10 REASONS FOR CHURCH LEADERS TO CARE ABOUT ANIMAL WELFARE 

 “Pain is pain, whether it is inflicted on man or beast, and the creature that suffers from it, whether man or beast, being sensible of the misery of it while it lasts, suffers Evil.”

                                                          ~  Rev. Humphrey Primatt, A Dissertationon the Duty of Mercy and the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals (1776)

       
      Animal welfare as a theological concern is generally disregarded in Christian churches.  When we ignore the suffering of animals, however, we ignore human suffering and Christian development, as well.  In today’s world, where so many animals suffer as never before, understanding the connections between human problems and animal welfare is increasingly essential in addressing congregational needs.  If we are serious about social justice, world hunger, immigration, deforestation, climate change, environmental stewardship, bringing the kingdom of God, or living into the image of God, we must care about animal welfare. With that in mind, I propose, as a start, the following list of reasons why understanding the issues central to animal welfare – and in particular factory farming – is critical to a Christian understanding of how humans are called to live in relation to God. 
 
            1. Factory farming disproportionately affects vulnerable populations.

     Factory farming is not only horrific for the animals, the laborers in these facilities and in the high speed slaughterhouses they supply do work that is difficult, dangerous, and poorly paid.  As Food Is Power explains:

A large percentage of factory farm workers are people of color including migrant workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. . . . An unknown percentage of full-time and part-time workers are undocumented. Employers find undocumented workers to be ideal recruits because they are less likely to complain about low wages and hazardous working conditions.

Sustainable Table has this to say about conditions workers might complain about:

Working conditions at confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are unhealthy, dangerous and extreme. Because the animals are often housed directly above the giant pits that store their manure, harmful gases such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon dioxide, and methane that are produced by the decomposing manure can contaminate the air that the animals and farm laborers breathe. In addition to these gases, dust and other irritants known as endotoxins—which come from the cell walls of the bacteria in the manure—are often found in very high concentrations on CAFOs. These substances can be hazardous to farm workers either through chronic (or long-term) exposure at low levels, or acute (concentrated) exposure at higher levels.

These facilities, of course, are generally in rural and lower-income areas, and those who live nearby also face increased health risks and quality of life concerns.  Farm Sanctuary reports that “[s]tudies have discovered an increase in respiratory, neurobehavioral, and mental illnesses among the residents of communities next to factory farms.”

               2. Factory farming’s negative impacts are felt even more strongly in developing countries.

     The Pew Commission, in its report “Putting Meat On The Table,” considers animal agriculture from a number of perspectives and expressed these concerns: “The spread of [industrial farm animal production] to the developing world brings the benefit of rapid production of meat, but at the cost of environmental and public health, costs that may be exacerbated by institutional weaknesses and governance problems common in developing countries.”

                3. Factory farming dehumanizes workers

     Slaughterhouse and factory farm workers participate in the misery and death of thousands of sentient creatures every day.  In order to continue functioning in these conditions, they are forced to become hardened to what they see. As explained by one slaughterhouse worker:

The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll. If you work in the stick pit [where hogs are killed] for any period of time—that let’s [sic] you kill things but doesn’t let you care. . . . Pigs down on the kill floor have come up to nuzzle me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them. … I can’t care.

I discuss this, and the Texas Observer article it is from, in greater detail here.

      In addition, undercover investigation after undercover investigation at factory farms reveals horrific cruelty, with people stomping on animals, slamming them into walls, and beating them with pipes, to name just some of the atrocities regularly recorded.  (See Mercy For Animals for examples.)  The consistency with which this kind of brutality occurs demonstrates the need for workers to stifle any instinct for empathy or concern for those at their mercy.  It can come as no surprise that this hardening of the heart does not stop at the factory farm door.  As the article quoted above pointed out, “the consequences of such emotional dissonance include domestic violence, social withdrawal, drug and alcohol abuse, and severe anxiety,” as well as PTSD.

Esther The Wonder Pig

           4. Factory farming results in less food to feed the world, not more.

     It may seem that we need to find ways to raise more and more animals for food to feed the growing world population, but raising animals for food is an extremely inefficient use of land, water, and other resources.  Woodstock Sanctuary explains:

Animals raised for food actually take more from the global food supply than they provide. As much as 80% of the global soybean crop, and 40-50% of the annual corn crop are fed to cattle, pigs, chickens, and other livestock. Grain-based feeds cause rapid weight gain, which allows industries to slaughter animals sooner. But feeding grain to animals is an extremely inefficient use of food. It takes roughly 6 ½ pounds of edible grain to produce just 2 pounds of meat. Chickens fed a diet of corn and soybeans can only utilize 20% of the protein present in those grains, meaning that 80% is simply wasted; for pigs, 90% of the protein they are fed in grain is lost. Most of the energy farm animals consume from grains and other sources of food is used to fuel their own metabolism and to form bones, cartilage, feathers, fur and other non-edible parts, as well as feces.

      Land used to raise animals for food, and to raise grains to feed the animals, could better be used raising vegetables and grains to feed people, as WorldWatch Institute addresses at length.  Among other things, they quote US Department of Agriculture figures noting that while 56 million acres of land in the US is used to grow corn for livestock, only 4 million acres are used to grow vegetables for human consumption.  

     In addition, the factory farming model encourages monocultures, where farms and whole regions grow only one type of food for export.  In developing countries this is particularly problematic because it leaves those regions more vulnerable in times of natural disasters, an issue of increasing concern, as the Pew Commission report explains, because of more extreme weather events expected as a result of climate change.

              5. Factory farming devastates the environment and animal agriculture is the single largest contributor to global climate change. 

     Factory farms have numerous negative impacts on the environment, including water pollution deforestation, overuse of resources, and substantial contributions to climate change.  Farm Sanctuary discusses the massive amounts of waste they create and manage, largely in open air lagoons that leak and overflow contaminating groundwater and waterways.  The UN report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow” addresses in detail a host of environmental impacts from animal agriculture and factory farming, including deforestation and contribution to climate change.  According to the UN, “70 percent of previous forested land in the Amazon is occupied by pastures, and feedcrops cover a large part of the remainder.”  The report also estimates that 18 percent of man-made greenhouse gases being emitted are attributable to “livestock activities.”  The UN has called for a global move toward meat and dairy-free diets to help combat climate change.

     In addition, a recent Washington Post article, citing a study by Oxford University, explained, “The average meat-eater in the U.S. is responsible for almost twice as much global warming as the average vegetarian, and close to three times that of the average vegan, according to a study (pdf) published this month in the journal Climatic Change.”  BBC News recently cited studies by Cambridge and Aberdeen Universities estimating that “greenhouse gases from food production will go up 80% if meat and dairy consumption continues to rise at its current rate."
 

               6. Factory farming puts public health at risk
 
      More than 75% of antibiotics used in the United States are given to animals on factory farms, both to prevent disease due to the overcrowded and filthy conditions in which they live, and to promote growth.  This has contributed to the growing public health concern of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  As reported by The New York Times, “A new study of a small group of workers at industrial hog farms in North Carolina has found that they continued to carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria over several days, raising new questions for public health officials struggling to contain the spread of such pathogens.”  In 2013, the CDC issued a report regarding the growing public health risks from such resistant bacteria. 

      But that’s not all.  The food itself is often contaminated, in part due to high speed slaughter and processing.  Last year, Consumer Reports found 97% of chicken purchased from the grocery store is contaminated with potentially harmful bacteria, including salmonella and e-coli.  They noted: “More than half of the samples contained fecal contaminants.  And about half of them harbored at least one bacterium that was resistant to three or more commonly prescribed antibiotics.”

     By contrast, as the Chicago Tribune reported earlier this year, an Adventist Health Study is the latest in a long line of studies demonstrating that a plant-based diet has a number of health benefits, including weight loss, cardio-vascular improvement, reduced cancer risk, reduced risk of diabetes, and greater longevity.  (For a very recent, and much more robust, discussion of the many impacts of factory farming, see Philip Lymbery's new book, Farmageddon: The True Cost Of Cheap Meat.)
 
          7. The fundamental element in all our relationships with animals is the right use of power.

     In our relationships with animals humans hold all the power – and scripture has a great deal to say about the right use of power. Scripture teaches that power always brings with it responsibilities to the powerless.  As Matthew Scully explains, the “whole logic [of the Judeo-Christian teaching on power] is one of gracious condescension, of the proud learning to be humble, the higher serving the lower, and strong protecting the weak.”[1]  Bruce Birch has described “God’s implacable opposition to evil in the world – all of those forces that make for dispossession: injustice, oppression, economic exploitation, personal greed, and manipulation of others.”[2]  Sadly, all these elements of evil characterize our current societal relationship with animals. These are the habits we are forming.  As long as the church remains silent about these abuses, this undercurrent of cruelty and disregard for others will remain with us, distorting our world view and coloring our character development and Christian formation.

        8. Living peaceably with the animals is a way to make the Kingdom of God present in the here and now.

     Every day, as Christians, as we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to bring his kingdom to earth and we ask that His will might be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Scripture tells us that in God’s new creation, when “the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord,” there will be peace among all animals, human and nonhuman.  Isaiah 11:6-9;  Hosea 2:18.  In a world so overcome by sin that it sometimes hard to know how we, as individuals, can make a difference, here is one way we can bring the kingdom of God to earth right here, right now.  We can live at peace with our fellow creatures of God by making food choices, entertainment choices, clothing choices, and personal and cleaning product choices that do not rely on cruel treatment of animals.

              9. We are failing at the task given us at creation; we are distorting the image of God.

     We learn in Genesis 1 that our creation in the image of God is directly tied to our responsibility to reflect the character of God to the animals.  It is no longer tenable to suggest (if it ever was) that our dominion over the animals is a carte blanche to treat them however we wish, without regard for their well-being.  We are stewards over creation, given particular responsibility for the animals (Gen. 1:26).  Scholars agree that our creation in God’s image is not a substantive matter, something in the way we were made that sets us apart from and above other animals. Rather, through the mechanism of creation in God’s image, God has tasked us with representing His character to our fellow creatures – creatures who are just as capable as we are of feeling pain, loneliness, fear, sadness and, if we will but give them the chance, happiness, joy, and delight – and whose experience of those emotions is as real and significant to them as ours is to us.

     It can come as no surprise, when we have failed so spectacularly at the job for which we are created, that so many other things go wrong.  We can expect no other result but that our selfishness, pride, shortsightedness, and greed should come back to cause us problems.  We are reaping what we have sown.

     10. To remain silent in the face of grievous suffering to which we are contributing is simply incompatible with following Christ. 
 
      Rev. Humphrey Primatt, an Anglican priest, confronted the issue squarely in his Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals, written in 1776. He said, “We may pretend to what religion we please, but cruelty is atheism. We may make our boast of Christianity, but cruelty is infidelity. We may trust to our orthodoxy, but cruelty is the worst of heresies.”  The church has yet to grasp this reality.

From the site My Pet Chicken

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[1] Scully, Matthew. Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and The Call to Mercy. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 2002, p. 97.

[2] Birch, Bruce C. Let Justice Roll Down: The Old Testament, Ethics, and Christian Life. Louisville: West Minster/John Knox Press, 1991, p. 123.