The cruelty of today's big business factory farming has been well documented and is practiced routinely throughout the United States. Food animals are considered little more than "production units," crammed in together to save space and cut costs. This overcrowding breeds madness and disease. These billions of animals raised in suffering and indifferently killed for human consumption every year are routinely fed antibiotics, sprayed with pesticides, and fed growth hormones to enhance productivity. These chemicals, antibiotics, and hormones enter the food chain.

According to the Institute of Medicine, "Approximately half the tonnage of antibiotics produced in the U.S. is used on the raising of animals for human consumption. Thus, concerns about the selection of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria and their passage into the human population as a result of this excessive use of antibiotics are realistic. The United States is the only nation in the world to treat beef with bovine growth hormones, which have been linked to immune system damage in children.

We have made a conscious decision to only support those farming practices in which the animals used for meat production live in humane conditions and are not injected with antibiotics or hormones. For more detailed information on the horrors of factory farming in the United States we highly recommend "Dominion", by Matthew Scully.

It is time to extend the love we feel for our companion animals to all animals and support the ethical and humane treatment of all life.