More about the animals:
Some species, like chickens, lay eggs whether there are males present or not. Male chicks, useless for the egg industry, are ground up alive for petfood, and to feed back to other animals/poultry in the form of "protein meal".
Hens produce eggs from the age of 6 mos, for about 2-3 years, and then they are slaughtered. The painting titled "Henbit" is about the egg industry, where hens are crammed in packed 'battery' cages, their beaks clipped off, laying eggs until they can't, then slaughtered.
Cows are impregnated every breeding cycle, often by artificial means. They live indoors, in a stall, their whole lives. They produce calves and milk non-stop until they can't, and then they are slaughtered. This is a short video about factory farming.
Goats are a preferred domestic animal for much of the world. They are smaller than cattle, eat almost anything, and provide milk and baby goats for meat. They are also a species that grazes foliage so thoroughly, even climbing trees, that they strip vegetation from the landscape permanently. Goats are the agent of much of the world's desertification, most particularly in Africa. They are feral in places like Hawai'i, threatening unique ecosystems.
Horses, specifically mares, are used in the pharmaceutical industry. They are bred non-stop so the hormones they produce in their urine can be used to make the drug Premarin. PREgnant MAre uRINe. Mmm, tasty, huh? But that isn't all the good news. They must spend their adult lives in a cramped, filthy stall, with a trough between their legs or catheterized to catch their urine. The mare's babies are taken away when they are born, and shipped to slaughterhouses. From there the carcasses are sent to Japan, France and other countries that serve horsemeat. Hundreds of thousands of them every year; some estimate they are killed in the millions.
There are identical compounds derived from a type of yam, and from soy, but the PMU industry reaps so much profit from the sale of foals and meat, as well as urine, that they lobby Congress heavily to prevent this plant-derived substance from being popularized in the US. Our country generally abhors horsemeat as human food, but has no issue with PMU ranches, slaughter for foriegn export and slaughter for the pet industry.
Pigs, highly intelligent, trainable animals, are raised worldwide for their meat and hides. A brood sow lives a life of unrequited misery, bred continuously until she can't do it any more, and then slaughtered.
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All these animals deserve a better life than the unrelenting torture of factory farming.
