I love the second photo.
How many more people need to die before everyone realizes factory farming needs to STOP?

Posted by: Aneliese | October 14, 2009 03:44 PM

Many people say that humans are smarter than animals. Baninng this billboard, proves the exact opposite. This makes me loose faith in the human race *sighs*

Posted by: Zooey | October 14, 2009 05:48 PM

Is this available as a bumper sticker? I'd love one!

Posted by: Kelley | October 14, 2009 06:22 PM

Go PETA GO!

Posted by: Barb | October 14, 2009 08:13 PM

the first one is hardly confusing at all. looks to me like the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority needs to step out of the stone ages, as far as language is concerned.

Posted by: vegancoin | October 14, 2009 08:23 PM

By that logic we should shut down hospitals too. After all, they to are places where diseased animals are kept alive with drugs in overcrowded conditions...the perfect environment for development of a superbug.

Posted by: Kalama Halamezad | October 14, 2009 10:11 PM

High Five Peta!!! Vegan is the way to go! I have done it this past year and my kids are going to switch over if it's the last thing I do. wake up people!!!!

Posted by: Carla | October 15, 2009 08:50 AM

What the... lol how can the first one be confusing, as a brit i'd just like to say that we're all not as dumb as the person who said its confusing, i can just imagine a bloke or woman seeing that and stood scratching their head lol omg that says it all although i do like the second one better, (not confusing for us brits at all) hahah.

Posted by: emma | October 15, 2009 09:48 AM

That second billboard should be posted every mile or two on the California interstate in the rural areas. When you travel cross country by motorcycle you notice a lot of semi-trucks filled with animals on their trip to the slaughterhouse. I remember being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, sitting on the motorcycle as the trucks surrounding us made it too dangerous to split traffic: a truck full of chickens in front of us, spilling feathers in its wake, a truck full of pigs on the right ( I was close enough to be able to look through the air vents and see them lying there) and a truck full of cattle on the left (they were bellowing and poking their snouts through the air vents).

We pulled into a McDonalds that night and I ordered a green salad.

Posted by: Rev. Meg Schramm | October 15, 2009 11:20 AM

Kalama,

You're right—hospitals are full of sick people in close confinement—healthy people beware. But at the moment it's the best model we have.

People certainly don't need to eat meat, and as such, factory farms are dispensable. The superbug H1N1 is directly traceable to a pig factory farm in North Carolina. H5N1 is also believed to be the result of intensive factory farming.

England experienced its first outbreak of H5N1 at a huge turkey farm with 160,000 birds.

Factory farms are not only a nightmare for animals, they're fast becoming one for us. Your definition of factory farms as "places where diseased animals are kept alive with drugs in overcrowded conditions" certainly nails it.

Posted by: Mike Quinoa | October 15, 2009 11:36 AM

I hardly think the average UK hospital compares to a factory farm. I know the food can be pretty bad but I'm not aware of any patients that have have been forced into tiny, filthy cages that give them barely enough space to move.

Posted by: Bluebell | October 15, 2009 02:15 PM

Problem is, most people on this planet are too stupid to even get the message from dumbed down ads like these. The meat and dairy industry will continue to reassure people that everything is fine and they cannot possibly survive without eating meat, that they have to consume their three servings of dairy a day that does nothing more than to generate revenue for the industry.

Posted by: Craig | October 15, 2009 04:52 PM

Sure, they're not in cages, but at many urban hospitals here in the US (especially the free clinics) we incubate them all together for hours and hours in side-by-side chairs in waiting rooms--and sometimes they die while waiting.

...and I've never heard a medical worker not describe their environment as anything other than "overcrowded".

I've never seen a factory farm, but I have seen a biomedical science lab, and in regards to the latter, the picture you've been given isn't quite accurate.

The point being though, is that both hospitals and factory farms have produced antibiotic resistant diseases that have killed people.

Posted by: Kalama Halamezad | October 15, 2009 05:47 PM

lol bluebell, good point.

Posted by: emma | October 15, 2009 06:35 PM

I think the first ad was effective. How dumb do they think the public is? As for the factory farm/hospital comparison, are they really the same thing? I think not. Hospitals are meant to keep people alive, whereas factory farms give every animal in its keep a death sentence.

Posted by: Farah | October 15, 2009 06:40 PM

I agree with Zooey, wake up people! We are the most stupidest people on earth. I lost all respect for the human race a long time ago too! Way to go Zooey!!! Good Job, you have my vote!!!

Posted by: Dana | October 15, 2009 07:23 PM

Way to go Analiese, I lost faith too!!! People need to wake up and appreciate life in full, no matter what creatures are in this world, we all have to live together, so honor thy neighbor, all living beings deserve a chance. Everyone only gets one chance to live, so let them all have a chance, Jesus did.

Posted by: Dana | October 15, 2009 07:31 PM

According to Dr. Michael Greger, factory-farmed livestock populations receive 5 times the amount of antibiotics that are administered to the human population. And then we wonder why our antibiotics aren't effective anymore.

Posted by: Mike Quinoa | October 16, 2009 11:32 AM

The first ad would have been better and should say "vegan". On the second ad, most people would probably not even know that the building is a factory farm. Maybe an animal image would have been better.

Posted by: Lisa | October 16, 2009 12:48 PM

"The safest, easiest way to prevent animal-borne disease epidemics is to go vegan."

Or just don't get your meat from a factory farm. Both work either way, and I think I'll keep with my chicken and pork that I get from my 4-H friend and old science teacher, respectively. My parents and I are all perfectly healthy.

My grandfather's been eating meat since he brought home squirrels for stew during the Great Depression. He's 85 and still going strong.

Posted by: MH | October 16, 2009 02:21 PM

Shame the animals that ended up on your family's plates werent' given the chance to enjoy long and healthy lives, MH.

Posted by: Bluebell | October 16, 2009 08:46 PM

What the heck,was so hard, about the first billboard ad to understand?!

Posted by: Lacey | October 17, 2009 03:02 AM

MH,

Most people, whether they realize it or not, buy only factory-farmed meat. Sustainable, family-style farms will only be able to prosper once again if people are willing to eat less meat, and pay more for it. America's burgeoning meat consumption can only be sated with the factory-farm production model.

Since factory farms score so poorly on animal welfare, preservation of the environment, and food-borne illness containment issues, a switch to a vegan diet would be a good move for a lot of people in a lot of ways.

Posted by: Mike Quinoa | October 17, 2009 08:04 PM

Does anyone know why allergy to red meat is almost non-existant, yet wheat soy and nuts so severe?

Posted by: rojo | October 18, 2009 04:56 PM

@ Lacey

"What the heck,was so hard, about the first billboard ad to understand?!"

twas gonna' say, i'm equally confused.

Posted by: vegancoin | October 19, 2009 04:27 PM