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Reiley Jones
DeBock
English 4 H
November 4, 2015
Rescuing Farm Animals
In the past few years, people have been paying more attention to the cruel treatments
animals endure while in factory farms. Becoming aware of what goes on behind closed doors has
prompted many people to rescue farm animals, or build farm sanctuaries. Farm sanctuaries often
rescue animals that have been abandoned, neglected, abused, or have experienced a catastrophic
disaster. Once rescued, the animals will never be used for meat, eggs, or dairy; they live out their
lives in peace on the farms. The belief behind creating farm sanctuaries is that animals were not
created and put on our planet to be eaten. All animals, even farm animals, should be treated with
the respect someone would give their household dog.
The term organic is defined as being, involving, or producing food grown or made
without the use of artificial chemicals. It would give someone peace of mind to purchase a
product labelled as organic, because it is supposed to mean the animals are treated far more
humane than that of a general dairy or meat farm. However, this is not always the case. While
most organic milk comes from cows that graze at least half the year, it is possible to operate an
organic dairy in which cows are never outside. Just as other dairies, organic dairy cows are
impregnated each year, and their male offspring are sold to veal farms. Recently, Stanford
University conducted a 40 year study and found out that organic foods, on average, were no
more nutritious or safer than conventional foods (The Problem With Organic Food). Some
opponents of this study argued that the use of pesticides is a big reason why they choose not to

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consume conventional foods. However, all farmers use pesticide, regardless of agricultural
preference. Although most organic pesticides are more natural, they have not experienced
nearly as much experimentation and their effects on the human body remain mostly a mystery.
Free range farming, despite sounding humane, is actually animals crowded into feedlots. Free
range animals endure the same torture treatments that battery cage animals do. Most states
exempt factory farms from inhumane-practice laws through a loophole known was Common
Farming Exemptions (CFEs). Using words such as common, customary and accepted CFE
laws allow any method of raising farm animals to continue if it is commonly practiced by the
industry (Marcus). These laws leave it to factory farms to decide what is and is not cruel.
Pigs have the intelligence level of a three year old child. Pigs have passed the mirror
recognition test, which measures how self-aware an animal can be. Researchers at the University
of Cambridge found that not only do pigs recognize themselves, but they also show an
understanding of how mirrors work, and can use the reflections to find food (Vallery). Human
children dont pass this test until around age two. Cows have exceptional memories. They can
recognize faces, even after a long period of time. They remember where to find the best grazing
spots and directions to their favorite watering hole. Cows even have a social hierarchy among the
members of their herd (Barbone). While chickens do not seem too affectionate, they are amazing
mothers. Chickens will talk and purr to the eggs during incubation. When the chicks hatch,
mothers will teach their babies what is safe to eat and what to avoid, about the social hierarchy,
and how to defend themselves. Newly born chicks are able to keep track of numbers up to five.
Studying the intelligence of chickens, Fiona Macrae says, It takes a chick just a few hours to
develop its representational and numerical abilities in comparison to the months and years it
takes a human child to do anything comparable. Most farm animals have proven to be smarter

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than dogs and cats. The most common excuse heard is that animals are inferior to humans
because they lack communication skills. Communication among farm animals is difficult for
humans to observe, let alone interpret. Undoubtedly we are still ignorant to much of the
communication that goes on among animals. For social animals such as sheep, cattle, pigs and
poultry, communication is essential for their social behavior, for maintaining relationships
between parents and young, for conveying information about danger and food and for expressing
intentions and emotions. Communication includes calls and other noises, but also involves
posture and gestures.
Researchers have no doubt that animals can feel pain, fear, affection, hunger, thirst, and
many other sensations and emotions. The fact that many animals are sentient raises questions
about how they are treated by humans. Its difficult to gage the reaction of an animal in pain, so
we often assume they feel nothing. The European Union Directive of 1993 on the protection of
animals at the time of slaughter or killing infers that there is pain during slaughter. The Directive
requires that Animals shall be spared any avoidable excitement, pain or suffering during
slaughter and that they shall be stunned before slaughter or killed instantaneously (Turner). It is
proven that when in distressing situations, animals suffer from anxiety and depression. The
Brambell Committee, asked by the UK government to report on animal welfare in farming,
reported in 1965 that ...all mammals may be presumed to have the same nervous apparatus
which in humans mediates pain. Animals suffer pain in the same way as humans. Some
scientists suggest that only primates and humans can feel emotional pain, as they are the only
animals that have a neocortex, the thinking area of the cortex found only in mammals. Animals
respond to pain in behavioural and physiological ways: they eat less food, their social behavior is
suppressed, they may adopt unusual behavior patterns, they emit distress calls, and they

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experience respiratory and cardiovascular changes, as well as inflammation and release of stress
hormones (Sneddon). Some animals will not openly express pain compared to other animals if
they are a species that is preyed on and signs of weakness attract predators. Pigs will squeal and
scream when in considerable pain. When lambs are castrated without anaesthetic, there is a 97%
increase in the level of cortisol in their blood. A fishs gill beat rate increases by almost 80%
when hooked or electrically shocked (DJ Mellor). When put in distressing situations, almost
always among farm animals, they feel extreme anxiety. Young piglets separated from their
mother give distinctive and frequent squeals to call her, sometimes try to jump out of their pen or
appear to give up on life. The heart rate of a sheep increases 20 beats per minute when they are
unable to see the rest of their flock. Pigs can be severely stressed by anxiety and fear caused by
being put with unfamiliar pigs and by human handling. They can collapse and even die as a
result. The animals will get frustrated when they are unable to perform natural behaviors. On the
contrary, animals able to carry out natural behaviors feel pleasure and positive emotions.
The intelligence found in farm animals should provide enough cause to respect the
animals unconditionally. Humans can not treat a species so horribly when it is scientifically
proven they feel pain and emotions. Even with laws in place trying to protect animals while in
factory farms and lessen their potential suffering, factory workers get frustrated when the
animals dont cooperate and lash out. The harsh, unnecessary treatments caused by workers often
go unnoticed because they are protected by loopholes in laws and the fact that no one can see
them. The only protection farm animals have are farm sanctuaries that make it their mission to
rescue abused and abandoned farm animals. Once rescued, the animals live out their lives in
peace on the farms, the way all animals should live.

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Works Cited
Barbone, Marilyn. "Farm Animal Intelligence: How Smart Are Your Cows?" Grit. Web. 8 Nov.
2015.
D J Mellor, C J Cook and K J Stafford, Quantifying Some Responses to Pain as a Stressor. The
Biology of Animal Stress. CABI Publishing, 2000, 171-198.
F W R Brambell. Report of the Technical Committee to Enquire into the Welfare of Animals
Kept Under Intensive Livestock Husbandry. HMSO, 1965, quoted in D M Broom and K
G Johnson, Stress and Animal Welfare. Chapman & Hall, 1993, chap 2

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Macrae, Fiona. "Can Chickens REALLY Be Cleverer than a Toddler? Studies Suggest Animals
Can Master Numeracy and Basic Engineering."Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 19
June 2013. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.
Marcus, Erick. "Animal Farm." Vegetarian Times. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.
Sneddon, Lynne. "Can Animals Feel Pain?" Pain. The Wellcome Trust. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
"The Problem With Organic Food." World Society. 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
Turner, Jackie. "Recognising the Sentience of Farm Animals." STOP - LOOK - LISTEN.
Compassion in World Farming Trust. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Vallery, Anna. "5 Farm Animals That Are Probably Smarter Than Your Dog." One Green Planet.
Web. 8 Nov. 2015.