Picture this. You’re sitting at a table, stomach growling, and your food arrives. Placed in front of you is now a half pound burger, piled high with all the good stuff. You have a side of baked beans; the good kind with little pork chunks throughout, along with fresh coleslaw and some steaming hickory fries. The scents waft up, into your nose, causing your mouth to water, and then you bite in. The juices and flavors of that tender, meaty burger fill your mouth, leaving you tranquilized, craving more. Seems absolutely perfect, right? Wrong.

How exactly did you get this burger? Sure, a chef made it in the kitchen just yards away, but how did he get the meat? Not too many actually stop to think of what it truly takes to get that delicious hamburger you can devour in just a few bites. It’s normal though, for you, and 96% of the rest of America (Times Magazine), eat meat daily. Meat has become a custom to daily American life. We eat everything from Slim Jims to Filet Mignon. Whether we get our precious meat from the grocery story, a farmers market, or even a fast food restaurant, us Americans are sure to get our daily dose of meat!

However, in the United States, approximately 7.3 million citizens refuse to eat any meat at all, according to Vegetarian Times. Those select few, the vegetarians, know what it takes to get what we eat. They realize the horrors and the true lack of sanitation that resides within factory farms and slaughter houses.

Cows are one of the most consumed animals, and one of the most tortured. On average, a cow will live 25 years; however, today they only make it to about three, if they are lucky. If raised for meat, they spend the majority of their lives outdoors, in small, confined areas among their own waste, mud and ice. Due to the high demand for beef products, they are fed an unnatural grain-based diet which corrupts within their bodies causing pain, sickness and death. Alongside withstanding extreme living conditions, cows are branded and castrated with no painkillers whatsoever. Male cows get their horns removed awake and with full feeling. (ASPCA) Approximately 1,100 cows were added to industrial farms daily between 2002 and 2007. (Factory Farm Map)

After suffering their entire, short lifetime, cows are sent to the slaughterhouse, which only gets worse. Transportation of cows to their designated slaughterhouse is tragic, often requiring hundreds of thousands of miles of travel through all weather conditions, without food or water. Many cows won’t survive the trek, and will die before reaching their destination.

Those who do make it, however, are immediately shot in the head with a captive bolt gun and hung up by one leg. Once hung, they are transported to the killing floor in which their throats are slit, and they are skinned and gutted. Through this entire process, some cows experience it in full consciousness.

Pigs are one of the most intelligent mammals in the world. Being smarter than most dogs and the average three year old child, their factory farm circumstances restrict all possible aspects of curiosity and intelligence from flourishing. An average pig is killed at just six months of age. However all pigs are treated differently.

For instance, a female pig is confined in a cage so small that she cannot turn around. She is inseminated, and gives birth, nursing her babies for three weeks before they are taken away. Once her babies are gone, she is inseminated again, and the cycle repeats. Once they rein infertile, they are slaughtered.

For the rest of the pig population, they are kept in large, windowless buildings among thousands of other pigs. Because of the overpopulation of the buildings, the pigs tend to get frustrated with their unnatural surroundings, and will chew their tails off. In attempt to solve this issue, farmers will often cut off the tails without giving the pig pain medications of any sort.

Once the pigs are fat enough and ready for killing, they are transported. Transportation for pigs is the roughest of all animals. When they are transported, they are given no more than 2.4 square feet of space in whichever transportation vehicle they are placed in. Pig transportation vehicles are anything from converted school busses to multi-deck trucks with steep ramps. Because the pigs will often fight the loading process, workers will often push them along with electric prods. The majority of pigs make it to the slaughterhouse alive, however about one million a year die along the way.

Once arriving at the slaughterhouse, the pigs undergo an attempt to be stunned with a stun gun, and, whether unconscious or not, they are placed in scalding hot water baths to soften their skin and remove all hairs. Once they undergo the scalding bath, they are hung by their hind legs, having their throats slit and bled to death.

Chickens undergo the most ultimate suffering throughout their lifetimes. Each chicken is handled differently. Male chickens, for example, are often too small and, in the eyes of farmers, useless. Therefore, they are thrown into trash bags to suffocate. Female chickens that are bred for eggs are placed in crates stacked ceiling high, forcing them to poop and pee on themselves and each other, ultimately living in their own waste. Due to such highly unsanitary conditions, the chickens often get frustrated, and will peck each other to death.

In an attempt to stop such cannibalism, farmers will cut the tip of the birds’ beak off using no pain killers.

The rest of the chickens, which are raised for meat, are kept in dark buildings with no access to outdoors. These buildings, on average, contain thousands of chickens. The overpopulation is so severe that chickens will be forced to walk on top of one another, and over dead chickens. Once they sustain the correct amount of time necessary in the factory, they are transported to slaughter houses.

Upon reaching the slaughterhouse, a chicken is immediately removed from its crate and hung by its feet in shackles. An attempt to stun the animal is made; however such stunning devices are set on a timer and at a certain level. All chickens are different sizes, though, resulting in some chickens not being stunned. Whether rendered unconscious or not, the chickens are immersed in a scalding hot water to remove all feathers. Once all feathers are removed, their throats are slit, and they are taken to another floor to be skinned and gutted.

Although the killing process of all animals is somewhat similar, each has its own individual level of immortality. Not many Americans realize the tragedy that comes along with what we eat. The inhumanity of a slaughterhouse is at an all-time high, as the meat demand within the economy is so overpowering. Due to such a high demand for what we love, it is almost possible to obtain any sort of sanitation within factory farms or slaughterhouses. Although there are alternative farming methods, none are completely humane, and all animals eventually undergo the same transportation and slaughterhouse rituals.

Ultimately, becoming vegetarian is a hard decision for one to make. After all, meat is part of America. However, although it is a hard decision, the benefits outweigh the misfortunes in the situation. When one is a vegetarian, they will save the lives of hundreds of animals each year. Not only will they help the animals, but they will help themselves. Upon being contained in a factory farm, animals are injected with steroids and growth hormones to induce growth rates, causing them to triple in size in the time it would only take them to grow double their size. In consequence, we consume their meat, and in return, are filled with these medications within our own bodies. If one was to become vegetarian, it would stop the spread of these harmful steroids from animal to person. Even though becoming a vegetarian is such a hard decision, it is worth the thought, yielding lifelong benefits, to not only you, but the animals and often others within our lives.