Each year, approximately three billion ducks, cattle, lambs and turkeys are slaughtered to feed the hungry mouths of Americans. Unfortunately, while we Americans sit back and enjoy our hearty dinners, these animals are subjected to conditions on farms and slaughterhouses that are harsher than we humans could even begin to imagine. If our society wants to fill our plates with the best poultry and meats, then the livestock that provide us with these delicacies deserve the best treatment. The government needs to enforce stricter regulations to protect animals raised for slaughter. It is necessary for animals and it is necessary for us. Although the United States government has implemented numerous laws regarding the meat industry, very few of these laws address the treatment of animals. Since 1967 and the passage of the Wholesome Meat Act, it has been required by law that all meat produced in the United States be inspected to establish federal standards. Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service is successful in its job of testing samples of U.S. meat for microbial and chemical contamination, but it is not as successful in enforcing the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act of 1978. This act ensured that all livestock slaughtered in the United States were “numbed before being killed.” Slaughterhouses' attempts to numb the animals, however, often fail, and every day hundreds of chickens are immersed alive in boiling vats where their feathers are amputated and the cows are still conscious as they are quartered. Slaughter is probably not even the harshest treatment animals receive; their whole life, lived in captivity, is worse. Cattle… half paper… and the meat that comes from these cows is much leaner and lower in saturated fat, which can be attributed to heart disease in humans. Additionally, a serving of grass-fed beef contains about 92 fewer calories than an average cut of beef, saving the average American about 16,642 calories per year. It's the healthy choice and it's the right choice. Why shouldn't the government produce humanely raised meat, the only meat produced and sold in America? It is wrong to raise animals unnaturally. It is wrong to force innocent animals to suffer. It is wrong that meat consumers are exposed to health risks that they may not even be aware of. Finally, it is wrong for the government to ignore the problems found in the meat industry. The right thing to do? Enforce stricter laws that regulate the treatment of livestock in America and that this treatment affects the meat we eat.