The Welfare of Transgenic Farm Animals

Abstract

As part of a burst of deregulatory activity in the dwindling days of the Bush administration, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed guidelines for the approval of genetically engineered farm animals for the American food supply. Imagine “double muscled” beef cattle born so enormous they can be extracted only via Caesarian section, a dairy cow capable of generating ten times more milk than a calf could suckle (if she were allowed, that is), a hen laying so many eggs she risks a prolapse (laying her own uterus), turkeys so topheavy they are physically incapable of mating, and chickens with such explosive growth they have to be starved lest they risk aortic rupture (Renema, 2004). Imagine a world in which farm animals have been so genetically modified for rapid muscling that billions suffer in chronic pain from skeletal disorders that impair their ability to even walk.