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Farm Animal Cruelty Glossary
Animal Cruelty: Acts of violence or neglect perpetrated against animals are considered animal cruelty. Some examples are overt abuse, dog fighting and cockfighting, and denying companion animals the basic necessities of care, such as food, water and shelter.
Battery Cage: A wire cage, measuring no more than sixteen inches wide, in which four or five hens are housed. These cages are lined up in rows and stacked several levels high on factory farms. This system of production has been outlawed by countries in the European Union. Learn more about efforts to protect animals in factory farms.
Branding: The practice of burning an identifying mark onto the body of an animal using an extremely hot iron stamp, or “brand,” pressed hard into the animal’s flesh for several seconds without anesthesia. Ranchers use brands to distinguish their cattle and hogs from those owned by others.
Broilers: Chickens raised for meat consumption on modern factory farms. These birds have been selected or bred so that their bodies grow very rapidly. Learn more about efforts to protect animals in factory farms.
Debeaking: A process that involves cutting through bone, cartilage and soft tissue with a blade to remove the top half and the bottom third of a chicken’s, turkey’s or duck’s beak. This measure is taken to reduce the excessive feather pecking and cannibalism seen among stressed, overcrowded birds in factory farms. Learn more about efforts to protect animals in factory farms.
Downers: Animals headed for slaughter who become too sick or injured to walk unassisted. The Downed Animal Protection Act outlaws the practice of transporting downers to auctions and stockyards for slaughter and requires that these animals be humanely euthanized.
Electric Cattle Prod (also called a Hotshot): A device that can deliver an electric current to an animal. It is used to stimulate movement in animals; commonly used with livestock and in rodeos. When animals are poked with the electrified end, they receive a high-voltage, low-current electrical shock. The short shock is not strong enough to kill a large animal, but is enough to cause some pain.
Factory Farm: A large-scale industrial site where many animals raised for food—mainly chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs—are confined and treated with hormones and antibiotics to maximize growth and prevent disease. The animals lead short, painful lives; factory farms are also associated with various environmental hazards.
Foie Gras: To make this pricey gourmet delicacy, birds are force-fed enormous quantities of food three times daily via a pipe that is inserted into the esophagus. This leads to enlargement of the animal's liver and possible rupturing of the internal organs, infection and a painful death. The process typically lasts up to four weeks, until the birds are slaughtered.
Forced Molting: Process by which egg-laying hens are starved for up to 14 days, exposed to changing light patterns and given no water in order to shock their bodies into molting. It is common for 5 percent to 10 percent of hens to die during this process. Learn more about efforts to protect animals in factory farms.
Killer Buyers: Middlemen who travel from horse auction to horse auction, purchasing any horse they can. They eventually sell these animals to slaughterhouses for human consumption, but regularly subject horses to cruel and inhumane treatment—i.e. beating them, depriving them of food and water. Learn more about horse cruelty.
Neglect: The failure to provide an animal with the most basic of requirements of food, water, shelter and veterinary care. Neglect is often the result of simple ignorance on the owner's part and is usually handled by requiring the owner to correct the situation.
Premarin®: A hormone replacement therapy drug made from pregnant mares' urine (PMU), collected from horses who are confined in stalls for half the year, strapped to urine collection funnels. Learn more about Premarin®.
Soring: Abuses to show horses include painful "soring," whereby a mechanical or chemical agent is applied to the lower leg or hoof of a horse, for the purpose of "enhancing" the animal's gait, forcing him to throw his front legs up and out. This is often done to Tennessee Walking Horses. Learn more about horse cruelty.
Spent Hen: After one or two years of producing eggs at an unnaturally high rate, female fowl are classified as "spent hens.” No longer financially profitable for factory farmers, they are slaughtered. Learn more about efforts to protect animals in factory farms.
Tail Banding: A method of docking an animal’s tail in which a rubber band or similar ligature is wrapped tightly around the tail at the desired point of removal. This cuts off the blood supply to the end of the tail, which atrophies and usually falls away after a few days. Banding is legal in the United States, and is frequently practiced by laypersons on dairy cows.
White Veal: From birth to slaughter at five months, calves used to produce "formula-fed" or "white" veal are confined to two-foot-wide crates and chained to inhibit movement. They are fed an iron- and fiber-deficient diet that causes anemia; the lack of exercise retards muscle development, resulting in pale, tender meat.
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