The Ethical Fight Against Pig Farming
2023
Animals Australia’s campaign against pig farming produced some videos for TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKhl-FUpp8E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNNaq6BfKdI
https://animalsaustralia.org/our-work/for-a-kinder-world/behind-the-scenes-with-tottie/
Ethical farming
October 2020
The pork industry is calling on the Federal Government for the country of origin labelling on pork, ham and bacon products. However, this will do nothing to address a more important question for consumers: What are the living and killing conditions of the poor pigs in piggery factory farming? The answer is extreme cruelty to these intelligent, sociable animals that deserve a quality of life but are given none. Irrespective of whether pork is imported or Australian, product labelling should be honest about the living animals used to manufacture meat products. The benign image of happy pigs in hay accompanying the article misrepresents the truth that most pigs live on hard concrete floors. Mother pigs are confined in concrete floor sow stalls to give birth and are deprived of their ability to express their basic instincts to nurture their young in close physical contact. Ethical farming, ethical product disclosure and ethical consumption in consideration of sentient animals are all called into question.
Simone Hunter
Cruel reality about Pigs
June 2020
Imagine being locked in a shed, having scalding steam pumped inside then having the heat turned up.
This is the way thousands of pigs in the US were recently killed. They were, effectively, boiled alive.
Millions of chickens have, likewise, suffered monstrously cruel deaths – slowly smothered when foam was pumped around their cages, ultimately smothering them.
These animals were “culled” because COVID-19 shut down numerous slaughterhouses but “depopulation” can take place whenever there is a viral outbreak.
Consequently, this cruelty must be regarded as part and parcel of the meat industry. Clearly, if we support these industries with our consumer dollars, we are endorsing this cruelty.
Jenny Moxham
Year of the Pig
February 2019
Given that February 5th is the start of the Chinese Year of the Pig, it seems like a fitting time to reflect on the lives of pigs. Despite the fact that pigs are sensitive, intelligent animals - even more intelligent than dogs - the majority of farmed pigs are kept in barren, cramped pens in which they can do nothing all day long except bite on the metal bars that confine them.
When a breeding sow is due to give birth she is put into a farrowing crate which is little bigger than her own body. After her piglets are born they can suckle from her but she is denied her mothers right to touch or nurture them. From the farrowing crate the sow is moved to a similarly sized restraint on her own called a 'sow stall’, or a group housing area for female pigs. She is then artificially inseminated and waits in the group housing pen or sow stall during her 4 month pregnancy before being taken back to the farrowing crate to start all over again.
I've no doubt if any of us were confined in this intolerable manner we would go insane -and pigs do too. Why not help to make the Year of the Pig the best year ever for them by getting pork off your fork?
Jenny Moxham
School defends care of its pigs
February 2018
I refer to the article "School defends care of its pigs. Piggies in the middle of dispute," highlights the way students who attend Urrbrae Agricultural high are taught animal husbandry, in this case for pigs.
Former student, Sophie Remin, has managed to collect over 10,000 signatures from people who are horrified to hear how these gentle animals are treated. Sophie is now studying conservation and land management and is acutely aware of unsustainable animal agriculture, and that the toxic run off from intensive factory farmed piggeries is one of the worst pollutants in the world. Urrbrae Deputy Principal, Ross Templeman claims a "proud history of introducing students to pig husbandry." and that the pigs are "safe and happy."
How can this be when they are kept in confining stalls, and when due to give birth are jammed into body hugging farrowing crates, supposedly to protect the piglets from harm. Pigs are gentle mothers, so the babes are far more likely to be squashed in such close confinement, than in welfare friendly eco- system farms.
Like me, Sophie is vegan, and knows we have absolutely no need of any animal products to be healthy and consumers are looking for kinder, healthier food. So Urrbrae would do well to look at Tyson foods, America's largest producer of animal products, that have seen the writing on the wall, and are developing a large vegan arm of its business. Making use of arable land for crops, fruit trees and vegetables is the way for our students' sustainable future.
Diane Cornelius