Setting out its position on animal welfare, the group said that it agreed paying extra for meat which had been raised to higher welfare standards was better than eating factory farmed meat, but added: “There’s a world of difference between those positions and recommending that people eat meat from local, organic and ‘humane’ farms.”
“We don’t think there are any such places, although we are prepared to stand corrected if anyone knows of a non-factory farm where the animals do not have their tails docked and their ears notched; are not castrated without anesthesia, debeaked, declawed, crowded, and kept solely indoors; are not sent to a feedlot; are allowed to have relationships with others; never have their young taken away from them; and are instantly dispatched without the trauma of capture or transportation and without seeing it coming.”
“We don’t want ‘sustainable’ animal agriculture. We want it abolished. Farm Bureau, write that down in indelible ink."
The group said that it had been pushing to reduce animal suffering in the meat, dairy and egg industries since the 1980s “because to reduce suffering makes a whale of a difference if you are a pig or chicken on a factory farm”.
It added that the vegan lifestyle, which has been promoted by Peta since its inception, was the only truly moral choice for consumers. “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.”