'Millions' of animals arrive dead at slaughterhouses in US
Millions of animals are dying even before they get to the slaughter house - as they're transported across the United States, often in overcrowded trucks.
In the United States publicly available figures indicate that every year on average 20 million chickens, 330,000 pigs and 166,000 cattle are dead on arrival at abattoirs or slaughter houses - or die shortly afterwards, before they can be slaughtered. But why are these numbers so high? Newsday heard more from Dena Jones, Director at the Animal Welfare Institute who said part of the problem is the consolidation of the meat industry which means moving animals longer distances.
鈥淒ifferent stage of production take place at different locations. An animal has to move from one location to another as they go through breeding, raising, feeding and slaughter. So more frequent long distance transport 鈥� there鈥檚 also the typical mortality that can be attributed to extreme heat and cold, lack of water on long distances. So it鈥檚 both transport related conditions in the truck and then just the geographic market factors in the United States.鈥�
(Pic: Chickens feed from a row of feed bins in the US; Credit: Reuters)
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