Nearly all farm animals nationwide (over 99%) are kept on intensive farms, crowded by the thousands, subjected to pain and neglect, and denied the chance to experience a natural life. 

Factory farming is cruel to workers, communities, and our environment, too—and for most farm animals, it’s a nightmare they never get to wake up from. Here’s why.

All without pain relief or sedation: Chickens’ beaks and toes are cut or burned. Piglets are castrated. Cows’ horns are burned off. Ducks and geese are force-fed to produce foie gras.

Shockingly, these and other painful and frightening practices are not the exception; they’re considered standard and happen routinely on U.S. factory farms.

Do you feel uncomfortable or scared in small or crowded spaces? For some people, this fear can be debilitating. Yet, many hens and pigs spend much of their short lives confined to tiny spaces.

Birds often symbolize freedom, but nobody is as free as a bird on factory farms. While the number of U.S. hens kept in battery cages has declined over the years, more than half are still kept in these cramped cages so small that they can’t even spread their wings. 

For almost 60% of female pigs, much of their lives are spent behind the metal bars of gestation crates (during pregnancy) and farrowing crates (giving birth). They don’t have enough room to turn around, let alone care for their piglets born into the frightening world of factory farming.

The meat industry isn’t just a deadly place for farm animals, but can be lethal for workers too, many of whom are immigrants—and some are children, despite laws prohibiting child labor. Working in factory farms and slaughterhouses is among the most dangerous jobs in the nation, and workers often have little to no protection or recourse.

In August 2025, following the deaths of six people on a dairy farm, The New York Times reported that the dairy industry “can be especially treacherous for farmworkers,” who may die from being crushed in machinery, suffocating in silos, or choking on gases released by manure.

A 2018 investigation found two amputations per week among workers in U.S. meat plants, and that these individuals are three times more likely to suffer a serious injury compared to the average U.S. worker. Yet, the shocking reality is that injuries are probably even more common than we know, because they sometimes go ignored and uninvestigated.

When natural disasters hit, claiming the lives of animals as well as humans, most of the animals confined to the cages and sheds of industrial farms have no way to escape. 

Animals drown as hurricanes cause rising floods, or succumb to the violent winds of tornadoes that tear through sheds. Farm Sanctuary and other groups have saved survivors of such horrific disasters, but rescue alone can’t solve what will keep happening without systemic change.

Factory farms—which fuel the climate crisis, worsening storms and weather extremes—often have no plan to relocate animals to safety. They’re often reimbursed for the “property” lost when animals perish. This creates situations in which millions of animals are simply left to die.

More than 20 million animals die on the way to U.S. slaughterhouses annually. 

The journey is grueling: Animals are crowded onto trucks and driven through all weather conditions—often across hundreds of miles. 

Right now, the only law protecting farm animals during transportation is the Twenty-Eight Hour Law, which requires only food and rest after 28 hours…and alarmingly, excludes birds.

Considering this lack of protection, it’s no wonder so many animals don’t even survive the trip.

The truth about factory farming is scary, but our food doesn’t have to be: Each time we choose a plant-based meal, we support a food system that doesn’t run on killing. 

Find tips in our handy guide to a plant-based diet.