If you wish to see how animals for human consumption are treated in this good old U. S. A., go to this web site.  I think you can download the video "Meet Your Meat" or get a copy sent to you.  http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming.asp  The page itself has a lot of good information on cruelty to animals.  It's a vegetarian site, though I'm not vegetarian.  About sixty years ago I did watch them slaughter cattle in a packing house.  A guy stood up on a platform with a sledge hammer over a pen where about ten head of cattle were tightly penned in, and he proceeded to kill them by hitting them in the head.  As they fell they were immediately strung up by their back legs - still kicking in many cases, then pulled up with a pulley and slid on an overhead trolley onto a production line where their throats were slit and the blood flowed down a drain.  He then moved the steer down the line to the next guy who began the skinning process.  I think that things have changed a bit since then.  They used to stick pigs to kill them at that time too.  It was in a packing house in Chicago around the turn of the last century that Henry Ford got his idea for an automobile production line!  It all started in the meat industry. 

Here's a bit from that same organization as above regarding the FDA at: http://www.goveg.com/government_fda.asp

Like other government agencies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is filled with appointed officials who have close ties to the industries that they’re supposed to be monitoring. According to a study conducted by USA Today, “More than half of the experts hired to advise the government on the safety and effectiveness of medicine have financial relationships with the pharmaceutical companies that will be helped or hurt by their decisions.” The study also found that at more than 90 percent of FDA advisory committee meetings, at least one committee member had a conflict of interest by having a financial stake in the topic or drug being discussed. As a result, the FDA often makes decisions that benefit corporations and hurt consumers.

rest of the story at the site.