Opposition to the oppression of animals is growing world-wide, through protests, product boycotts and educational campaigns, and through the rise of vegetarianism and veganism. Food industry companies and corporations have been forced onto the defensive by the boycotting of their products.
Vegetarians and animal welfare campaigners hold the fast food industry responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of cows per year. In Europe alone they use half a million chickens every week, all from windowless factory farms. All such animals suffer great cruelty during their unnatural, painful and short lives, many being kept inside with no access to fresh air and sunshine, and no freedom of movement.
Animals raised and slaughtered for the food industry are usually kept out of sight and out of the public mind. They suffer continuous, systematic and extreme cruelty through confinement and artificial conditions, the denial of their natural instincts, the contraction of production diseases (including BSE), and finally a premature and frightening death. Hundreds of millions of animals in every 'developed' country have to endure this nightmare.