In Korea, as in the rest of the world, farm animals are no better off and many are worse off than they have ever been. Korea has the added dimension of a huge intensive dog farming industry, one that is essentially lawless, and on a lesser scale, it also has a bear farming industry.

Around the world and in Korea, modern intensive farming methods mean that most animals live the whole of their unnatural lives imprisoned in small spaces and suffer under appalling conditions. Just for the sake of human stomachs, billions of animals yearly endure tortures before being slaughtered.     

In fact, over 53 billion animals and birds yearly are imprisoned, abused, drugged, mutilated, and slaughered around the world in farming operations. To supply the great need for meat, huge factory farming operations are replacing traditional farms, with maximizing profit as their primary goal.

Animals are caught from birth in the grip of the massive machinery of this industry, one that treats them like inanimate products--totally ignoring their status as sentient beings. They live a nightmarish life. Many die from disease and stress before reaching the slaughterhouse. For others, even the slaughterhouse does not bring a quick death, as many people mistakenly believe. Animals can survive the initial stages of the slaughter process, which means they are alive and conscious when they being skinned, dismembered or scalded in boiling water.

Pigs are smart, and many of the beliefs surrounding them, such as their uncleanliness, are myths. In factory farms, pigs are born onto concrete then penned behind steel bars for the rest of their live. That is all they'll ever know. They get no exercise. They see no sunshine. They are forced to breath choking ammonia from their waste. They live in a constant state of over-crowding and stress.

Female pigs are raised separately in special sheds where they endure their own special kinds of tortures. They are kept pregnant as often as is possible and are forced to live in steel "crates" in which they cannot even turn around. Many attack their crates with rage and frustration while others develop neurotic behavior.

Hens are like machines for producing meat and eggs. Male chicks of egg-laying chicken breeds are of no use to the egg industry, so on the day they hatch, they are left to suffocate in plastic bags or killed by other means, including being ground up for feed.

The female chicks have their beak ends burned off with a hot blade. This is because the living conditions they have to endure are so stressful that they peck at each other. As battery hens, they will endure their entire lives in windowless sheds, packed into cages barely bigger than they are and deprived of everything required to satisfy their most basic natural instincts.

Hens also have to breath air full of, among other things, ammonia fumes and dust. They suffer skin, respiratory problems, growths, infections, and blindness. Their confinement also produces weak muscles and bone brittleness, which results in broken bones.

Conditions are much the same for broiler chickens. Because of genetically engineered breeding to make them grow large quickly, broiler chickens suffer leg problems and are painfully crippled because they cannot support their weight properly. They also die from heart failure because of their unnatural growth patterns.

Cattle are subjected to unnatural and crowded living conditions as well. They are branded, castrated and dehorned. They are feed unnatural diets that lead to a whole host of health problems--indeed, it is through eating artificial feed that cattle contract mad cow disease.

Like pigs, cattle have to endure inhuman transportation methods, packed into trucks in all kinds of temperatures. Also like pigs, many cattle are not initially killed in the slaughter process, meaning that some are skinned and dismembered while still conscious.

Cows can normally live 20-25 years. But their lifespan in the milk industry is much reduced: only 25% of dairy cows live past 7 years. Today, many must live their days on packed earth, standing or lying in their own filth. Dairy cows suffer a range of health problems as a result of living conditions and intensive farming.

Of course, once a dairy cow is worn out and no longer useful, she is carted off to the slaughterhouse.

Dairy cows are made pregnant as often as possible and when calves are born, mother and calf are separated within 24 hours, causing great distress to both mother and calf. Some calves might be reared for meat. But often dairy cow calves can end up as veal calves who have to endure a torturous short life. No more than babies, they are chained by the neck for 16 weeks in tiny, filthy wooden crates, unable even to scratch themselves. They cannot experience anything of what nature intended for them.

These are just a few summaries of what goes on in the meat, dairy and egg industries. They by no means detail all of the disgusting abuses and practices that occur. Remember, other animals such as ducks, rabbits, turkeys are also subject to tortures in intensive farming operations. If you object such horrors, please boycott products from the meat, egg and dairy industries.