PETA and fur and factory farms and - Democratic Underground

Karmadillo

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Fri Dec-19-03 11:13 AM
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PETA and fur and factory farms and

all sorts of other stuff people here seem very interested in.

There are several articles discussing fur here. They include:

A Lifetime in a Cage

Fur Farm Expose

What We Uncovered On a "Modern" Fur Farm

lots more...

Here's an excerpt from "What We Uncovered on a "Modern" Fur Farm:

http://www.furisdead.com/animals-chilling.html

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The "Farm"

The wire cages are tiny, filthy, and encrusted with dirt, clumps of fur, and excrement. Locked inside each one is a fox, imprisoned here since birth. Many of the foxes live for years in these hideous conditions before the farmer kills them and sells their fur to make coats, cuffs, collars, and trim.

The farmer told our investigator that a humane death by an injection of barbiturate was "too expensive"—even though it costs a mere 30 cents per animal. So he uses a metal noose pole to lift each fox from the cage by the neck, shoves an electric prod into the animal’s rectum and forces a metal conductor into the animal’s mouth. A flip of a switch shoots 240 volts of electricity through the fox’s body.

According to our investigator, "The fox’s eyes usually shut and the body goes rigid. There is a crackling sound … and sometimes teeth break and fall out. … Often the anal probe falls out. When this happens, the fox convulses, shakes, and often cries."

Death doesn’t come quickly. Because the electricity does not go through and stun the brain, the foxes remain awake and feel the full excruciating force of a massive heart attack. Tom Amlung, a veterinarian and administrator for St. Clair County, Ill., animal control, says, "The animals do not lose consciousness … for one to two minutes. The time … seems like an eternity, so one can only imagine how the animal must feel experiencing this pain during this time with the electricity running from one end of his body to the other while heat builds up at the site of the electrode."

The Lab Link

The foxes were fed cast-off chickens sent by a pharmaceutical company. The chickens, who have already suffered at the hands of experimenters, arrive by the thousands, their little hunched-over bodies shoved into sealed cardboard boxes without food, water, or space to move. Our investigator documented the farmer stacking the boxes upside down in a corner of his barn and covering them with a plastic tarp to slowly suffocate the chickens. For hours, the chickens could be heard trying to escape. When the farmer cut open the boxes and pulled them out, some were still alive.

"The farmer forced the live chickens feet first into the grinder," recorded our investigator, "while they were conscious, fighting, squawking, and flapping for their lives. You could hear their screams over the roar of the engine. He would sometimes get a smirk on his face when the chickens’ final protests were cut short."

more...