8 Facts the Meat Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know

The meat industry relies on deceiving the public as much as the other animal exploitation industries, so there are many facts about it that it wants to keep secret.

Animal exploitation industries thrive in secrecy. We know that the dairy industry deceives the public. We know that the egg industry keeps people in the dark. We know that the leather industry is full of secrets. We know that the wool industry is blinding people with misinformation. We know that the fishing industry is full of lies. Even the animal-based pet food industry is all but transparent. However, with the carnist false axiom that animal flesh is food humans must eat, the meat industry tops all other animal exploitation industries as far as the number of people who have fallen for its deceptive narrative.  Here are just eight of the many facts that the meat industry desperately wants to keep from you.

1. Most Meat Comes from Factory Farmed Animals

The image of animals peacefully grazing in open pastures is a carefully constructed illusion disseminated by the meat industry. In reality, three-quarters of all land animals exploited for meat globally are confined in factory farms — industrial facilities designed to maximise profit at the expense of animal welfare. As of 2024, approximately 74% of the 100 billion animals killed for food annually are factory-farmed globally. In the US, this figure is even more staggering, with about 99% of farm animals raised in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). In the UK, 85% of the farmed animals raised for food are in factory farms. 

These industrial facilities confine farmed animals in overcrowded, often unsanitary conditions that prevent them from expressing natural behaviours, and they are treated as goods that need to be fattened quickly and “dispatched” before it costs too much to keep them alive.

2. Animals in the Meat Industry Are Killed as Children

The meat industry profits by killing animals when they are still very young. Broiler Chickens bred for their flesh are slaughtered at just six weeks old, pigs at around six months, lambs at 4-12 months, and cows at one to two years — despite their natural lifespans stretching well over a decade. They are not just young, they are “children”, as they all had a mother and a father — as most human children have — but these sensitive and vulnerable creatures are denied the chance to grow, form social bonds, or experience the world. The industry’s focus is on rapid turnover and efficiency, not on allowing animals to live full, meaningful lives, so it is considered more profitable to kill children than adults. 

Even the calves born in dairy farms where the main business is not to produce meat end up taken to the meat industry, where they are killed after just a few weeks. When a cow has given birth to a male calf, dairy farmers separate him from his mother, and either kill him straight away or take him to a veal farm where he will be fed for a short while and then killed to sell his young flesh to be eaten as a delicacy (which is the destiny of most male calves as they will not produce milk when they grow up).

3. The Meat Industry Breeds Suffering Genetic Aberrations

To increase profit, the meat industry has genetically manipulated animals through selective breeding for centuries, forcing them to grow unnaturally fast or produce more flesh than their bodies can handle. Broiler chickens bred for meat grow so quickly that their legs often collapse under their own weight, and many suffer from heart and organ failure before they even reach the slaughterhouse. After decades of artificial selection, modern broiler chickens are the result of rapid growth (which comes from their genes) and high feed efficiency (which comes from changes in feeding and husbandry methods). Broiler chickens can reach the “slaughter weight” of about 2 kg in just six weeks of age, which is more than twice as fast as their ancestors. They also have much larger breast muscles, which account for about 25% of their body weight, compared to 15% in the red jungle fowl (the wild chicken from which domestic breeds originated). Broiler chickens have been bred to have a different body shape and posture than their wild counterparts, with a more horizontal back, shorter legs and wider chest.

Similarly, pigs have been bred for larger litters, faster growth, larger size, and fatter bodies, at the expense of their health and well-being. In 2023, the UK alone produced 927,400 tonnes of pig meat, with over 10 million pigs slaughtered. Most of these pigs are raised on factory farms, where they are confined to crowded, filthy spaces, often with no access to sunlight or fresh air. The fattening phase, known as the “finishing period,” is a particularly grim chapter in their lives (as it will end with their deaths), and leads to pigs that reach 110 to 125 kg within six months. This is not “nature taking its course” — it is deliberate exploitation, causing immense suffering by design.

4. Routine Use of Antibiotics by the Meat Industry Fuels Superbugs

Because animals in factory farms are kept in filthy, stressful conditions, the industry relies on routine administration of antibiotics — not to treat illness, but to prevent inevitable disease outbreaks and promote unnaturally rapid growth. This reckless practice is a key driver of antibiotic resistance, creating “superbugs” that threaten human health by rendering our medicines less effective. In fact, 70% of antibiotics globally are used in farmed animals, contributing to over a million deaths annually due to antimicrobial resistance. 

In 2001, a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that nearly 90% of the total use of antimicrobials in the US was for non-therapeutic purposes in agricultural production. The report estimated that farmed animal producers in the US used, every year, 24.6 million pounds of antimicrobials in the absence of disease for nontherapeutic purposes, including about  10.3 million pounds in pigs, 10.5 million pounds in birds, and 3.7 million pounds in cows. It also showed that about 13.5 million pounds of antimicrobials prohibited in the European Union were used in US agriculture for nontherapeutic purposes every year. In 2011, 1,734 tons of antimicrobial agents were used for animals in Germany compared with 800 tons for humans. 

5. “Humane” Slaughter Does Not Exist

No matter how it is marketed, slaughter is inherently violent and cruel. Animals are transported in crowded lorries, often in extreme weather, before being stunned (sometimes ineffectively) and killed — in the cases where stunning is used because some religions forbid it. Many remain conscious as their throats are cut or as they are processed by machines. Even with revised standards aiming to improve welfare during slaughter, enforcement and compliance remain inconsistent.

There is no such thing as “humane slaughter”, and the very act is a violation of the animal’s right to live. All legal slaughter methods are considered humane by those who legalised them, even if they may be considered inhumane by others who legalised other methods, adding more evidence that there is no such thing as humane slaughter, but just different types of inhumane slaughter (or just “slaughter”). One of the clearest examples of this difference of opinion regarding what is the right way to mass kill animals centres on the concept of stunning, which is the process of rendering animals immobile or unconscious, with or without killing the animal, when or immediately before killing them. Stunning is an extra process in the abattoir that brings its own suffering. Immobilising the animals for the stunning and applying the method may not only produce discomfort and fear but also pain, even if it is done following protocol precisely.

6. “Welfare” Labels Are Misleading

The meat industry uses terms like “free-range,” “organic,” or “high welfare” to reassure consumers, but these labels do little to change the fundamental reality of exploitation and killing. Even on so-called “high welfare” farms, animals are still denied autonomy, forcibly bred, and killed in the same slaughterhouses where all other farmed animals are killed, at a fraction of their natural lifespan. These labels are marketing tools, not meaningful protections — they exist to ease consumer guilt, not to protect animals.

Undercover investigations have revealed that even farms certified under welfare schemes like RSPCA Assured have been found to have significant animal welfare issues, including overcrowding, neglect, and abuse. On 9th June 2024, the UK animal rights organisation Animal Rising released the largest farm investigation in UK history, exposing what they say is systemic cruelty over 40 farms under the RSPCA Assured Scheme. They carried out over 60 undercover investigations and claimed they found widespread suffering in every single one. The group released a report titled, “RSPCA ‘Assured’: Covering up Cruelty on an Industrial Scale. An investigation into animal suffering and widespread regulation breaches on 45 RSPCA Assured Scheme farms in England & Scotland”. In it, we can read, “Verified by a specialist barrister in animal welfare, we found 280 legal breaches and a further 94 breaches of DEFRA codes of practice. We have found pigs lying dead in the middle of pen aisles. Chicks dead from dehydration and starvation. Salmon and trout with eyes and body parts missing. Laying hens having lost their feathers from distress. Pigs dragging themselves across the floor because their legs aren’t working. Sheds holding up to 64,000 chickens at a time.”

7. Meat Consumption Is Unhealthy

The meat industry relentlessly promotes the idea that eating animal flesh is not only “natural” but also essential for human health. However, the evidence tells a very different story. Decades of research from large-scale studies and leading health institutions have shown that regular consumption of red and processed meat is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer, and premature death. Even modest increases in meat intake can raise the risk of these chronic diseases, regardless of other lifestyle factors such as age, body weight, or physical activity.

Processed meats — such as bacon, sausages, and ham — are particularly harmful, with many health authorities classifying them as carcinogenic to humans. The long-term consumption of these products is linked not just to cancer, but also to increases in cardiovascular disease and overall mortality risk. Even unprocessed red meat is not risk-free, with evidence suggesting a slight but measurable increase in the risk of several major diseases.

The narrative that humans need to eat animal flesh to thrive is a relic of carnist ideology, not a scientific fact. In reality, well-planned vegan diets provide all the nutrients necessary for optimal health — without the risks associated with consuming animal products. Choosing the diet vegans eat is not only an ethical decision for animals and the planet, but also a wise choice for people’s health. Plant-based diets provide all the nutrients humans need, without the cruelty or environmental destruction. Every major dietetic association agrees that well-planned vegan diets are suitable for all stages of life. 

8. The Meat Industry Is One of the Worst for the Environment

Animal agriculture is a leading driver of environmental devastation. Forests are cleared to grow feed crops or provide grazing land, destroying habitats and accelerating biodiversity loss. The meat industry is a major contributor to water pollution, as animal waste and chemical runoff contaminate rivers and groundwater. Animal farming is also responsible for a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions, fuelling the climate crisis and threatening the future of all life on Earth. 

Globally, meat and dairy production is responsible for around 14.5% of all anthropogenic (human-induced) greenhouse gas emissions, with animal farming accounting for 60% of emissions from agriculture. Production of cow flesh is especially problematic, generating 32.4 kg of CO₂ equivalent per kilogram of meat from meat herds, and 22.1 kg from dairy herds. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas farmed ruminants produce with up to 34 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over 100 years, is a major byproduct of cow and sheep digestion, further intensifying the industry’s climate impact.

Resource consumption, particularly water use, is another critical environmental issue linked to the meat industry. Producing just one tonne of cow meat requires approximately 17,700 cubic meters of water, while lamb production demands even more, at 57,800 cubic meters per tonne. These figures highlight the immense pressure that meat production places on natural resources, contributing to water scarcity and pollution through runoff from manure and fertilisers. Overall, the meat industry’s negative environmental footprint is substantial, spanning greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and unsustainable resource use. Any attempts to greenwash this with concepts like regenerative grazing are just the latest form of deception that the industry is focusing on.