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Food Animal Welfare
- 4. Fast-Food Nation Author Eric Schlosser
- 5. "An HSUS Report: The Welfare of Animals in the Meat, Egg, and Dairy Industries"
Fast-Food Nation Author Eric Schlosser
Robyn M. Watts, Esq.
Fast-Food Fracas
Author Eric Schlosser discusses the fast-food industry.
Eric Schlosser is the author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, a best-selling exposé of America's fast-food industry and its impact on animal welfare.
Why did you write Fast Food Nation?
Rolling Stone asked me to go behind the counter and write an article about the fast-food industry. I didn't set out to write a muckraking exposé. I didn't know anything about the fast-food industry before writing the book.
What shocked you about the industry?
The working conditions in the slaughterhouses - how the "two-legged animals" (i.e., the human workers) were treated. The rate of serious injury in the meatpacking industry is five times higher than the national average for industry. There's a real connection between the mistreatment of animals and of people.
What are some of the worst aspects of the fast-food industry?
How they target children to eat unhealthy foods; how the industry refuses to take responsibility for the injury to and the lives of its workers; and how the system has led to cruelty to animals on a massive scale. McDonald's is the biggest purchaser of beef and pork in the United States and the second biggest of chicken.
How does the fast-food industry perpetrate cruelty toward animals?
Cattle live in feedlots in their own manure, are given antibiotics and growth hormones and are fed slaughterhouse waste. Animals are treated as part of the industrial process instead of as sentient beings. Cattle, poultry and hogs lead terrible lives before they're slaughtered. There are a few ethical producers, but they are under enormous pressure in a brutal, inhumane, profit-driven industry.
Your book has been on the New York Times best-seller list for most of the last two years. Why do you think the response has been so positive?
I think it just hit a nerve. There's new interest in such issues as food, health, obesity and food-borne illnesses. I just put all of the information in one book; the timing was right and people were receptive.
How has writing the book changed you?
I'm more aware. I don't spend money at fast-food places anymore. I still like meat. It's not a question of what I eat, but where I eat it. I don't eat at the big mainstream chains. I no longer eat ground beef or let my kids eat it because of the pathogens.
Honestly, most of the problems in the fast-food industry are unnecessary. Europe is already moving away from the cruel livestock processes practiced here, and the United States will soon stand alone.
Robyn M. Watts, Esq., is a consultant on issues of animal rights and animal cruelty.
© 2003 ASPCA
ASPCA Animal Watch - Spring 2003
Courtesy of
ASPCA
424 East 92nd St.
New York, NY 10128-6804
(212) 876-7700
www.aspca.org
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How You Can Help Pets: Food Animal Welfare:
"An HSUS Report: The Welfare of Animals in the Meat, Egg, and Dairy Industries"
