for nearly 65% of nitrous oxide omissions. Conclusion a)we have discussed the horrible, inhumane living conditions of animals in America, their cruel and insensitive killings, and the many reasons why this is all significant to us. b)We have talked about the inhumane treatment of animals in America. c)so next time you watch Babe or Charlottes Web, remember that reality is very different from what we would like to imagine.