When you think of where your food comes from, your mind probably conjures up images of fresh, lush fields of the greenest green you’ve ever seen and animals grazing happily in the pastures. That image is what you usually see on billboard advertisements for meat and dairy or in commercials. Great cheese comes from happy cows, right?

Wrong. This picturesque vision of happy animals frolicking joyfully in perfectly manicured fields is the smoke screen that is shading us from the real truth. The real action that goes on in the slaughterhouse is far from pretty. In fact, the real action that goes on in some of the major factories can be considered inhumane. Gone are the majority of the small farmers that treat their animals with respect by giving them the space that they need. Gone are the farm houses that only house the capacity they can handle. In its place are factory farms.

You would think that animals that are were forced against their will and to sacrifice their life would be treated more humanely, but nothing could be further from the truth. While some farms may still operate in an “ethical” manner, some farms do not and the major distributors of meat products and by-products are simply too big of an operation to care for the little details like treating their animals properly.

What goes on in a slaughterhouse can be vicious. Animals are killed, yes. But in some cases, the methods in which they are killed are far from humane. Electric prods, death by decapitation, death by boiling, and death by being hanged by the leg and allowing the blood to drain… those are just some of the ways that chickens, cows, and other farm animals are being killed. What happened to acting merciful and just and ending it quickly?

These animals are definitely not lining up to get butchered at the slaughterhouse. They kick and scream and fight and cry the whole time they are in there. Perhaps animals are more intuitive than we give them credit for because they seem to know what impending doom is about to befall them.

Sadly, not many people really stop to ponder what really goes on. Yes, meat comes from animals, but somehow the connection is just a bit detached. Perhaps it’s the fact that many Americans have become desensitized or perhaps it’s that smoke screen doing its job well. Or perhaps it’s because people really don’t care. Whatever the reason is, the animals that we have been given dominion over are the same animals that the majority of the population relies on for food and clothing.