It must be so...

If you're a person who doesn't know about animal agriculture, you may search the Internet for information. That search may lead to places like the Humane Society of the United States, PETA, or other "pro-animal" (I use the term very loosely), a.k.a. anti-agriculture sites.
One of their most effective promotional tools are videos they post that show the alleged mistreatment of animals by farmers and ranchers. Well, I'm here to tell you those videos hit so far away from reality, you can't even see reality from them.
I've seen them. I couldn't finish a couple of them.
Let me put this in perspective for you.
Thinking that all farmers and ranchers treat their animals the way some videos portray things is like me searching for videos of dog owners, and coming across a vicious video of dog fighting, then assuming all dog owners must treat their "pets" in such a fashion. I mean, I saw the video, and this website told me that's what all dog owners in such and such location do. It must be true, right?
Wrong!
Does that make sense?
Those videos, and other information presented by those sites, is way off base, and represents such a small percentage of people with animals it would never show up statistically. If anyone in agriculture that I know saw treatment similar to that seen in those videos, they would put a stop to it on the spot.
I've also noticed in the ones I've watched that they're usually very old, and I have no idea where they got the footage, but it wasn't in America any time in recent history.
Whats more, those of us in production agriculture are possibly even more angered, upset, and hurt by those videos than people who don't own animals. We have animals ourselves, and we work hard every single day to prevent them from suffering any harm. The acts portrayed in those pieces of footage make us out to be something we're not, and that's a big concern to us.
Most dog owners are caring, compassionate people toward their pets. The same is true for people in agriculture. We also have to make a living off our animals, and that combined with our genuine care for them results in treatment that would never purposely cause harm or discomfort. Instead, we care for them in a way designed to make them happy, because happy animals perform better, and happy, high performing animals make for happy producers.

If you want to know more about animal agriculture, feel free to comment or email me at [email protected].
You can also check out a few accurate websites, including:

Real Ranchers

National Institute for Animal Agriculture

Life on a Kansas Cattle Ranch

Agriculture Proud

Extension Services