Every Farm Animal Deserves

Americans have a bill of rights, but what about the rights of farm animals, 10 billion killed annually in the United States? They live (if you can call it living, it's more like endure) in the shadows, forgotten by most of society who seems to comfort themselves with the notion that if they don't think about the suffering, it doesn't exist, or it's someone else's fault.

Whatever your dietary stripe, here are some basic rights I believe all farm animals should have (and hope you do too).

To never see the inside of a gestation stall, ever.


To not be cramped into a wire cage the size of a filing cabinet with five or six other chickens so we can buy 99 cent cartons of eggs. A chicken's labor should be worth more than 8.25 cents an egg.


For poultry, to be included in the federal Humane Slaughter Act.


To not be de-beaked, de-clawed, de-anything.


Never to be force fed, ever.

To have free range conditions be, indeed, free range.

To be treated with kindness and respect by the farmers raising them. The consumers eating them should not shift the blame to the producers for deplorable conditions if they are contributing to the demand.


They should not be viewed as just another dish on Thanksgiving (or any other time) without any thought to the life of the turkey that ended up on your plate.


All farm animals deserve these rights.


A moment of solitude on a fine summer day at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary for these animals, who are victims of a factory farming system which have found safe refuge here.


Veganism or vegetarianism may be not everyone's path in life, and I respect people's choices, but know that deplorable factory farming conditions exist because of society's demand to have a meat, milk and eggs so heavily in daily diets at the cheapest prices available. Eating veg as often as possible is the ideal. But at the very least, if everyone ate a little less meat and animal by-products, paid a little more, and wasted less food, the conditions of these animals would improve exponentially. They are living, breathing, sentient beings the same as our cats and dogs and deserve to be treated with common decency - and not viewed just a commodity - especially if they are going to give up their lives for a meal.

That is my declaration for farm animals.