I recently watched the short film "From Farm To Fridge."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzrRmB40l00

 (It contains video footage of farm animals being abused and killed.)

Obviously the video makes an emotional appeal more so than a purely logical one, and as such I just want to fact-check some of the claims made about what it refers to as normal and routine practices on USDA-approved factory farms. I'm particularly curious about the footage of farm workers stomping on calves and birds, swinging piglets and birds around violently and slamming them into the floor, twisting birds' necks in an apparently ineffective attempt to break it, and castrating, branding, and de-horning/beaking animals without anesthetic in extremely unsanitary conditions.

I understand the function of some of these acts, but it seems like more effective alternative actions exist that would accomplish the same thing with less mess, effort, and suffering on the part of both the farmer and animals. Therefore it seems likely this footage reflects the exception rather than the norm of factory farming, but I'm not sure how I can prove that.

I recently watched the short film "From Farm To Fridge."  (It contains video footage of farm animals being abused and killed.)

Obviously the video makes an emotional appeal more so than a purely logical one, and as such I just want to fact-check some of the claims made about what it refers to as normal and routine practices on USDA-approved factory farms. I'm particularly curious about the footage of farm workers stomping on calves and birds, swinging piglets and birds around violently and slamming them into the floor, twisting birds' necks in an apparently ineffective attempt to break it, and castrating, branding, and de-horning/beaking animals without anesthetic in extremely unsanitary conditions.

I understand the function of some of these acts, but it seems like more effective alternative actions exist that would accomplish the same thing with less mess, effort, and suffering on the part of both the farmer and animals. Therefore it seems likely this footage reflects the exception rather than the norm of factory farming, but I'm not sure how I can prove that.