The Texas Mega-Dairy Fire is an Urgent Call to Address the Costly Clean-Up of Big Ag’s Cruelty

People worldwide have watched footage of the explosion at a mega-dairy in Texas, causing a fire that killed 18,000 cows and left one worker in critical condition. In one haunting video, the sounds of cows screaming while burning alive could be heard behind a wall of smoke. Possibly the largest mass death of cattle from a single fire in United States history, the massive loss of life and the size of the dairy operation are hard to comprehend, with estimates that the cattle who suffered would cover 26 football fields. 

This incident is just the latest in a string of tragedies on industrial farms owned or operated by gigantic corporations across America—compelling evidence that the scale and concentration of animals intrinsic to factory farming is a certain recipe for disaster. Over the last decade, multinational corporations have created a system in which at least 6.5 million farmed animals, mostly chickens, have tragically died in fatal barn fires. In many of the facilities where these fires occurred, animals are crowded indoors by the tens of thousands in warehouses or pens, an inhumane and unnatural environment that puts those animals at serious risk of overheating, flooding, or fires if machinery fails. Worse, these facilities are frequently located in areas vulnerable to natural disasters. Hundreds of millions of animals’ lives are lost annually from floods, fires, and other catastrophes, largely chickens, turkeys, and pigs who are raised in the highest concentrations.

Some of the most tragic and large-scale losses on factory farms are self-inflicted by the industry. During COVID-19, some slaughterhouses were shut down and farmers were forced to “depopulate” millions of animals and dispose of their carcasses because, without the ability to move them to slaughter, an enormous number of animals remained crammed together on farms, where farmers were not willing or prepared to continue to care for them. Since early 2022, more than 57 million chickens and turkeys have been killed on farms across the United States to prevent the spread of avian flu. More than 85% of these birds were culled in depopulations that used a patently cruel method—VSD plus heat—which amounts to baking animals alive by turning off ventilation and cranking up the heat.

While one would think that these losses would be bad for business, the multinational corporations controlling the contract farmers who are stuck in the system have little incentive to change their ways. Indeed, USDA indemnifies these large companies for livestock deaths from natural disasters or disease outbreaks, without requiring insurance against such losses or precautionary measures to protect the animals. The USDA has already spent more than $670 million in response to the ongoing avian flu outbreak. This means Americans are paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to compensate corporations that raise animals in terrible living conditions and kill them in brutal ways.

A new survey by the ASPCA showed that most Americans oppose reimbursing companies for animal deaths in the case of diseases or disasters when the farms are using inhumane methods to kill the animals. In the same survey, a whopping 74% of respondents support a ban on new factory farms, a significant jump from just two years ago.

Earlier this year, Senator Cory Booker and Representative Jim McGovern introduced the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act (IAA)—the first step in addressing this unjustified use of public funds. The IAA offers solutions to address the animal cruelty and devastation caused by the factory farming system, including requiring industrial operators to register large, high-risk concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), submit disaster preparedness plans, and cover the costs of preparing for and responding to disaster events. This legislation also disincentivizes the use of the worst killing practices on farms.

Tragedies like the horrifying Texas fire should drive a long-overdue public conversation about why we’re investing taxpayer funds in industrial animal agriculture when catastrophes like this are utterly predictable. With the 2023 Farm Bill in development, it is time to let our lawmakers know that we want government investment in a more humane and sustainable food system and that food corporations cannot be permitted to continue their senseless and devasting reliance on factory farming.

Daisy Freund is vice president of farm animal welfare at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).