Reply #11: The treatment of meat animals has definitely gotten worse over the years.

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Consumers are removed from the process, so they don't even think about how the meat got to their dinner table. If more consumers knew how the animals had to suffer, there would be a shift toward more humane treatment in the meat factories.

I eat meat, but I would feel better about it if I thought the animals had a tolerable life.

Turkeys can be sweet and gentle birds. I had a pet hen turkey who was tame and enjoyed being petted and hand fed. She was a Big-Breasted-Bronze turkey, which are bred for meat, because of their huge, over-meaty bodies. Her little legs had trouble supporting her huge body. One day she wandered (waddled) off a little too far from the house and was killed by a predator. Still, for a turkey, she lived an extremely charmed life. She'd be the Paris Hilton of domestic turkeys.