Drug-Resistant "Superbugs" and Other Shocking Ag Industry Secrets

Legally Brief:
Drug-Resistant "Superbugs" and Other Shocking Ag Industry Secrets

By Stephen Wells, Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF)
May 2013

The rise of Superbugs has been linked to the routine feeding of antibiotics to animals on factory farms. In addition to preventing disease, the drugs are also used to promote rapid hormonal growth, meaning less need to feed animals, thus saving producers money. Factory farms are responsible for more than 10 billion land animals slaughtered in the U.S. every year. Along with the unimaginable suffering of animals and the horrors of intensive confinement, humans are at risk from the resulting superbugs. These bacteria mean a simple case of strep throat could become fatal.

The number one health crisis of our time could well be the potential nightmare of "Superbugs"—infectious bacteria immune to antibiotics. On factory farms across the nation, animals are receiving antibiotics they don't need to pre-empt illnesses that would otherwise run rampant in the dirty, intensely crowded confinement (Confined Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs) in which the vast majority of animals are raised for food.

The rise of Superbugs has been linked to the routine feeding of antibiotics to animals on factory farms. In addition to preventing disease, the drugs are also used to promote rapid hormonal growth, meaning less need to feed animals, thus saving producers money. Factory farms are responsible for more than 10 billion land animals slaughtered in the U.S. every year. Along with the unimaginable suffering of animals and the horrors of intensive confinement, humans are at risk from the resulting superbugs. These bacteria mean a simple case of strep throat could become fatal.

Remember the controversy over "pink slime" in cow meat? The public was shocked to learn that the ag industry was selling animal scraps (usually discarded or used only in pet food) to our public schools, grocery stores, and fast food restaurants. This repulsive concoction was privy to bacteria like E. coli, so ammonia was added to fight the bacteria. Other recent revelations within the factory farming industry have included feeding candy to cows because proper food is expensive, confining pregnant pigs to cruel gestation crates, mutilating birds and cramming them into dark spaces the size of a piece of paper.

ALDF has tackled animal cruelty on factory farms in innovative legal actions against A & L Poultry, Cal Cruz Hatcheries, Corc Pork, Tyson Foods, to name a few. We've also filed petitions with the FDA to minimize the amount of the dangerous drug "ractopamine" added to animal feed, and to regulate deceptive labels on egg packaging. By combatting the cruelty and deception of factory farms, you can help us fight a massive chunk of animal cruelty. It is also one of the largest threats to public health in our time. As Americans, we demand greater public transparency.

This is why the Animal Legal Defense Fund has petitioned the USDA to put labels on meat and poultry containing antibiotics. Millions of animals are suffering and as many consumers are unaware of the risks posed by the failure to accurately label food products. Please contact the USDA and ask them to support our petition to label meat and poultry containing antibiotics.

The corporate agriculture industry has responded by seeking to hide these problems from the public. Across the country, the industry is lobbying to pass "ag gag" laws that would cloak abuses on factory farms in secrecy. Not requiring the agricultural industry to disclose its use of antibiotics to consumers is just one more way factory farms get away with harming animals and putting the public at risk. We need the USDA to act.

The public has a right to know about antibiotic use on factory farms. The potential to make animals sick, human and nonhuman alike, is catastrophic. The secrecy of factory farms, whose critically dangerous practices, deception, and cruelty jeopardize the safety of animals and of consumers, has run its course. The public is fed up with this corporate world in which abusers profit and the rest of us suffer.