Panel 8 - Animal suffering

Animals are sentient beings, with feelings and emotions, as common sense suggests, and as confirmed by the evidence and the many ethological studies we have today.

Farmed animals, however, as treated like objects. As long as the activity of factory farms, feedstuff factories, slaughterhouses and distribution chains are economically compatible with the production levels demanded by the market, the price of meat, milk and eggs must remain accessible to the largest possible number of consumers. Thus, in order to be economically sustainable, chemical and intensive factory farming must maximise profits, which means lowering costs.

This panel lists various dossiers and articles published by animal protection and animal welfare associations, which describe the conditions in which animals are kept on factory farms, on their journey to slaughter, and how they are treated in the slaughterhouses themselves. Requesting documentation on these issues from the animal products industry itself, or from the health bodies responsible for carrying out checks, is unthinkable, because they has clearly "vested interests" and therefore they are not objective, and in any case uninterested in the issue of animal suffering.

The large body of information now available on the issue is irrefutable, and should serve to generate serious reflection in every responsible, rational and honest person with a common sense of justice.