 In cooking, the process of clarification entails straining out extraneous muck from liquids so that they might be pure, clear and ideal for consumption. With this series on food terminology and issues we're attempting to do the same. This little piggie is bred for market. This little piggie can't turn her body around. That's about to change. The term "gestation crates" has been trotted out across news media and social networks over the course of the last few months as major corporations declared plans to phase out their use, but what exactly are they and why is their use so controversial? There are approximately 5.8 million breeding sows living on pig farms across the United States, according to the USDA, and 60 to 70 percent of them spend the majority of their lives in metal-sided stalls that are two feet wide and seven feet long. They are pregnant for most of their lifespan and then moved to a farrowing stall to give birth. Food and water is provided to the sows while they're in the stalls, but they have a very limited range of motion. The animal may flop down on her side, but she cannot turn around. Op-ed: Jane Velez-Mitchell – Get rid of gestation crates NOW Why are gestation crates used? The industry began moving from group pens to individual sow housing in the 1960s, but it wasn't until the 1990s that it became standard practice. Dr. Paul Sundberg, the National Pork Board's Vice President of Science and Technology says that sows are aggressive, competitive animals, and if they are made to live in a contained group situation, they will fight for food, shelter and space. Twenty to thirty years ago, producers keeping their pigs in group housing had to have a certain skill set, financial resources and quantity of land and personnel to manage their herd. Producers found that individual housing negates the issue of aggression, and the physical structure of the crates makes it easier to manage the herd, and requires fewer resources while allowing the animals to thrive, says Sundberg. Other studies contest that theory. How do sows fare under those circumstances? Dr. Sundberg says that science is on the side of the farmers. The industry uses three major measures in combination to assess animal welfare: an assessment of her physiology (white blood cell activity, hormone levels), behavior (interaction with her environment) and production (number of times giving birth and pigs per litter). The evaluation method was developed by scientists at Texas Tech University and in Australia, and scientists and veterinarians at the American Veterinary Medical Association. By their standards, the welfare of sows in gestation crates is equal to that of those raised in group pens that do not inhibit mobility. Matthew Prescott, Food Policy Director for the Humane Society of the United States, argues that these measures are not enough. He says, "It doesn't take a scientist to look at a situation where an animal is crammed in such a tight space, they can't even turn their own body around - just maybe shift a little to the left or the right. We know that farmers can do better." While these circumstances aren't necessarily seen as egregious an abuse as the piglet throwing, wound neglect and anesthetic-free castration and tail amputation that the Humane Society uncovered and recorded at a pig farm in Wyoming, Prescott believes that the housing is symptomatic of a "culture of cruelty" within a segment of the pork industry. He believes that their resistance to outside input is based on an "archaic philosophy" that the only people who should have any say in how animals are treated are those who have the animal. "24 hours a day, seven days a week for your whole life adds up to a lot of suffering," he says. Famed animal scientist Temple Grandin likens tenure in a gestation crate to a life-long sentence in a first-class airplane seat. "You could maybe turn over on your side," she says, "and there's someone bringing you food and water and everything you need, but you can't move." The pigs not emerge unscathed, she says, "They can feel fear and pain." Grandin agrees with Prescott - and with Sundberg - that innovative solutions should and will come from farmers. What are major food corporations asking of pig farmers? Since February, major fast food chains like McDonald's, Burger King, Denny's and Wendy's as well as the nation's two largest grocery story chains, Safeway and Kroger have publicly announced that they will join earlier adopters including Chipotle, Whole Foods and Wolfgang Puck in phasing out gestation crate pork from their supply chains. The change will not be immediate; most plans call for suppliers to adhere to a ten-year transition timeline. Smithfield and Hormel, two of the country's leading pork producers, have pledged to end the use of gestation crates at their company-owned facilities by 2017, and Cargill is already 50 percent crate-free. Eight states, have passed laws to ban the use of gestation crates. Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island have bills pending, and earlier this week, New Jersey state senators proposed a bill that would prohibit, "crating, confining or tethering a gestating sow in order to prevent the free range of motion." The change, Sundberg, Prescott and Grandin agree, is inevitable - and some worry it will come at a cost. What will the burden be on the farmers? A transition to group housing could be cost-prohibitive to a farmer, fears Sundberg, and it's very producer-specific. The price of conversion to a different system is based on a number of factors: the depreciation schedule of the equipment a farmer has; cost of facilities, land, management, production and labor; and changes in feed and productivity. "It could cost millions to convert an average-sized farm," he says. "It could cost less and it could cost much more. It's economics - not emotional." Sundberg balks at the notion of an outside marketing entity coming in and imposing their structure on farmers who he believes "know best" and are constantly trying to innovate. Prescott cites a two-and-a-half year-long economic analysis by Iowa State University in which researchers found that group housing of gestation sows resulted in a weaned pig cost that was 11 percent less than the cost of one produced within an individual stall. Additionally, the study notes that group housing does not require more labor than a crate - possibly even less - but that the skill sets may be different and require training. Grandin advises that farmers might lessen the sting of equipment purchase if they make the switch at the natural replacement intervals for worn-out equipment. While she admits that the group housing may take 15 to 30 more space, the cost of steel barriers would be greatly reduced. What does the future hold? While Sundberg and the Pork Board are opposed to the change, he agrees, along with Prescott and Grandin that the shift away from gestation crates is inevitable. The economic pressure from large food corporations is too great, and public opposition to the current system only grows, as evidenced by online petitions, social media campaigns and polls. Grandin believes that the resistance comes mainly comes from farmers in their 40s, who have only ever known the crate system. She has observed animal breeding facilities all over the world, and points to Murphy-Brown LLC, the world’s largest producer of pork products (and a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods) as an example of adaptation and innovation. After a comprehensive study, the facility committed to phasing out gestation crates in favor of group housing, and sought to breed hybrid pigs with temperaments that were less aggressive and more suitable to communal living. And not only were the sows' living facilities improved - there was also a great benefit to the consumer. A slowdown in the breeding process in order to introduce new hybrids allowed the pigs to develop more fat, rather than quick-growing, but lean meat. It was, to Grandin's palate, "Much juicier and tastier." That may be what makes change easier for everyone to swallow. Read - Op-ed: Jane Velez-Mitchell – Get rid of gestation crates NOW and A day two pigs would die |
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Thank you a lot for sharing this with all people you really recognize what you are speaking approximately! Bookmarked. Kindly also talk over with my site =). We will have a hyperlink change contract between us
This subject is over.
You really want to do something worthwhile for animals? Besides working locally, cast a VERY jaundiced eye at anything that HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) tells you and consider them the moral equivalent of Big Business or Big Ag, because that's exactly what they are. (Well, as well as being PETA's more socially acceptable, until recently when the mask started slipping, public face – just look at the people and follow the money over the years and that's obvious.) If PETA/HSUS says it's so, research it for yourself NOT using animal rights sources, who usually just parrot whatever the Big Two tell them to say and/or swallow it whole. Make sure your funds for the welfare of animals are going where you intend them to and not into the pockets of HSUS executives, pension funds, and to lobbyists instead of animals.
Don't fool yourself – HSUS is a business, pure and simple, with a vested interest in people believing that they are "saving the animals" because if people don't believe that, their pocketbooks won't open so easily.
By the way, I work in rescue. That's my concern about this t – I care about the welfare of animals and PETA/HSUS feed on the opposite for their very continued existence.
Ah, more paranoid, factless hyperbole from Big Ag, no doubt.
HSUS is the world's most effective animal protection organization and have received the highest ratings from many organizations that rate effectiveness/responsible use of funds by non-profits. They are not a local shelter-funding organization. They get to the ROOT of the problems in animal cruelty – which of course irks folks like you who want to maintain the status quo (profits) and only pretend to care about animal welfare.
And like Big Ag?? Seriously, you're not fooling anyone. On most legislative issues, HSUS gets OUTSPENT by Big Ag by five to ten times. What WE need to do is stop subsidizing the lobbying of Big Ag (which probably funded your comment) to lobby for profits that cause animal suffering.
I am interested to know where you are getting your "facts".
When has any combined agriculture group(s) been able to out spend anything HSUS or PETA has put up when it comes to lobbying or advertising?
HSUS and PETA are out to end agriculture. They want to shut down anything that has to do with animal agriculture...you can look that up on their websites. They are out with the sole agenda to shut down any and all producers. They do not care if a pork producer is using gestation stalls or not...they want to close down the entire industry!
Personally, I am in favor of gestation stalls as a choice of the producer to use in their production system. I also understand that a good manager can make either a stall system or an open pen system work. However, a bad manager can make either system fail.
What gives the public the right to dictate to an industry, to which they do not understand, how they should operate? If you want to buy a product that was raised gestation stall free...that is your choice. Pushing to ultimately shut down an industry buy limiting how they can operate not only hurts the producers but other people in the world that we (in agriculture) are trying to feed is what is wrong.
I get my facts from lobbying records. But I would be very interested where your claims come from. For example, I have looked at HSUS' web site and see absolutely NO evidence they are "out to end agriculture" as you claim. In fact, they have livestock producers on staff and advising them on humane livestock advocacy.
Agribusiness is usually in the top 10 of industries lobbying in DC. In 2011-2012 so far they've spent a whopping $34 MILLION. HSUS on the other hand spends less than 1/10th of that on animal welfare legislation efforts. Which are critical, given your statement clearly indicates the livestock industry is incapable of recognizing inhumane practices, and by extension, self-policing. And yes, every American should have a say in policies that affect the laws of the land. It's called Democracy.
CanAmFam,
Take a look at HSUS website under annual reports…2010 IRS Form 990.
Second page towards the bottom under Advocacy and Public Policy expenses: $48,326,313. Forty-eight million is more than thirty-four million (wherever you came up with that number).
I am going off (and believe in) the journal articles that I have read, conferences that I have attended and on the words of those that work in Washington DC whom I have spoken with. That is where I get my information. I have heard senators, congressmen, a senate aid and a state congressman page say that the Agriculture industry out spent in advertizing and lobbying.
I have been to DC and I have seen the billboards (sponsored by both HSUS and PETA) that congressmen and senators go by everyday. I have been approached by PETA advocates handing out propaganda on the sidewalks of the National Mall.
It isn’t hard to recognize that the initiatives that HSUS and PETA set forth are not helping producers in animal agriculture take better care of their livestock. Their motives have historically been against agriculture. I challenge you to go into a peer-reviewed scientific journal and show me conclusive evidence that one system (group penning or stall) is superior to another. I said in an earlier post that either system can work if properly managed or either system can fail if mismanaged.
You accused me of being “incapable of recognizing inhumane practices” when I’m looking out for the welfare of the animals. I grew up rising hogs and I have a bachelor’s degree and finishing my masters in Animal Science. I understand the industry and the animals very well. What is your experience in the pork industry and what is your knowledge base that you think you should dictate the laws on those who do understand what is in the best interest of their livestock? Show me the science and show me the data.
I know full well that we live in a democracy. I also know that USDA would be much better at making rules and having the state enforce those rules. (They do by the way…operations must be permitted and I can ensure you that they are checked.)
I am always a little confused when people say things like "being against agriculture". This is because in Spanish "agricultura" does not in include raising of animals, the word for that is "ganaderia". I know than in English there is no separation but maybe it should be.
By the way, the etymology of the word Agriculture according to Wikipedia (and I don't doubt its veracity) is:
Etymology
The word agriculture is the English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, "a field",[10] and cultūra, "cultivation" in the strict sense of "tillage of the soil".[11] Thus, a literal reading of the word yields "tillage of a field / of fields".
When I was a kid, my parents told me my uncle was a hog farmer. That's just strange I thought, and I asked them why not a pig rancher? They just gave me funny looks. But it still brings to my mind, images of pigs popping out the ground!
Google or You Tube Joel Salatin, and Polyface Farm. Responsible farming can be done. Joel says "Respecting and honoring the pigness of the pig is a foundation for societal health." So true.
I wonder what John Mccain's white blood cell count was under these circumstances.
It isnt just pigs, its every single farm animal whether they are being moved by auctioners to the feeding arena. Farm animals suffer horrible horrible abuses and The Humane Society has shown us some of the worst offenders. Humans are the worst animal on earth and it is just getting worse with time. Dogs getting dragged by vehicles, getting burned by fire and with acid, small horses being thrown and kicked to death, chickens, turkeys and piglets being used as soccor balls and the list goes on and on. These animals have no voice and no one to come to their defense but us. Look at the hippo's and elephants that get their horns cut out all in the name of the all mighty dollar. Discusting and horrific. Some of these comments are terrible and i was disappointed at the poll and some of you thinking this confinement and abuse is ok. FIND A BETTER WAY this is not acceptable. Increase animal abuse punishments.
Paula , you said it best. I have always said , the worst animals on earth are humans!
I stopped eating pork products the minute I saw the horrid video about Tyson. I wont eat another Tyson product ever. These dirt rich farms all need to be put out of business or develope a better enviroment for these animals. Just because we are going to eat them and they are on death row or breed to slaughter is no reason to treat them this way. Can you imagine being in a crate like these and suffereing abuses 24/7! Think about it
Not every farm mistreats their animals.
Why not start eating animals that are well treated such as domestic cats and dogs. They are well treated so they should tast good...........Stop eating the poor pigs.
Ever see what's in a friskie factory?
Let's see...early man...winter time .....yes I am sure they ate mostly veggies....not!
We are not early man. Supposedly we have evolved and we can afford not to eat animals at all and be healthier and wiser. Why do people want to compare themselves to the early stages of the evolution of man. Grow up! Evolve.
Biologically, we're the same as the people who roamed the earth 30K years ago. Some cultures have adapted to subsist on certain foods (Asians with rice, Northern Europeans with dairy, Inuit on a meat-heavy diet). But grains are still relatively new. The only reason we grow them is to feed more people than what could be provided on a hunter-gatherer diet. Grains have never been optimal nutrition and never will be.
Well said Jose!
This morning at the diner , where I had my Bacon and Eggs, I asked the cook if the Bacon and Eggs were from happy animals. He laughed his butt off.
More people are killed by pigs each year than sharks.
That, of course, is not really applicable to this story as the pigs you're referring to are the wild boars, not the pigs we eat.
I am refering to the farmed pigs.
I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if more people died from eating animals and animal products, than directly killed by animals.
I've spent my life around animals; mostly farm animals and I havea degree in Animal Science. While i don't 100% agree wth gestation crates; those that don't have a clue shouldn't be passing judgement. Gestation crates/farrowing crates are used because sows are very large and when they have 10-14 piglets; they frequently lie down on top of them and kill piglets. In addition; pigs are very intelligent but very aggressive animals towards one another. They will bite and aggressively attack eachother on a constant basis if kept in group housing. It's part of their nature. These crates allow pigs to interact while preventing them from mauling eachother and imposing bad injuries. Because they fight; one pig will keep the rest from resting, eating or drinking; making the quality of life for the bullied pigs much worse. Those not involved with agriculture need to understand that if production animals were abuse, unhappy, or mistreated.....they wouldnt produce; anything. Can animals die in these situations? of course. all animals; no matter what theyre raised for; frequently encounter health issues, etc and do not survive as planned. The same with injurie; animals will be animals and they can do damage to themselves. Folks need to understand that farmers do their best to provide a good life for their animals; to prevent injuries and death and to give them a high quality diet and what they need to flourish. Everyone also needs to understand that farmers are farmers because they love what they do. If you dont love working with pigs, or dairy cattle, or chickens; then why would you choose to raise them? Why would you choose to dedicate every day of your life to laboring over your animal's welfare and in the end; you get crap for pay, crap for benefits, etc. Im not sure if you realize this; but farmers don't get rich off of what they do. If you want to farm; you better damn well love it and be perfectly comfortable with the stress and dedication it takes to do it. i dont know about most of you; but farmers get up everyday, 365 days a year, before the crack of dawn to start their chores, feed their aniamls, tend to youngstock, plant and harvest crops, fix machinery, clean the barns, work with the veterinarian, breed animals, manage their books, etc. By the end of the day; they're in bed just before midnight (if all goes as planned) to wake up several hours later to start all over again. Everyday my animals eat breakfast and dinner before i do. No body should be slamming a farmer with harsh criticism until youve walked a mile in his/her shoes.
Well put. Farming is not a 9-5 job and you really do have to love it. I know I do. Unfortunately in a lot of the corporate farms we see hired hands abusing animals badly and the "farmers" not doing anything about it. This gives all of us farmers a bad name so we good ones really need to band together against those bad ones.
I have spent most of my life around farm animals. It does not take Einstein to recognize cruelty when you see it. I will comment all I want to about it. Do not have the audacity to tell people they have no right to their opinion. We have the right according to the Constitution to speak openly about anything we like. I hate gestation crates. They are cruel. I don't care what your qualifications are. I have a right to my own opinion and the right to openly say so. How dare you tell somone not to comment. Who do you think you are?
Hi Cathy. Your point about speaking freely is well taken and it is guaranteed under the constitution. However, your rights do not extend to directing the business and rights of others to operate their business. Speak about it all you want though. For all of those folks that really do not know what they are talking about when it comes to caring for livestock, other than their own anthropomorphic views and feelings about what is cruel or not, they should simply learn to not inject themselves into a debate until they have gathered the real facts. We have a situation now in our great country where the radical few with an insane view and goal to convert the unwilling majority to veganism are unjustly pushing the same majority toward higher and higher cost food systems that will not deliver any real tangible benefits. If you want to eat meat from animals that fit your particular anthropomorphic feelings that is fine, either raise your own, or contract with someone that agrees to your standards but do not step in and demand that we convert our entire system to satisfy the radical few and jepordize the majority.
Relax, Cathy. He's not telling people they can't comment. What he's saying is there are a lot of people up in arms about this that have never stood next to a pig, cow, chicken, etc. And in many cases when someone spouts off about something they don't really have a lot of facts on, they can spread mis-information and in general sound foolish.
He's asking people to truly look for the facts before judging. I haven't decided what the best course of action is. I'm against cruelty to animals, but there is research supporting both sides of this issue out there.
For the quote about anesthesia free castration at one place that was "uncovered"? Almost all castration in piglets is done without anesthesia and it would cause them more pain and stress to be anesthetized and have to wake up than to have it done quickly (this is back up both by observational studies and studies of cortisol, the body's main stress hormone).
I find it hard to believe you have a degree in Animal Science since you don't know the difference between gestation crates and farrowing crates. More likely a city slicker turned Ag lobbyist.
It's pretty simple – gestation crates are used during gestation (another word for pregnancy). Once piglets are born, sows are put in farrowing crates. The movement is to abolish GESTATION crates, NOT farrowing crates!
I have never been a slave owner, a mass murderer, or a pedophile. Do you think that they are also above criticism? Geez!!
I believe all Christians should be vegetarians. We should not be eating Gods' Creatures.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26
This includes eating them.
Hmm.. Well suppose that some advanced civilization from other than here also had a 'bible' written by one of their early civilization who wrote the same thing but included YOU as one of the animals over which they have 'dominion'? I just bet it would take you .0005 nanoseconds to label their 'god' as utter nonsense. Funny how perspective changes a lot about how animals think.
There is but one true God. Be careful about where you put your allegiance
If ifs and ands were pots and pans there would be no work for tinkers
dj: what a wonderful proverb. Never heard of it, but I think I will remember it!
I have to work in a box so small I can't turn arround and could never lay down in. Am I being treated poorly? Is there an activist group that cares about treatment of humans? naaaaaa .........Go hug your pig.
It's horrific and inhumane the way the pigs are treated. It's a sad thing that people have to survive on eating animals. The way the animals are treated is horrendous. It doesn't have to be this way. I like to eat meat once in a while, but if the animal is traumatized I don't want it period. It's horrible the way all animals are treated for consumption of food. People are more dangerous than most animals. I know animals hunt down other animals, but they need to survive. People torture and hurt animals to get their food. That's inhumane. Give the animals their freedom. Stop torturing all the animals.
If you don't like the way they are treated, grow and kill your own food.
If you think pigs are being treated in a bad way in this country just import your meat like you do everything else. I'm sure the imported meat comes from animals that were well treated. There are fewer and fewer farmers raising pigs because people don't like the farms nearby and they complain about how they are raised. The price will go up and yes...you will be eating the imported meat. Good luck with that....At least local pigs will be happy.
I can't believe people care this much about nonsense. Those pigs are food. They're raised to be fat and tasty. If only you gave as much thought to things that actually matters and not pointless crap like this society would probably move forward. Like that will ever happen, though.
That a 'U.S.D.A CERTIFIED DOPE' stamp on yer shoulder??
What a total misleading article. Why don't they say the truth instead of just a "version" of the truth. The gestation crates were designed for safety of the sows, and their brood. The whole truth of this is, it is not because of limited space that sows were put in these it was to protect them and their offspring. Without gestation crates, sows would be injured and lose their pigs and many times their own lives because of the aggressiveness of the breed. Also, crates protect the piglets as they are unable to move out from the sow when she lays down and it also protects them from other sows who would kill them. Now, why isn't this printed? This is the truth as I used to raise hogs and went to crates, only for gestation and birthing, they free range the rest of the time. Now also why isn't this posted? they don't live their entire lives in crates, many range outside of late gestation and pigging. This article is full of mis and half truths. Another totally biased and anti farm article from people who want all of us to be vegans.
Figures the media manipulates the truth once again to noone's surprise.
It says GESTATIONAL crates, not farrowing crates. It even says in the article they are moved for farrowing. I agree, I raised pigs also for some time, but never used any sort of restraining device on them. This article is not against farmers at all. It's against the factories that produce pigs. I bet most of the CEOs of the companies have never set foot in the barns for more than a few inspection days. Most of the world would agree, these people are NOT farmers.
Animals raised for human consumption must be slaughtered (killed) no matter how they are raised. There is never anything humane about killing. While it is ethically better for animals to live their lives unconstrained and in a natural, clean, spacious, and outdoor environment, it will never, in the long run, be ethical to continue to harvest animals for eating, wearing, and all the multitude of uses the world has devised to use animals. For this reason alone, not including all the planetary woes which are happening at an increased rate, I advocate the abolishment of all animal farming that inevitably leads to the deaths of billions of animals yearly. The responsible choice we can all choose to make is to eat a plant based diet. We will curb human starvation, water, land, and air pollution, and save on healthcare costs.
Why would a farmer purposely harm an animal? Farmers are not monsters that mistreat their livestock. And why would they? Those animals that they raise from birth are their income and help feed their own families; it’s silly to think a farmer would sabotage his own well-being by mistreating animals.
I have a B.S. in agriculture and have studied the process of raising pigs–not to mention the fact I live on a farm and deal with these things every day. I have seen sows fight viciously, it happens, just like women on reality tv! What makes anyone think they know more about farming than the actual farmer and the scientists devoting their research to making farms more efficient? I do not go into my doctors office and demand he change the way he treats me, I understand he knows more.
Most livestock are treated better than humans. They get fed on a regular basis a diet that is developed by someone with a PhD in animal nutrition that creates the nutrition plans for farms, they get housing, all the medical care they need—seriously how many people in our country are living without those very things right now? It is mind boggling that people who have no agricultural background or experience drive these campaigns against agriculture.
If farm animals are treated better than humans, would you trade places?
Nobody is a monster, we all need to eat and feed our families. However, we humans have a way to block what we don't want to see, even if it is right in front of us. Same with doctors, you can blindly go and trust them if you wish, I wont. There many great doctors but, many doctors are nothing but drug pushers, be it because of ignorance, neglect or plain greed. And if you think that pharmaceutical companies goal is to help humanity you live in denial
One thing I personally believe, we all would be better of, if we let animals be and concentrated in the vegetables and crops part of the farm environment.
The people who raise animals this way should be put in there with them. This is so disgusting I hate the people who farm animals like this and I hope their brains grow a conscious and treat animals better and feed them better.
You know, I get that we are raising animals for slaughter and there is only so much that we can reasonably do to keep it from being a pretty horrible experience, but this is really rough. Pigs are super bright and no one would think it was ok to do this to a dog, so basically that says it all.
This is cruel, mean and sad. That says it all. A 10 year timeline....a decade to change this practice??!! Until then, buy only Cargill pork products, I say.
The USA has no morals, no soul. I'm glad my kids are young enough for me to show them a better place.
So, I did a little reading about pig intelligence. They seem to have a leg up on most farm animals. They do remember things. They are easily trained. They catch on to commands easily. They seem to posses a loyalty to their owners, or their human friends , if you please. I also found out they like to drink alcohol and watch TV.
I'm an animal nutritionist. I have learned through years of education and practical experience that animals grow best when they are stress free. While gestation crates may seem cruel to the average person who doesn't work with animals every day, the animals are in fact treated very humanely and are under very low stress. Animals are not people. What bothers us, doesn't necessarily bother them.
Another fact that people should check before they carelessly throw it around: close to 100% of farms are family owned. They are not "corporate farms". Yes, a farm family may have incorporated their farm, but that is entirely for tax purposes. The farms are still family owned.
Well Steve I'm quite sure you are intelligent because you THINK you are, but when was the last time you were a TALKING animal??????
Steve you were doing (just) "ok", until you spouted an unsubstantiated/unsourced statistical claim. Susie2, if one cannot judge an animal's mode by it's behavior, than one is either dumb, or arrogant beyond my wildest dreams. Judging mood is instinctive as sure as your heart is beating. Oh wait; let me rephrase that....
Facts....here you go:
http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/ag101/demographics.html
2% are corporate farms, and they are responsible for 17% of production. Also, just because a farm is family owned doesn't mean it doesn't run as a corporate farm, many large businesses are family owned. In fact, the top 2% of farms are responsible for 50% of production.
My family (grandma, eventually my uncles will inherit it) owns a farm, it is a massive amount of land that is spread out throughout the state, and they hire out for a great deal of the operation for practical reasons (my uncles farm the part near where my grandparents live, the land farther away from them is hired out). They farm soybeans and corn, most of which is used for feed and industrial use. But, anyway, my families operation, which has been built over generations, isn't exactly the small, struggling family farm ideal people have in their heads. They were fortunate to have land in prime development territory, which could be sold and the money invested in land in less populated areas.
The United States commits it's own form of terrorism on any factory farm animal. We are one of the cruelest nations that commits atrocities ten fold on factory farm animals. We should all be ashamed. Americans are some of the greediest, selfish and unthinking people in this world. All factory farming should come to an end now!! These animals suffer horrific pain, fear and neglect. It is revolting. The US has no right to criticize other people for their cruel acts in other countries, we commit our own right here at home. Animals deserve dignity and respect, they get none in the US on factory farms.
If sows do not do well in groups, then why not give them a larger pen so they can move around more? Or house them in smaller groups? Surely there must be a solution that provides a decent quality of life. We can't be that focused on saving a couple bucks on our ham and our pork chops not to want the animal to have a decent life.
I like the idea of breeding for less aggressive pigs, therefore making group living more hospitable. Pigs are very intelligent animals, they should be allowed a decent quality of life.
The cruelty the human race is capable of astonishes me almost every day.
Ditto
So terribly sad but true.
Who ever wrote this piece is telling a one sided story for the most part. Not all pigs are treated the same as some of the big boys and private farms. I raised pigs for years and knew two breeders that I would buy my piglets from and they took good care of their pigs. One breeder would use these crates, not as small., but not big enough so the sows could turn around and crush or lay down on the pigletss and kill them. Most sows produce ten to fourteen piglets at a time and they almost always want to feed from the sow or sleep within a foot of their mother. This farmer had happy pigs that produced good and had very few deaths of piglets. The other breeder used pens that were quite big and had good results, but some piglets would be stepped on or layed down on and killed, because the piglets were always underfoot. I would always use these breeders because they knew how to raise great pigs. Not all farms are all good and should change the way they raise their pigs. Some people don't really care and just look at profits and they need to change. In my opinion the HS is a better judge of these farms then PETA. People want to buy pork when they go to the store and there are a lot of good farms out there producing good pork. And to the people that don't want to eat meat, buy your veggies and be happy if the farmers that grew your veggies did it without a bunch of chemicals. I like to buy organic whenever I can, it tastes better and is better for you.
Who cares who wrote what, the suffering of animals for us to eat meat is unacceptable, God put all life on earth and to be so cruel to enjoy a piece of bacon makes me sick. I'd rather eat veggies and pasta then torture farm animals so I can put unhealthy food into my body and slaughter a living creature. This world is all about making a buck and I for one am glad I am no part of the cruelty to animals. I hope everyone who kills an animal suffers the same pain as they do. Amen
Have plants harmed you in anyway? Why are you for killing and eating them? They are living creatures too. So is it okay to kill a living being as long as it does not bleed and cry out in ways that you recognize. If you never ate a living thing you would not live long.
Tammy, while I wholeheartedly agree that cruelty against animals is wrong, I don't go so far as to say eating bacon is wrong. (although I don't eat bacon). You say God put animals on this earth. Yes. But go re-read Genesis again. He also gave us dominion over all other species. Which includes the ability to eat them.
The problem here Bob is that fast food chains, grocery stores and other big distributors don't often disclose where their product comes from or how it's treated. I'm sure you were very to your pigs, but when a major corporation owns a farm, they are trying to get every last cent out of these animal's hides. In order to make a profit, they cram them in crates and pens by the hundreds or thousands and this leads to inhumane treatment like debeaking, tail docking and teeth removal all without anesthetic or veterinary care. This process is called Factory Farming. The cramped conditions also breed disease, which has led to the rise of overtreating the animals with antibiotics which ultimately end up in our blood stream.
Here's the deal, Bob B. Humans should not be consuming this much meat to warrant this issue in the first place. The meat industry is very wealthy who like you say is profit driven. Except for the immediate danger decontamination caused by , salmonella, etc., our health is their least concern.
Pig Farmers need to be REQUIRED to live in these pens for a week. Immediately, they'd come up with a roomier design that would include a frig and TV. The size of these pens aren't ethical. Put these farmers in prison for animal abuse.
LOVE YOUR IDEA, but it ought to be 6 MONTHS THE FARMER IS KEPT IN ONE OF THESE CAGES. IF THE PIGS ARE LEFT IN THEM FOR MOST OF THEIR LIFE AND FORCED TO DELIVER LITTER AFTER LITTLER OF BABIES, IT IS ONLY FAIR THAT THE FARMER BE TREATED AS CLOSE TO THIS AS POSSIBLE. MAYBE HE COULD BE 'BRED' LIKE THE PIGS ARE TOO.
As a general rule, people really don't know where their food comes from, and why a necessity has not increased at the rate of inflation while its quality has dramatically improved. If you think this is bad, then definitely don't go to the slaughter houses where they actually convert it into what you put on your barbeque... I love my baby back baby back baby back I love my...
If people actually knew where their food came from I guarantee they'd all be vegetarians. Slaughter houses are pure hell on earth for animals, and the employees have a high rate of suicide. What does that tell you?
Did someone say Bacon?
Go vegan. It's good for the animals, the environment, the world's hungry (the plants fed to animals raised for meat could feed the world), and good for your health. There is no such thing as humane murder.
very true death to all who eat animals.GO VEGAN GOOD FOR HEALTH.U WANA DIE YOUNG EAT LARD.
What a HUMANE thing to say about HUMANS
You do injustice to people who are killed when you call killing an animal murder. To be honest, people care more about the killing of animals than animals do. You can kill an animal right next to another animal and the others will go right on eating and doing their thing.
I wouldn't stop eatin' my dinner over yer murder, that's fer sure!
Guess that makes you an animal.
Glenn, clearly you haven't spent time in a slaughterhouse, or even educating yourself mildly on the highly stressful reaction of animals witnessing the death of another in proximity. I have seen it – pigs shaking in fear, terrified vocalizing and all species trying desperately to escape. That's why Temple Grandin's work in cattle slaughterhouses is very much designed to shield animals from the death preceding them.
Glen. It IS possible to care about humans AND other creatures.
Do you suppose that my commercials promoting Smithville Hams, the company who says it'll take at least another FIVE YEARS to change their cruel treatment of the pigs they raise, care if I protest some?? Probably not, SO I WON"T SAY A WORD ABOUT IT Y'ALL!!! Have some butter on that bacon, it won't matter much if you are fat and have diabetes – I won't tell no one 'bout it. Keep that mouth of yours shut if yer makin' money, honey. There,...feel better?? I do.
uhh.....Do you not realize that butter and bacon don't cause diabetes? sugar does.
Finally someone who gets it! It used to be called sugar diebetes. Nothing to do with meat whatsoever.
I appreciate your desire for clarification, but people who typically eat unbalanced portions of meat usually eat unbalanced portions of everything also.
Point is, Darlin', I'll say and do anything to make a buck – honest or not. Eat yer 'heart out'. Hidin' my diabetes due to sugar intake was defended by the same people here that defend the terrible practices done to animals. It's MY RIGHT TO MAKE A BUCK. Now, about my weight,.....Here chew on this stick of butter while I tell y'all about it.
Obviously, the "workers" at Wyoming Premium Farms are sociopaths. I'm glad I don't live anywhere near them.
If it's the smell, y'all could get ya some of those colored-plastic clothes pins for yer nose. Oh, by the way, did you know I work on the side for Smithfield Hams??
As someone who has raised pigs (I raised registered breeding stock), I used a farrowing (gestational crate) only long enough for the sow to have her babies and until the piglets were about 1.5 weeks old (sows can accidently step on or crush the young piglets so you want to make sure they are capable of getting out of the way). When the sows were in the crate they would be removed every 3-4 hours (thru the 24 hour cycle) to allow them to tend to nature and stretch and exercise. I do not believe in factory farming, and I firmly believe that is a lot of the problems today with food.
I have raised many animals that we have taken to fairs to show them, and I have always been amazed at how gregarious, smart (and clean, if allowed to be) they are. I have never eaten anything that I raised (I'm human, I get attached) and approximately 3 years ago I gave up pork because my conscience bothered me (again, I'm human).
god bless u.vegan animals are like humans they have a soul and are smart.keep them safe.ty
Head desk head desk – Juble, did you miss the point of the article, which clarified that gestation crates are NOT farrowing crates? It amazes me how many so-called farmers confuse the two. It is gestation crates – used ONLY during gestation (pregnancy) that people want outlawed. NOT farrowing crates, used post-birth, to protect the sows from lying on their piglets!
STOP EATING ANIMALS!! SAVE YOURSELF!!
This is absolutely sick! WHAT THE H*LL IS WRONG WITH HUMAN BEINGS???????
This is flat out ANIMAL ABUSE. Something must be done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope ur vegetarian with that comment,
cruel or not, the death of an animal is the death of an animal.
I'm vegetarian, but just thought i'd mention considering theres a bunch of greenies out there that 'save whales' but eat bacon for dinner.... that aint cool.
Thanks, Eatocracy, for covering this important issue! People should know what animals go through before they end up on the dinner table. If there are ways of making farming practices more humane, we should implement them.
I just want bacon to be nitrite free. No more 'red salt'!!
The salt's gone Communist?? No kiddin'.
Pork its what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner! You veggie-heads have no clue! You fools cry about nothing! Maybe I'll start crying about you veggies killing plants! OHHHHH don't kill the squash it has feelings! Don't kill that lettuce, how would its mommy feel! Really! Morons! MEAT that is what we eat! Pro carnivore! YEAH!
Im not a vegetarian, but you have to be completely heartless not to realize they have some valid points.. and the future of humanity will eventually be food that doest require animals to die – at some point.. dont be such a selfish jerk..
if you feel sorry for the torture of animals, don't eat them.
plain and simple, just before one was killed with an injection and one was bred in torture... they were still killed for their meat...
meat eating is a terrible thing.
Thanks for the assiness. You just created another vegetarian, genius.
Ok, I'm not a vegetarian, I eat pasture raised, cage free, meat and eggs from local small farmers. But, this is totally inhumane and uncalled for animal cruelty. You try living in a gestation crate for one day and you'll be begging to be released! What people don't understand is, treat your food poorly and you end up suffering as well! Don't you get it!? The mass cattle slaughter farms feed their beef a mixture of grain, saw dust, and chicken manure! Mmmmm, healthy huh? And to those of you who care less about where your meat comes from, hope you realize the crap (literally) you are putting into your body! When animals are treated better they thrive and are less likely to become ill and diseased, therefore their meat is much healthier for you. I went to Vet school and had to visit a cattle farm and watched videos of animals in slaughter houses. These animals sense the fear and danger, they are not dumb/clueless animals, they know what is going to happen to them. Animals know well before we do, when something bad is about to happen. Do some research people!
The people crying about gestation crates now will be the exact same idiots that will cry when pork prices go up. Guaranteed.
Same as those "crying" about furs and nukes and the holocaust. All staples of solid finance, right?
If 'ya actually read the article, you'd see where they talk about how raising pigs in groups can actually work out to be *cheaper*. You'd also have read how major pork buying companies are dictating this to be the 'norm – because thats what their customers demand. i.e Its what people want.
Well then, son,...go eat worms.
Naa. Meat has become unaffordable to me except on occasion. You can't whine about such things.
Thank you for covering this important animal abuse issue, CNN. Pigs deserve better than being confined for months on end in tiny gestation crates, so small they can't even turn around!
While I was 'gestatin', I couldn't turn around either. Must'a been the crate, don't ya think, darlin'?
I love the arguments that these articles bring up. So much fail on both sides.
On one hand, you have a group of bleeding hearts who think they know biology just by reading a few blogs. "Meat rots in our intestines", "Meat gives you cancer", "Humans are supposed to eat plants", etc.
Then you have the people that don't care, and for some reason feel compelled to make a post stating how little they care. And of course, one can't forget about our lovable trolls.
Also present are those who try to paint an honest picture of the industry or are hunters, and also try to dispel myths about raising livestock. Truths which the first group of people don't seem to want to hear because it doesn't line up with what they saw in "Forks Over Knives" or "Meet your Meat".
The only reason humans developed agriculture was because it fed a lot of people on low-nutrient food. I'm sure that back then it was better to keep your belly full than to worry about your teeth falling out and developing chronic illnesses by eating a grain-based diet.
What a douchey interpretation of collective reality. Thanks for that, fulbright.
You sound like you're "invested".
Im not a vegetarian.. and I love BBQ! But I offer you this: run your finger along your teeth.. 'Ya dont feel any sharp ones there do ya? Eating meat allowed humans to evolve faster, and get smarter quicker, but we have always primarily been more veggie eaters and are ancestors were pretty much vegetarians. IMO Americans these days eat way too much meat! Its just horribly expensive and damaging to the environment. Either reduce the human opulation or cut down on the meat consumption. Somethings gonna have to give eventually..
I quit eating grains and all forms of carbohydrate, that are not veggies, and basically cut my insulin in half. I eat protein, fat, veggies, seeds, and nuts and wow, what a difference that's made in the way I feel! It's great!
ummmm. and your point of rambling on like that is???????? oh, speakinbg of morons... hahahahaha
You are what you eat and Americans are some obese, immovable, unhealthy creatures.
Speak for yourself.
I'll speak for you since you refuse to address the collective. Keep that head in the sand and stfu.
At least I'm not so arrogant as so speak FOR the collective. Stay in your basement, neckbeard. The real world's a scary place.
amen
another attack on american farmers? all this will do is just move pig farms overseas and meat will be more expensive. another job to be outsourced. like you hypocrites really care how you got your bacon.
Hey, fu#$ pig, buddy. My dad fought for the the freedom of some cafo owners who are buys poisioning his air and water. Production is putrid and we're tired of your sick, poisonous ways, Umerikun Farmers!!!
because it's all about humans, even though you seem to have a lot of hate toward them. no concern whatsoever about the living animals we use and abuse. good message.
Let's put your children in a crate.
It's not the farmer Its the huge corporate farms that government subsides. The small farmer would love to get the subsidies that these huge mega corp get...
If you read the article, you'd see that consumers are dictating that pork buying companies buy their pork from farmers who dont torture their animals in gestation cages, and that it can actually be cheaper. Its what the majority of people want. The only people who will uy pork from overseas will be the ones who dont care how the pigs are treated – and they will be the minority.
Hey, Darmon!! Woo-eee, you work at a hog farm?? Sendin' Bar-BEEEE-Que sauce out to other countries to whip up is next, don't ya think, son??
I have a mighty fancy closet you might like to stand in the rest of your life. It has a 'Bacon-Scented Air Freshner' to mask your farts.
Gotta go, them Smithville Ham folks are fixin' to show me their big tennis courts.
The old GOP tactic that if you don't conduct business how they want to conduct it, means that that will go overseas, is old and dried out. It doesn't work that way.
Considering most countries have higher standards then the US, it is harder then you think.
Pork and all red meats are terribly unhealthy. Study after study has found they cause high cholesterol and heart disease. They should all be regulated like smoking and alcohol.
Study after study shows the high cholesterol from red meat causes heart disease? What studies? Nothing on that is conclusive.
Uhmm... cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease? There aren't any studies? O.k., perhaps you might like to join the flat earth society. Here's their website: http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/
LOL yes I use to believe that it was as simple as high cholesterol = risk of heart disease and was just as shocked to learn there wasn't much support for that idea in the literature. Again, there is no conclusive evidence that dietary cholesterol from meat causes heart disease.
thefatnurse.... the name says it all i guess...hahaha... just try everything in moderation.. not that i do, i do the opposite and i am thefatman, but at least i know that is what is healthy and i just choose to eat and drink more than i should.. and i dont crap on ppl who dont know the difference... lol
TheFatNurse likes fats ;-) Not sure where you got the idea that I'm "crap[ing]" on people in my posts tho, people should feel free to eat what they want!
They're also a carbon nightmare. I'm tired of supporting white, fascist republicans without jobs! Screw farm welfare!!!
Amen Andrew!
Correlation does not imply causation. Those studies also revealed that the people with the highest rates of cancer and heart disease were heavy meat eaters AS WELL AS heavy smokers and drinkers. I'd put a wager that the smokes and liquor did those people in, not the meat. We've been eating meat since pre-humans started walking upright.
Endless correlation is also known as truth.
Because most likely that person doesn't get any exercise. And is it the meat? or the endless hormones, and chemicals that they put in it?
They mention 'farmers' in the article. They sound more like 'meat manufacturers'.
Do flashing cleavers and usin' ninja-knife skills while whippin' up a little piggy for din-din count as manufacturin'?
This cruelty to pigs, and the same kind of terrible treatment to chickens where they are not allowed to walk outside a cage, is why I stopped eating meat and eggs. Pigs are intelligent animals that were made by nature to live in the woods. Human beings make me sick. There is no reason in the world to treat any living thing like this.
You are so right- I am a veggie too- I don't understand why all of these carnivores can't recognize that these animals are a gift on this planet and if we are going to eat them- they ought to get the respect of being treated with care and not being so horribly abused- I am not against local farmers that provide proper housing and allow their animals to graze, it's not my choice to eat meat, but I am not really against meat, I am against torture. These large factory type facilities are horrific in their animal abuse. As a nation we protect dogs and cats and we would never accept anyone keeping pets in a gestation crate, why is it ok to do that to livestock? Why save one and kill the other? In China they round up stray dogs, hog tie them, tape their mouths shut and shove them in crates, stack the crates up in a truck, drive them to the market and slaughter them. We would never allow that in America, yet the animals we are blessed with for our food supply we treat as badly as those dogs in China, And anyone who has eaten kosher beef has eaten an animal that has been BRUTALLY treated, kosher meat done in large scale factory farming is really cruel-like something out of a Rob Zombie flick. The average carnivore eats 100 animals a year- I bet they would eat a lot less meat if they had to own it and kill it themselves. The thing I don't get is why anyone defends these cruel practices and it shouldn't take TEN years to phase out gestation crates, but I am glad to see that people are looking at these practices and that the public demand for decency is beginning to be heard.
thanks for stating your views, very refreshing to read something that is literate and thoughtful. I have been a veggie for 25 years and am glad of it.
Why is no one talking about how we harvest fruits and vegetables. I don't think that using big machines with sharp blades is very nice to the plants. I abstain from eating vegetables that were killed in such an inhumane way. Also they put the plants so close together in rows like if they were n jail or something. They are meant to live free in the forest not just harvested and killed. Our food supply is so broken.
I eat a pound of bacon a half pound of sausage, and 10 pounds of beef per week. My cholesterol is under 150 and blood sugar is under 100. My weight is 165, all since I gave up veggies.
Keep your vegan diet
Unfortunately for you, cholesterol isn't the sole identifier of an unhealthy body. Also, acting uppity about doing something that most any nutrition expert knows is horrible for you doesn't un-stupid your pathetic eating habits. Of course, I could care less how you eat, it's just lame when people act uppity over something that is inherently ridiculous. That take on being an extravert only works when you're around fools.
This sort of comment always cracks me up....how in the heck do you think arctic humans have eaten and survived? There are many peoples who eat a lot of meat at certain times of the year....one size does not fit all. An all meat diet is not bad for everyone. For some, if they eat any other diet they become ill. So it's kinda funny how you rant at someone acting self-important..tee hee!
It really comes down to race. You should be eating what your ancestors ate. If you are inuit, yes you can survive on a meat diet. Europeans get sugar spikes from eating rice yet the Asians can surviv on it. It is not a one size fits all.
Got no problem with removing the gestation stalls just don't take away the farrowing crates. They are there to protect the babies. Squashed babies look so pitiful. Its not a pretty sight when you see the little ones that die because they don't get out of the way.
Bring on the militant vegans!
Stop suckling the welfare-greedy GOP white farmers who do squat for my tax dollars!!!
Say what?
Stop eating then because we GOP – white farmers feed your miserable existence whether you eat meat or not. People like you with your obvious lack of intelligence will be the first to starve to death when the grocery shelves are empty. Us GOP – white farmers will just have to get on with feeding our own, because we can.
HolyJeeebus
You sound like you are very unhealthy eating your Wendy’s and double bacon crap. Yes, animals are not human but they feel fear, sadness and happiness just like people.
Let's Not Forget
Your "meat" comes from a creature who has met
A hideous and most untimely death
Nor is it seemly when upon your dish
Lie corpses of a murdered bird or fish.
One fleeting glimpse of any factory farm
Would make the vilest soul cry in alarm.
The chickens, cows and pigs – their lives obscene
Degraded to meat, milk and egg machines.
The cows, their fate sealed at the slaughter house,
Can hear their friends in front of them cry out.
If we pretend that of this they know not,
We grossly underestimate their lot.
The chickens, five crammed tightly to a cage
Oft peck their mates in frightened fits of rage.
The light which blinds these creatures night and day
Adds sin and cruelty to each egg they lay.
The male chicks not appealing to our taste,
Are tossed alive in bags to our great haste.
This writhing heap of bodies is no lie.
Eventually, they suffocate and die.
To better understand a dairy cow
Try picturing this horrid scene somehow:
You're pumped with drugs, you're pregnant and you hurt.
And then your child is robbed from you at birth.
She is no mere automaton, I say.
She mourns the loss of her child several days.
The farmers steal your milk from you and then
For profit's sake, they knock you up again.
The child, a girl will share her mother's fate
If he's a boy, he's off to the veal crate -
A squalid, filthy stall not two feet wide.
He ne'er sees light and cannot turn inside.
A pig's life is the cruellest life around.
The female lies immobile on the ground.
The males can sexually enter her at will.
Her infants suck her nipples through a grill.
Since they've no space, insanity prevails.
And normally, they'd bite each others tails.
For farmers, this would cause a profit drain.
So tails are yanked at birth with squeals of pain.
The more we hide from these injustices
The less we find we know what justice is.
We spare our cats and dogs from such "misuse",
So why allow the other cruel abuse?
These are no more automatons, I say.
They're feeling creatures tortured night and day.
By people who in numbness feel no more,
For use by us who in our haste, ignore!
Here is a cause that rests on naught but us
And though at first we kick and scream and fuss,
We find in time a wholeness that will last
Despite the horrors of our actions past.
Those of religion, here's a truth today.
In front of you. It will not go away.
This is your trial; if you should shut it out.
Then, say, what is religion all about?
The real and truly humane solution is to adopt a plant-based diet and stop consuming animal protein altogether. I loved meat, eggs and dairy, but after I gave them up I found that in a very short time I no longer wanted to eat these products. Also, there was the added benefit of a huge improvement in my overall health. Just sayin'.
but if u give alls thatz up then where you gonna get some protein
if you do any kind of research into a plant-based diet, you will find that the world is full of protein rich foods that you can consume that are not animal based. the notion of NEEDING meat to get protein is a myth and fast becoming outdated.
Plant-based protein comes from many sources... nuts, nut butter, beans, lentils, soy (tofu, tempeh), seeds, quinoa, grains, even some from vegetables... it's unfortunate that in America all people know is meat = protein, when truly it comes from SO many plant sources...
This is a stale argument. Where does the cow get its protein? Why is carrot full of carbohydrates while a peanut is protein and fat? To reduce a living being, food, to a bunch of chemicals shows our primitive levels of thinking in the name of science and logic.
The least we MUST do to the animals that sustain us, in my opinion, is allow them to eat and live as closely as possible to how nature evolved them.
There go the hotdogs. Sheesh.
just gotta love all you vegans...
for a human to live, something must die. Vegans are killing more individual lives than meatasaurasus'. Quit being so judgmental. How do you (vegans and veggies) know that plants don't have just as many (or even more) pain centers in their structure?
Humans (like many other carnivores) can live on a non-meat diet, but that doesn't mean they are healthier. Human anatomy is tailored to an omnivorous diet. Deal with it (both veggies & carnies!)
jeesh...
As far as the mistreatment of animals (whether for food or not) I don't like that at all! I eat meat, but only that which I raise, catch, or kill in the wild. (and yes, I eat a good bit of it: fish, chicken and venison mainly). [and no, i don't kill for sport - if there is even such a thing]
Stevie, do your parents know you're using their computer?
typical response from a person who can't think on their own...
I would guess you lean toward the window when the sun is out.
you are the only person I ever heard of who doesn't kill for sport. My husband hunts, all his friends hunt. Some don't even keep the meat. Many fishermen don't eat fish. It's all about sport. I do love the meat too.
If you don't know anyone who doesn't hunt for sport, then your circle of friends must be very small.
In my opinion, if you do it for sport, then it is not necessary and you do not respect life.
You all do realize that they are pigs i.e. animals i.e. NOT PEOPLE, right? I see all these comments equating animals to people which is, frankly, stupid. A 2 year old knows there's a difference between a farm animal and a person.
Reality Check. People ARE animals. Sometimes we're just a little more savage than the rest of them.
The intelligence of a pig is just about equivalent to a 2 year old human.
How dare you call out HolyJeebus like that!!!
"Our task must be to free ourselves . . . by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."
"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel Prize 1921
No animal, human or pig deserves to suffer like that. Even a two year old knows that.
Kim are you a PIG ? If not, how you do you "KNOW" what a pig wants? It is called empathy. I am empathic to plants, that is why I don't mow my grass. Because I KNOW it doesn't like being cut. Don't give any reference to science, because science isn't good enough for animals because YOU KNOW you they feel.
In being human we have the resposiblity to treat those lesser than us i.e. animlas, in a humane fashion. I coundn't get past the fact that the pigs are kept in a 2 foot cage, pregnant and can only roll over to 1 side. Sad... I live on a farm and even tho we do eat our farm aminals we strive to treat them with diginty and in a humane manner.
What about horses? They stand in a small stall all day, some can't turn around, their head tied by halter to the manger. Lie down, stand up, eat. Some don't get out for months. Some can't even lie down. I had a horse once and those were the conditions at the stable I kept my first horse at till I found a better one with bigger stalls. These are pets that were treated like that.
I'm not 2yrs. old, but,....yer an animal,...right?? You could be just a stupid pink burrito dressed up in a carrot costume for all we know. How's that typin' with a straw in yer mouth goin' ?
Just had a Triple Baconator at Wendy's with extra bacon ... gawd it was nummy ^_^ Sorry veggi-heads but I love me some nummy nummy meat.
Damn you, now I need to go get a baconator!!
HolyJeebus, make sure you buy a grave soon because your cholesterol is 300. You won't reach 50 y. old, mark my words.
HolyJeeebus, save your money. You'll need it for your triple bypass after you have that heart attack.
wow...you sound like a VERY ignorant person. go stuff your face you worthless excuse of a human being. you would be better off stuffed in a 2×7 crate than any pig and this world would be a much useful place. I think I just wasted a whole lot of brain cells even reading and responding to your posts. what are you doing even reading CNN...can you even understand this stuff???
for all those who voted they didn't care about the animals, please identify ONE think hurting your or your family. I vote that I don't CARE ABOUT YOUR EITHER. why? lack of compassion breeds lack of compassion. the converse is also true.
Way to attack others you have never met with poor grammar and 5h1tty spelling. You're a true credit to tofu-chewers everywhere.
Holy J yer touchy. You must be a yard wide and 4 inches tall. That's what we know as an ankle biter where I'm from.
Maybe someone has mentioned this, but why does it have to be either a tiny cage or group housing? Why can't we do a middle of the road solution and give each pig a double wide enclosure. Take two of the cages in the picture, and combine them with one pig inside. Just judging from the picture they should be able to turn around and move around more in the width provided by the space of two of those cages.
That's what I was thinking. Not sure why people think it can only be one or the other.
I was thinking that, too. If an individual pen makes it easier to raise them that's great, but why does it have to be so small?
If they did that, they'd have half as many pigs to raise and half as much bacon to sell which I am certain would cost them more than group housing by a longshot.
Isn't that what farrowing crates are for? To protect the mum from rolling onto her piglets? Gestation crates of such a small size are unnecessary. I can understand keeping them separated because of how aggressive sows can get, but there's no need to keep them immobilized until they have the piglets.
I eat pork and beef. I have no problems with it because these animals would not exist in their numbers if it were not for humans eating them. To me it is as if they have a contract with us to exist and we eat them in return. That said, I strongly feel that these animals should be given as good of a life as possible. I think that if they are given as much room and as long of a life possible and then killed in some way that does not traumatize before the act would be a far more optimal situation. Everything dies, we can give these animals a "happy" life and I for one would feel much better about our unwritten contract with this species. I am looking forward to cloned meat so I can have my hamburger and know that nothing had to die to make it.
We would still have to raise and slaughter the cow clones. BUT what if we used cow stem cells from the fat, they've been testing growing organs with them and what not (I think they're just testing on mice, but they're working on it at least). Perhaps one day we can have a couple cows on a field, take stem cells from their fat, and turn it into muscle tissue for human consumption. It would be expensive, but you want to talk about a nonviolent way to eat meat that could be the answer.
Brian, that is an ignor ant argument that I have heard in varied forms for God knows how long. Pigs would not exist without man? Wild pigs flourish across the globe. In fact, they are taking over large swaths of the US. Cows would not exist without man? The modern beef cow and dairy cow were created by selective breeding from, first, wild and, then, roughly domesticated bovines. Cows that aren't bred to grow too fast or produce too much milk do very well without us. The deformed modern chicken and the misshapen monster we know as a modern turkey are bred for a life of misery and constant suffering. It would be a blessing for their kind to stop breeding them.
Don't spew your BS about "contracts". You enjoy eating flesh and don't care what goes into producing it, as long as it's cheap and plentiful. Right? Be honest with yourself or stop eating meat.
I hope you choke on it.
Ok, now I know that you consider all animals raised for slaughter to be the product of inhumane selective breeding, but last time I checked, life is inhumane. There is suffering and war in all corners of the earth and your biggest concern is the historic suffering of animals? Share some of that compassion with humans, save your venom, and maybe if you act less like you are better than all of us carnivores, we might think you aren't stuck up.
@Fiona,
We didn't start killing animals for human consumption in the 20th century. We have been killing animals since the dawn of time. While I do believe that a quick slice of the head is the best way to be killed, these animals are beatened and put in a tiny cage where they cant move their entire life. But we need these animals to support humans diet. HUMANS ARE OMNIVORES not vegans or vegetarians. So don't pull that vegean bullshit. These animals were born for one sole purpose. To make me eat amazing bacon.
Reblogged this on hand4paws and commented:
Get to know what is a Gestation Crate...
Perhaps you didn't "read" the article yourself. There is no place in it that says the Pigs "have no preference". Just use you're brain man. Would you prefer to live in a very small cage or have some room to move around? You don't need a study to answer that question.
LOL Who the he!! are you talking to?
It reposted from below. This 'soundoff' thing does that sometimes.
Gotcha. I kinda figured it was directed at you anyhow but it did strike me as being very random. At least it was good for a laugh.
Anyone who eats meat should be required to spend an hour at a slaughterhouse.
Anyone who eats hemp should be required to spend a month as a runner for Mexican drug cartels
Yer a fool. That is called brick weed. No one wants that sh!t exempt for highschool students. Local farmers are everywhere. Phukk the cartels.
@Eat Hemp...I give them 30 minutes and they'll be runnin' out the door! Better yet...very few people would even
go in...it's easier to stay ignorant and then we won't feel so bad!!!!
I would like the opportunity. Being able to take part in the process would make me appreciate my food even more than I already do.
I've killed some of my own. I reckon that counts.
Just one hour then all the meat you want? I'll do it!!!
Been there, done that, still enjoy eating meat, and vegetables, too.
How come the option of "Vegetarian / Vegan" not available on the quiz. I love animals and am not willing to cut short their life.
Agreed! I thought the same thing – where's the "I don't eat animals period" button?
Vegetables are living creatures as well yet you kill them and eat them. Most trees have lived on earth longer than mankind yet we kill them and use them for all sorts of things. Animals kill one another daily for food, should we stop them from eating one another?
Seriously...probably shouldn't waste my time responding to your post....but was curious...exactly, which
plants and/or trees feel pain???????? LMAO!
The Indian scientist Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose, very well known for this research in botany, found out that plants appeared to have a very sensitive nervous system, and responded to shocks just like the human muscle does. When cut, they feel pain.
What?
Horrible logic.
1. Plants are not sentient. They do not have a neurological system capable of thought and feelings.
2. Most vegetables do not even require killing the plant to harvest. Even most of root plants like potatoes and onions can grow again if you leave the growth cells be. You pick the fruit that falls off anyways. Then you feed and care for the plant.
How do you know a plant can't feel? Has one told you?
And you sir/madam, have the brain and logical reasoning of a vegetable.
Very weak comment that shows you don't understand this issue deeply at all. Trees and plants aren't conscious and don't feel pain. Carnivorous animals must eat other animals, they don't have the choice like us.
I hate vegetables. That's why I am a vegetarian. I grow my own broccoli and put a picture of stir fried broccoli in the middle of the garden just so they can see their fate.
Bwahahahaha.
Did you drown in your own bathwater at some stage in your life? Sounds like you did.
All-
I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for being so mean to so many people today. Truth is, my momma dropped me on my head too many times as a baby and my father never loved or approved of me. I'm still waiting to come out to him...that's gonna be tough. He'll probably hurt me. Again. Anyway, as a consequence of all of this I suffer from an almost non-existant level of self-esteem so I hide behind a computer and take my frustrations out on people who cannot find me and will never hurt me. I am sad and lonley.
Thank you all for listening.
-JIV
Scientists did a study that showed pigs had no preference towards living in a cage or not living in a cage. The Humane Society, in typical fashion, thumbed their noses at the report, covered their ears, and sang 'I can't hear you la la al.'
You sir, are a total f*****g idiot. Please show link to said "study".
http://wherefoodcomesfrom.com/article/3-3763/Gestation-Crates-and-Group-Sow-Housing-What-Do-Comparative-Studies-Show
You mean this one, the one that they linked in the article above that you obviously didn't read?
If you want the actual papers from McGlone's study, look it up. You can learn on your own, I believe in you.
Perhaps you didn't "read" the article yourself. There is no place in it that says the Pigs "have no preference". Just use you're brain man. Would you prefer to live in a very small cage or have some room to move around? You don't need a study to answer that question.
I did read it. It said, most importantly:
The study concludes that “gestation stalls or well-managed pens generally … produced similar states of welfare for pregnant [females] in terms of physiology, behavior performance, and health.”
Also, this may come as a shock to you, but people and pigs are different. They don't operate on the same level of thought and behavior as we do, although I get the appeal of the romantic notion that they are. There's something I don't need a study to tell me.
I love it when a libtard gets discredited. Molly = FAIL.
Whoa there.. I consider myself to be pretty left of center but you can take my bacon when you pry it from my cold dead hands. And I've met plenty of Ron Paul-ites that consider themselves conservative while still being hippster veggie-heads. Political preferences and diet doesn't always go hand in hand.
LMAO! You just showed how myopic a view you get through tea party glasses/
Did you ask the pigs? Who are they talking to, Babe?
You know at least Molly attempted to present a valid argument. Your post is just childish.
Yeah but then she went and ruined it with the whole "I like cannabalism" thing.
Samson don't always believe what you read especially from the so called experts. These experts studies maybe funded by the very industry that wants to get its way no matter how rediculous the findings. Past studies have indicated smoking does not cause cancer and I bet those studies were funded by the cigarette industry. Any study that concludes pigs would not have a preference for being in a cage or not being in a cage is trying to fool someone.
Look at some of McGlone's other studies on sows and you'll find that he isn't just working for the industry. When he sees a problem he makes it known, if he doesn't see a problem he makes it known. Although your suspicion is both understandable and healthy.
Personally, I'm quite happy with the current boom in cannibalism. Humans are to fat, lazy and stupid to eat responsibly. Hopefully we taste like bacon.
Becareful saying that in a public forum in which cannibals may or may not be reading; it sounds like you're volunteering.
You belong in the stupid category. Look up the proper use of to and too.
If people had to kill and then process the carcass for the food they eat, most of the people will stop killing for food. Because by nature humans are humans. But where edible food is not available at all, like tundra or deserts, probably there is no alternative to killing animals for food. Bible says "Do unto others what you would like done to you." 'Others' I believe includes all living beings. Please don't ask like a GOP that even bacteria is a living thing and therefore should be stop eating yogurt? However, ultimately, it is a personal choice and one should not try to persuade the other to change his views. Just don't claim to be a compassionate person if you castrate pets, go fishing and hunting, agree with death penalty, wars or if you are a flesh eating non-vegetarian.
I believe you have selective memory. If you look at the early part of the 20th century most people were involved with butchering their own food. If they you didn't live on a farm then you went to the market and bought live chicken, ducks, or other live animals for their consumption.
I only spend 50 hrs a week in my cubicle, but then there isn't a farmer looking out for my welfare. At least these pigs get medical treatment, I don't have health insurance.
well hell, if that's your comparison...I will gladly pay your insurance to get you all vaccinated, I will even pay for some of your food...
as long as I can cut you up and eat you when I decide you are at your prime...doesnt that sound reasonable. Man, those pigs have it good.
@Trollicus...are you able to stand up in your cubicle?...are you able to turn around in your cubicle???...are you able to come and go out of your cubicle??? YOU...have a CHOICE on where you spend your days...YOU have a voice...YOU can change what you don't like....ANIMALS CAN'T!!!! Perhaps 30 days in a gestation crate would help you?!
In a factory farm, your welfare is of no regard. Only your pound weight. When you are ready for slaughter you may be hooked by your nose to get in line to be killed. or if you are at one of the largest pork facilities down south, you will be led into a chamber along with about 2000 other pigs and you will be crushed to death by a large steel wall similar to a dumpster, your last moment on earth will be hearing the screams of other pigs as they are crushed- Screaming indicates pain in all animals. Does that really sound like welfare? Please do some research while you are under your bridge-oops I mean cubicle.
It is quite frustrating that people without any understanding of agriculture (let alone animal husbandry) make such wild accusations of producers. It is shameful! Instead of listening to producers and considering the facts and science, they only use emotion and the distorted viewpoints of PETA and HSUS.
There is sound reasoning and science behind the practices that responsible producers make. For those that are truly concerned about the breeding gilt (a female swine that has not produced a litter…I assume that many don’t know this term) or sow, take into consideration the real reasoning behind the use of gestation stalls. It IS for the WELFARE of that animal. A gilt entering the breeding herd is dramatically smaller than a fully mature sow. That gilt might be 200 pounds or a little bigger; however, a fully mature sow can be 500 pounds or more! Producers must keep them separate. Why? To stop the animals from fighting and to ensure that the nutritional needs of all the animals are met. This is providing protection for the animals and for the workers. An aggressive sow is not only dangerous to its pen-mates but also to the workers who are providing for these animals on a daily basis.
It’s much easier to look over animals when they are penned individually. A worker can clearly see feed intake and look to see if the animal is healthy. Trying to look over a pen of pigs is a lot more challenging. The group is mingling which can make early detection of sickness of an individual difficult. The producer would know the feed consumption of the group but can not determine what each individual is truly getting.
It isn’t right that people who do not understand the industry can make such demands on American producers. They do not understand what they are asking for. First they want American Agriculture to feed the world and then push for legislation that makes it harder for them to be sustainable. Animal producers (be it dairy, cattle, poultry or swine) and farmers are all facing higher costs that go into buildings, machinery and fuel. Now the pork industry is facing a public which wants them to change management practices. They will have to either sell out or ask more money for their product to off set the expense of converting confinement buildings. That cost will go to the consumer.
What is truly sad is that children in our country don’t understand where their food comes from. When asked: where does a pork chop come from…they answer: from the grocery store. The general public is not much better.
Those that work in production agriculture are concerned for their animal’s well being. It is in their best interest to provide the best quality of care for their animals
Ok I guess I'll go put my head back in the sand then. Thanks!
That's exactly what their hoping you'll do! The dirty little secrets of the Ag industry are FINALLY starting to
come to light! These animals are nothing but MONEY to these people/companies...you would think that they
would take much better care of their assets! It is with my hope, that even tho people will continue to eat meat
until the end of time...they stand up and say no more abuse! If you choose to eat meat...that's your decision...but
PLEASE don't tolerate any longer the abuse of these animals before they become your meal!!!!!
I'm not saying, "put your head in the sand." I responded to this article because I don't feel that this article truly addressed why gestation stalls are used and that many of the posts before mine were only using emotion and not the facts. Only 1% of Americans are employed in agriculture, so it isn’t surprising that there is disconnect.
It is not a hidden secret that PETA and HSUS are anti agriculture. You can see this on their websites when you look at their objectives.
Hogs give us more than a fantastic protein source. We are also able to isolate fatty acids that go into cement, plastic and rubber production. There are many other everyday items that we use that come from animal byproducts. They are not raised only to produce meat.
I am not trying to condemn the general public about not understanding all the intricate parts of agriculture. Rather, I was trying to bring to light some facts and express my frustration with those trying to blast my industry.
I respect the info you provided. But, why the cement floors and ridiculously small size of the crate?
To Robin and others that may like a little more information,
I would encourage you to go to: http://video.pork.org/video/sows-in-gestation-crates
This link is a video of a farm that uses gestation stalls. The lady in this short clip talks about the reason producers use stalls. I would like to point out to those who watch this, that the room is peaceful...the pigs are quite and content.
http://www.porkcares.org is another good website that gives a good description of swine housing options and answers many questions about why producers may choose to use gestation stalls in their system.
It is equally frustrating to hear Farm factory "spokespeople" write how gestation crates are good for the pigs! Seriously???? It's a shame that you think we're all that stupid!! This is a crystal clear example of the abuse that goes on at a lot of farms in the US! THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR IT!!! Let's be honest here....it's all about the bottom line...the almighty dollar! You can't even begin to tell me or the public how a pig living in those conditions is good for them...their quality of life is horrific...you know it and so do the educated American consumer!!! By the way, I was raised on a farm...know all about how one operates...BUT...never once, was an animal forced to live like this or did they suffer any other kind of abuse! Sorry....nobody is buying your crap!!!!!
Teri,
You need to get laid and calm down, sweetheart. You're gonna have a coronary faster than a fat kid at McDonalds.
Yes, the big argument for keeping gestation crates is to protect the sows from each other. But it is not that hard to breed for temperament. Sows lived in groups ever since people started raising them. This excessively restricted "housing" is a recent development in farming. Read Temple Grandin's articles on gestation crates.
Teri,
It's true and not true. Enormous hogs in crates are a lot easier to care for, and you can better provide for nutritional needs easier as well as health needs (sickness is obvious). The negative is that the animal isn't "free". Sometimes I can't afford a more ethical option. So if we ban it, sometimes I won't be able to afford it at all. Which is going to be just fantastic as our money is continuing to devalue and our standard of living beginning to slip.
@SoundFuture:
With all due respect, if you can't "afford" to be ethical with your animals...then perhaps a different career
would be a better idea! I'm sorry...there is just no excuse to make an animal, being raised for meat to live
like this! They live a horrific life...only to be slaughtered to be put on one's plate!
Thank you!
I will second this. There are obviously a lot of people commenting here who have no basis of knowledge about anything regarding agriculture and where their food comes from, be it plant or animal. Unfortunately many of the most oblivious are ranting the loudest.
Keep doing what you're doing, Pro Ag. Some of us actually appreciate what you do.
Oh, so YOU can hear the sound of one hand clappin'?? And, if a tree fell on yer house AND not in the forest,...you'd know it,......right?.............I hear crickets.
@ProAg...I hear you...my husband comes from a long line of farmers...I grew up in Los Angeles but now live in Iowa...my views on animal welfare changed drastically when I saw first-hand, what animals unchecked, can do to each other. There is no outrunning a farrowing sow...she is hormonal, uncontrollable, and often violent. Without the crates, they WILL crush their young, fight with other sows and kill other young. Please know that the crates are only used during farrowing. Yes, it is for the safety of the sow, the piglets, and the farmer. No different than an Ob/Gyn using a delivery bed with stirrups...it's really not the most comfortable method for the mother, but it's most convenient for the doctor...which is more important, the mother's comfort or safety? And for you mothers out there...can you really tell me you all were absolutely reasonable, non-hormonal, and sane, when you delivered your child(ren)?
BTW...people seem to think corporate farms mean big companies...nope. Most corporate farms are actually family owned...the families incorporate them for economic reasons, but they are still run by individuals of a FAMILY.
Please, people, educate yourselves on the ENTIRE topic, before voicing opinions. And no, I don't mean just read what's on the web...I mean go out, work on a farm, see what it all entails. THEN, come talk to me...
Then do explain this:
"At this gestation crate confinement facility (see video,) workers punched and kicked mother pigs. They kicked piglets like soccer balls, whipped them around by their hind legs, smashed them into concrete floors, and threw them high into the air. A few even threw piglets’ testicles at each other and fed them back to the mother pigs for “fun.” The people who engaged in this behavior should be prosecuted, and the callousness they exhibited should be a matter of serious concern to everyone, not the least of all their co-workers, neighbors, and family members."
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/blog/2012/05/wyoming_pig_investigation_blog.html
What part of humane treatment is that? How does any of that behavior enhance the sow's life? How does that improve the meat? There is no excuse for treating young animals in this manner.
I didn't say ALL people treat hogs the same. Don't let the actions of a few, influence your decisions of all. If I went by that, then I would think ALL Caucasians were bigots, simply because I remember being denied entrance to a restaurant by a white host, because my parents are Asian. By and large, most farmers are interested in treating their livestock in as safe a manner as possible.
Speaking of "educating yourselves on the topic," perhaps you should take some of your own advice. This article, and the movement it's covering, are about GESTATION crates, used only during GESTATION (Pregnancy). There is no movement to eliminate farrowing crates, used to keep sows from crushing their piglets once they're born!
WE UNDERSTAND why the pigs have to be kept separate. But why can't they put them in marginally larger crates that would at least allow them to move about a little?
Because, even in as confined as they are now, some piglets STILL are crushed. Any tighter, and the sows then cannot get up to eat or drink. And you can't always hear a piglet squealing over all the piglet noises, the sow noises, and the fans running to keep them cooler. The confinement only lasts a couple of weeks, until the piglets are old enough to eat corn/feed on their own and fend for themselves. And most farmers let the sows out to walk around and get out, even during this time.
I think you are confusing gestation crates with farrowing crates. Gestation crates immobilize the sow BEFORE she has the piglets (these are what's pictured in the article). The farrowing crates have vertical bars through which the piglets suckle the mom. There is no logical reason why a sow must be kept in such a tightly-spaced gestation crate. Farrowing crates, yes, because of the piglet squish factor.
Quoting the last paragraph of the article:
"there was also a great benefit to the consumer. A slowdown in the breeding process in order to introduce new hybrids allowed the pigs to develop more fat, rather than quick-growing, but lean meat."
Since when "more fat" has become a "great benefit to the consumer"?
That's a naive or ignorant view, try looking up beef pricing. The more aged and marbled (which means has fat evenly distributed throughout the meat) a piece of meat is, the more expensive and desirable it is.
Fat = flavour.
The fact that your posting on eatocracy without knowing or believing that borders on anathema
Yes, fat=flavor, but also fat=fat me. I buy pork because it's leaner than beef. I don't particularly want fattier pork.
Oh my god...it's bacon. Are you eating two slices or the whole one pound package?
Stress affects animals differently, from the sound of this article it would appear that this type of living doesn't "stress" the sows. When we anthropomorphize we assume that things that would make us suffer also make animals suffer, since they can't tell us its up to us to look at their biology to make a determination.
The factors that are mentioned above as being used to determine stress levels are an extremely strong indicator that this is more of a problem for people than it is for the pigs.
On the other hand, sometimes things that might seem reasonable to us can actually stress animals (for example, loud noises and cattle).
If I had to choose between eating cattle subjected to conditions where the noise caused them significant stress versus eating pork raised in a gestation crate I would choose the pork every time. Its not for us to decide on behalf of animals how they should be treated, its up to us to do our best to minimize the amount of stress put on them during their lives, oddly enough those two statements don't end up meaning the same thing, though the difference is lost on many.
I don't know maybe it is simply because in any natural circumstance most if not all animals would not choose to stand in one spot for their entire life. A simple experiment would tell you if the pigs like being locked where they cannot move or loose, simply open the gate and give the pig the option. If after many years the pig still stands right there in the crate then maybe you are right.
Oh please, nothing more than apologetic claptrap meant to do nothing more than attempt to mislead, or deceive people into believing abusing an animal is good.
George W Bush should be made to live rest of his days in one of these crates. What he did to this country is unforgivable. Now he is worried about his legacy, his legacy is worst president EVER and potentially Criminal if someone had guts to bring him to trial.
WHAT !!! Nothing to do with the article at all.
I did say Bush should be made to live rest of his days in one of these crates
OK ! I got the tie in now.......
You're an idiot. Put Obama in a crate half the size with Biden, and there is probably still room for you!
So you jump to conclusions that I like Obama just because I say the facts about Bush. Well you are not as smart as you think because I do not like Obama and in fact I at this moment would probably rate the worst three presidents as follows. 1. George W Bush, 2. Jimmy Carter, 3. Barrack Obama
Now lets look at some other facts.
Under George W. Bush:
Worst attack and most lives lost on American soil since Pearl Harbor
Started out right in Afghanistan but then let the terrorists slip away as he dropped the ball
Decides he wants to invade Iraq, makes up every angle needed to go to war
4000 plus American lives lost and a trillion dollars spent in Iraq
At same time giving Bush tax cuts for wealthy because everyone knows cutting revenue while spending trillion on a war is just right.
Last but not least his presidency was such a failure and economic policies so wild wild west with no restraints that the countries economy almost totally crashed in his last weeks in office prompting him to push and get an almost Trillion dollar bank bailout to keep us from total collapse.
Under Obama:
Weak healthcare law, kind of a waste but not a disaster anywhere near a Bushy.
Gets and kills Bin Laden something that should have been done instead of Iraq.
Kills more Al Queda leaders – the people actually responsible for 911
Ineffective on domestic and economic policy however he was able to keep us from sliding back into Bush days.
So while Obama not great he did a few great things concerning terrorists and he is one hundred time better or one hundred times less destructive to the United States than Bush.
There you go facts.
Poor Piggies :(
After reading this article, I did a quick youtube search on animal slaughter.
Try "Religious Slaughter without Stunning" if you want to make your stomach turn.
The problem for me if I want to eat humanely raised and slaughtered meat is that there's pretty much no way to tell when you go to a restaurant or grocery store. Probably better to err on the side of caution. Plus, there's no way to know what kind of growth hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals are in generic meat.
Gross!
I'm glad to see this interest in the swine welfare. I've got lots of friends who are pigs. They don't live like that, but a fairly close resemblance to the living conditions. How could you kill a happy pig anyway. If you took all the time to make sure the pig is happy, and then, turned around a killed it for food, well, it just seems mean. I would think an unhappy pig would be better to kill because you might would feel you are doing the pig a favor.
Maybe God should make you live whole life in crate so when he kills you he will be doing you a favor
Very well said Proper Punishment!!!! People think they are above all living creatures. I hope this moron doesn't have any kids or pets, ever...
God said we are above all animals on the planet.
No he didnt, what a HUGE misquote and misunderstanding of the bible. I would have to say you have NEVER rad it. God said we have DOMINION over the land and its creatures...that means we are responsible for its care and maintenance, not that we can use and abuse it as we see fit.
You arent a christian, hell, you dont even know the first thing about the bible. I bet your one of those that goes to church and has soemone read it to you because you are either to stupid or to busy to actually be a part of your religion.
Well said!!!
You would feel better to kill an "Unhappy pig" does that help you sleep at night?? You're disgusting and should be ashamed of your way of thinking... I hope you have no children, they might need to run for their lives with a cruel parent like you! I eat meat but would never, ever think it's okay for any living thing to live this way, it's just not HUMANE!!!!! Ignorant people like you should be stuck in those crates, see how you do...
I've never killed a pig, happy or unhappy. But if your not doing anything tonight.
Humans live in crates, why shouldn't animals?
Hey Bob, if humans live in crates is because they choose that. Animals can choose what they want. THey are not criminals, they live the life that humans give them. At least we should give them a good life since we do we them whatever the fu ck we want.
I meant can't choose what they want*
I'm sorry yer homeless and livin' in a box, Brad. I got some leftover wallpaper on a roll to give ya if ya want'a cheer up the place some. It's got ittle piggies with bibs holdin' a knife and fork pattern on it. (It sort'a gives me nightmares)
Although gestation crates are bad and should be limited, I think that this will put a lot of hog farmers out of business, thereby allowing the two or three corporate entities that have a strangle hold on small business to import more product from other countries that will bring more profit and less regulation. This is an example of the misinformation propaganda promoted by the packing house business.
Watch the documentary Food, Inc. to get a very good idea of the power of packing house business.
There are 7 Billion people in the world who need to eat, PETA and other animal activist groups need to wake up from their fairy tale and realize some of their proposals will not provide a sustainable food source. Pigs are aggressive and competitive, why put them in a situation where they can cause harm to one another. Farmers are already finding ways to deal with the fact they can no longer crate their livestock, by genitally changing the makeup of the pigs to be less aggressive. I'd rather eat a pig that was in a crate over one that was walking around but genetically mutated.
Disagree. One of my freinds told me that he started eating meat because t is difficult to survive without it in USA. I took him to a family who did not, they told him that they did not need meat to survive and they are still OK. He was speechless. Actually people want to satify thier own egos with their own reasons. You will find ways if you want.
I know two people who don't eat meat and both are obese and have open sores on their skin. We were all born to eat meat.
Excellent sample size, Mr. Scientist.
Matthew, there are many uneducated vegetarians that try to live on macaroni and cheese. Vegetarianism leads to extremely health people when they eat a balance meal. The same is true for meat eaters who live on bacon cheeseburgers. They are not giving their body what it needs. It's been proven repeatedly that meat is unnecessary to the human diet.
I will differ with you on the opinion that we were born to eat meat. I have been vegetarian for years and I am healthy as a horse. My heart is in fine shape, my bloodwork is perfect. My cholesterol is low and healthy. People eat meat because they have a taste for meat., no other reason. You do not need it to survive. That is bullcrap. By the way, nobody at my house is obese or have open sores on their body. That is ridiculous. We feel far more healthy after a few years of being vegetarian.
"In a world which has essentially run out of new sources of agricultural land, it is insane that 70 per cent of all farmed land on the globe is dedicated to rearing animals in an orgy of cruelty and inefficiency that truly boggles the mind. On a vegetarian diet less than half the current agricultural land would be needed – on a vegan diet less than a quarter." ~Tony Wardle
oh, and, MUCH more important to the state of one's appetite, the state of one's heart –
'The greatness and moral progress of a nation can be judged by how it treats animals' to paraphrase Ghandi.
I think this also applies to the individual.
Agreed.
"7 Billion people in the world who need to eat..."
If you took the same energy, money, and resources required to raise a pig and used it to grow vegetarian food sources instead, you could feed a lot more people.
actually you are incorrect! Iowa State did an analysis a few years ago, and if the state of Iowa was converted to grass and vegetarian produce they would actually feed less people. So back to the 7 billion people needing to eat!!
I challenge that idea, and would love to see a source.
It's pretty well established that it takes 10x biomass to feed the next highest trophic level. Conceptually, 100 units of primary production feeds 10 units of cows/pigs/whatever feeds 1 unit person. If we ate at a lower trophic level, 100 units of primary production feeds 10 units of people. The conversion factors depend on what gets defined as a unit and how well each level processes energy, but 10% is the average. Source: any biology/ecology textbook.
We wouldn't have to feed "7 billion people" if idiots like you didn't breed incessantly. Humans are nothing but parasites that will continue to multiply and destroy everything this planet has to offer. I would love to fatten your a$$ up in one of these pens for a few years and then feed you to a pack of starving pigs!!
If Americans cut meat consumption by 10%, the grain left over at feed lots would be able to replace the meat. In addition, there would be enough grain to feed every human on earth who is currently starving.
Agree
Actually, Willy, the opposite is true. At the rate the population is growing MEAT is the unsustainable source of food. If you think about the way people eat, burgers WITH bacon, chicken WITH bacon, it's the meat habit that out of whack with what the planet can sustain. And what does it say about us as a species that we treat living breathing creatures as commodities? Science has determined that pigs have the emotional intelligence of a 3 year old. We can do better than this.
If people really need to eat, they should try being vegetarian. The great pounds of food fed to animals to create a few pounds of food would feed thousands of people. Meat is a very inefficient way of feeding the world. It wastes food and water, creates huge pollutions and a lot of diseases come from eating meat. Ecoli, mad cow disease, and hundreds of other diseases can be traced back to consumption of animal products. Why does it bother you that people want these animals to be well treated? It costs no more to treat an animal humanely than it does to create pain and suffering. Pain is pain, man or beast. Maybe if you would try to understand the enormous cruelty that some of these places have on a day to day basis, you might understand why it upsets the rest of us. You are one insensitive person for sure. Look up Physicians for Responsible Medicine and get their viewpoints on being vegetarian. I have been vegetarian for years and I feel far better than I did while eating meat. Give it a try. Kindness does not cost you a dime.
There ARE 7 billion people who need to eat, therefore eliminating or just reducing the consumption of meat is the most economical way to feed everyone. The amount of grain fed to livestock could feed half the world. Meat consumption is not about nutrition, it's about taste. You eat it because it taste good. Nutritionally, meat is high in cholesterol and fat, produces cancer-causing carcinogens when cooked and is not the most easily absorbed protein source available. It is actually unhealthy to eat meat!
MEAT IS the non-sustainable food source! Costs are artifically low for meat that is raised and killed "economically" so the companies can acheive outrageous profits. They pollute the water with unmanageable amounts of waste produced in their operations, feed animals crappy, un-natural foods, load them with growth hormones and antibiotics and causes them unnecessary suffering and horrible deaths. All for that low cost to the consumer, but we are paying the secret price! They are unaccountable for their rampant pollution, they feed animals genetically modified feed, growth hormones, time will tell what that is doing to our bodies, and antibiotics, which we are slowly becoming resistant to so they will no longer cure human diseases.
Animals are not being genetically modified because of changes like gestation crates. They are being modified to handle the conditions in which they are forced to live short, painful lives. I'm sure you have eaten turkey and if you have, you have eaten a gentically modified, selectively bred, mutant with no natural instincts and either rampant with disease or else stuffed full of anibiotics and other medication. These animals never seen sunlight, cannot reproduce naturally, cannot even stand or walk and then die slow, painful deaths for your tastebuds.
I don't oppose eating meat, but you should at least be aware of what you are actually eating and make the right choices for everyone and not just for yourself. For some, like me, knowing all this information makes you really think about whether eating tasty, delicious meat is worth all the suffering, disease, pollution, and waste to this world the animals and to yourself. I don't think it is. And I chose to not contribute to a problem and affects almost every facet of life on this planet.
Bravo! I agree wholeheartedly. :D
Imagine putting yourself and your dear ones in same situation. Being put in crates, with no freedom, with less or no food of choice and one day to get yourself and your dear ones ready to be slaughtered. Seem funny though , but you start equating those people with Nazi's and thier concentration camps.
How insensitive we become when it come to your dear ones and your own kind. How indifferent you are when it come to others. And you call yourself humans ??? Why??? Shame
I don't eat humans. So, I can't imagine.
Absolutely. May God bless you with power to imagine.
Actually I do know, I was in the Navy for over 11 years. In that time my only personal space was a coffin locker which I could only fit if I was on my back. At least I would wedge up against the top in heavy seas so I would not fall out 6 feet to the steel deck. For food at least on the ships I served on was not all you can eat, they actually counted the noodles they gave to each serving of spaghetti. Water was limited for any use including drinking and showering and we typically had water secured and rationed more often than it was open for use. As always the potential for being slaughtered was high, but luckily not for me. During that time I never felt misstreated or abused, we had limited space and that meant limited space for food and water production too. So in the end I don't care if my bacon came from a cage or if my bacon was pampered, only as long as I get bacon.
I am sure you would be proud to serve the nation. You did not care where the bacon come from. Would you still be uncocerned if you were served human meat. Idea shivers hatred through your nerves, ist't that true. You were unconcerned because you were raised with belief that it is OK to eat bacon and were insensitive to its creation. If you had developed sensitiveness toward killing innocent lives, you would be different.
The No Schmeat blog is a good place to distinguish real meat from $hit meat
http://noshmeat.com/blog/2011/3/20/what-is-shmeat/
Excerpt:
Cows that browse grass produce meat. Cows inflated with corn, then injected with medicines to keep the corn from killing them because they are biologically unable to digest it - shmeat.
Broadly speaking, animals treated with the dignity afforded to them by the simple virtue of their sentience - as verified by an objective and well-meaning third party - make meat. Animals regarded and treated as inanimate objects, no different than bricks - sputtering sparks of life sustained by a grotesque chemistry that includes significant quantities of other dead animals and their excrement - literally, shmeat.
I agree, which is why I turned vegetarian last year. A conscientious omnivore friend of mine told me that grass-fed beef actually tastes like beef! Unfortunately, I don't know if I've ever tried grass-fed meat. It's sad really...
absolutely sickening don t eat meat
Gestation crates should also be used for welfare mothers.
Hell, it's noon and yer still one fried egg short of breakfast.
The article states that pigs are aggressive towards each other in group settings. It also sites research by Iowa State that shows sows in individual pens have larger litters. It seems to me that the research indicates that pigs have a higher quality of life with less fear when they are in the individual stalls than when they are all put together.
There is a HUGE difference between individual pens and the pig being caged in a space so small that it can't even turn around. Just look at that picture and imagine spending your entire life like that. Even if the so called evidence was manipulated to show that you would have a better life there do you think that's how you would like to live? No? I didn't think so. BTW it's "cites" not sites.
And why the pig should be able to turn around? Are you comparing pigs to humans?
No one is compaing pigs to humans. Alex tell us would you treat your dog or cat the same way you treat breading sows?
Because it is a living and breathing creature that feels pain. Why do you want to inflict unnecessary pain? Are you like that cannibalistic guy that started out torturing and killing animals and then sends the body parts of his lover to the Canadians? Any creature should be treated well until the time they are slaughtered for your consumption. You act like you enjoy the suffering. Are you aware that you are probably a sadist?
Why do you assume the "so called evidence was manipulated”? The studies cited in this article are done by major universities. I am simply looking at the evidence and trying to trust both the researchers and the farmers who rely on the well-being of their livestock to make a living. So many people who don’t have a clue about what they are talking about are trying to tell others how to do their job.
I think you have a point, So I would like to set up a fund to do Physiological work ups on swine. Would any of you like to contribute so I can start this project?
KJW, if you believe that I've got a bridge for sale. It is just big biz paying someone to agree with them, animals are much healthier if they allowed to move around and act like pigs or bovines. Remember companies are in it to make money they really don't care about you only your wallet.
what did farmers do 100 years ago before these torture cages? how would you like to be treated this way? pigs are smarter then dogs so don't tell me they can't feel pain and fear. the only reason to use these cages are so they can make more money. the factory farm is just to maximize the profits. again we are confronted with humane treatment or the most money we can make. guess which is being picked!! the factory farms are choosing money over what is best for the animal we are killing to feed us. can't we treat them better then this??
Honestly, 100 years ago, hogs were raised outside. Pork production was lower and producers had to face higher death loss due to predators, inclement weather and disease.
This really disturbs me that we feel such a priority to get profit that one could sleep at night knowing they have abused life.
These are the same people who know have passed a bill to butcher horses.
THE USA Farmers also drug all beef, dairy and swine to get a fast growth which by the way gets ther own revenge as those consuming have higher cancer rates. I guess god is paying those back as turn around is fair play.
My BMI is great by the way and I do buy Loras Lean meat and dring non drugged milk too!
I hope that someone steps up and puts rules in play that this is animal cruelty and not the best way to raise food.
I dare those to goodle how the new chickens are raised to get more white meat.... SAD!
You're doing what you feel is right. You vote with your valet. That's great!
But for me, this report is nothing but PETA infected propaganda; so I am voting with my valet too. Should the US pork become more expensive due to populist-induced regulations, I will gladly switch to Chinese produce.
At the end, it's democracy... Or should be one.
good for you alex. personally i wouldn't eat anything that comes from china. shame on us for wanting more and more cheap crap. now its our food. no thank you. i only buy and eat free range and organic. yes it may cost a little more but i figure, do i want to spend all the money i save buying crap from wal-mart at the doctors office or pay a little more for good american grown free range meat and milk and eggs. and maybe save a few american jobs and farms that really care about what they send to the markets. and what we are putting into our bodies. look at us. look at the condition american's are in.
Why should I care what my bacon thinks?
Why? Because the cancer rates in the USA are the highest in the world and because animals who are treated this way are fed heavy doses of antibiotics to keep them alive until slaughter which is then passed on to those who eat them. By absorbing the antibiotics in this manner, some humans become immune to them so when they're sick, these antibiotics don't work.
the antibiotics fed to animals are not fed to keep the animals alive. That myth is spread to create fear and access your checkbook. Pigs may be fed low levels of antibiotics from an approved list that are not critical for human health. This practice is done to better protect the environment. Seriously! The government and citizens are concerned about manure. Feeding antibiotics reduces the quantity of microflora in the intestine that competes for the food. More of the feed then can be used by the pig and less comes out in the poop and we all end up with lower amounts of manure to handle for our pound of pork chop.
We become resistant to antibiotics because of what animals are injected with? I love how people read half-truths from health blogs and suddenly feel they have a perfectly solid grasp of biology. Wow.
Happy animals taste better. More humane farming is a win-win to my way of reasoning.
Your question makes me wonder which is the real pig, you or your bacon. I would have to say that is a toss up. Come to think of it, I would say the swine is much more sensitive than you are. Do you know that a pig has the intelligence of a three year old child? Plus the fact that bacon makes your butt huge and your sex life into the toilet. Bet your arteries are screaming out loud. Fat meat is not sexy, dude. Body by bacon....hmmmmmm.
Being crated like that has a negetive effect on the animal and the end product (the meat). It has been proven that an animal raised and slaughtered humanly gives a better end result than an animal who is stressed constantly. Buy better quality free range meats and you will be able to tell a drastic differance. We are taking a life to sustain ours we should show that animal respect.
the pork industry is run by Nazis...i buy half a pig from an amish farmer each fall. it lives a good life and dies quick...then i eat it...so don't try any shi- with me about PETA or anything else. factory farming is concentration/death camps for animals and when you buy grocery store food you are supporting it.
Look at the picture again. I think how they treat pigs is beyond Nazi-ism. THAT picture is why boneless pork loin is on sale at Meijer for $1.78/lb. this week! Sickening.
these crates are savage beyond words. the people who do this to these creatures should be crammed in a crate and then tell us all about the economics of it all. i stopped eating pork over 20 years ago, same with beef. i am healthy and strong. i weigh 200 lbs and can press more than that. i seldom get sick. i recently read one of my favorite musicians, geezer butler from black sabbath, hasn't eaten meat nearly his whole life and he is almost 70. it is a lie that a person needs to eat pork etc. to be healthy. eating savagly raised meat is not natural at all; it is unspeakable evil and unnatural .
I applaud you! I get sick of hearing people say "you need meat in your diet". That's ridiculous, that's like saying "you need broccoli in your diet", I think it's a lie created by the factory farming industry so people - especially Americans - will keep buying more meat (same with dairy). Healthy, clean, humanely raised meat is okay for you, I think (even if it might sit in your colon for years :P), but the commercial stuff is not so good, to say the least (Europe won't touch American meat, I wonder why...). But like I said, I applaud you. I became a vegetarian myself last year, and I can't stand when people act like vegetarians are idiots when we're not (not necessarily). There's plenty of people on the other side of the world that live long, healthy lives with little or no meat or dairy in their diet, some of them live past 100!
I'd love for everyone who comments on here to include their BMI I think you'd notice a trend. Go veg! BMI, 21.5
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
The BMI is a totally meaningless and completely useless measurement.
Go tell a cardiologist that. I am sure they won't agree with you.
Yes BMI is pointless and useless, but case in point, I eat meat pretty much every day, my BMI is 22.2. Don't go Veg, we're built to eat meat too!
Perhaps, but are we meant to/ should we consume the ridiculous amounts of meat that we do? It's our high demand for cheap meat that has created these inhumane conditions.
Cheap meat is wanted by people who have little to no money and families to feed. If we all ate less meat, they'd produce less, and the price would be the same or higher to compensate for the industry's decline in profit. Tada. As for why most people want to serve meat in a meal, exactly how long do you go before you are hungry again after eating an all vegan meal? Personally, I would go insane if I had nothing but side dishes for all the meals left in my life.
But I must say, I would be fine with never eating pork again.
Other forms of food may not be as expensive as they are now if the demand was higher and if so much agricultural land wasn't taken up to produce livestock food. And I am no more hungry than I was when I ate meat, thanks for asking.
It doesn't look to me, from this article, that they're using much space to raise these animals. You should reconsider that statement. This country grows way too much corn, too. Cut out some of that corn and plants some other crops. Too bad you don't eat meats... free range turkey and chicken is delicious.
Sorry, I didn't mean that the animals take up a lot of space, but that the food that has to be grown to feed them does. Like you said, we grow way too much corn and a lot of the corn is fed to livestock in feedlots. So, I agree we should use the land to grow more foods for direct human consumption. I try to support local, free range farming by encouraging my meat loving family members to buy from these sources, I just have no desire to eat meat anymore.
I eat meat at every meal, start every single day with bacon and eggs. And my BMI is 20.4. So apparently being an omnivore, like we're evolved to be, is superior! (Or it could be because I avoid all sugar and industrial fats like canola while chowing down on plenty of natural animal fats ... again, like we're evolved to do.)
That aside, I should note that I buy nearly all of my meat/eggs/dairy from grassfed/pastured/free-range sources. It's better for me, the animals, and the environment.
To be honest, I know a few vegans. They are some of the fatest people I know. No Joke. I'm not being sarcastic. I'm not saying they are the norm. But their stomachs are huge.
They have what's called "wheat bellies".
They be likin' their beer mostly likely.
The notion that farmers either use these tight gestation crates or group housing for the sows is ridiculous. I believe sows at least need room to turn around but that there is no need for more space per sow than that. The solution should be obvious: place the sows in larger crates.
Pigs are as intelligent as dogs, some say more so. Why would anyone confine a thinking, feeling creature to a small crate for its life, and think food and water are the only things that matter? Pigs wag their tails when happy, like to be scratched ( belly scratches if they can get them), play games, and can be quite social. But meat eating society would prefer to think of them as numbers in a box. If we are going to eat animals, then we are morally obligated to respect the creatures who die to feed us, their lives should be as comfortable and fulfilling as possible during the time they are in our keeping.
Totally agree. The main point is to provide these living, breathing beings a good life at the least; if indeed their destiny has already been chosen by us for them to be our food, then it is our responsible to provide them with a good life and not a miserable one!
"It's economics, not emotional"
pretty much sums it up right there
Have you seen on the website of the humane society or PETA how pigs are slaughtered? After you do, you would not even think of eating one ever again. I totaly stopped after watching the knife go down their throats, while they are still totaly alive. Full of hormones and other chemicals, which we end up eating causing in our future cancers and other illnesses, thanks no thanks. GO VEGE!
If animals are so sacred to you, why even live yourself? You're just depriving some poor pig of the oxygen it needs to survive! There is no humane way to kill. Animals are animals and humans place at the top of the food chain means we get to eat these animals. End of story.
It's not about sacredness, it's about not molesting an animal as your killing it.
In the past we used to at least kill animals before tearing them apart, or injecting chemicals into their bodies.
Paraphrasing your argument: "You have empathy for animals? Why don't you kill yourself then."
And there are more humane ways to raise/kill your food.
MixSavvy, you make no sense. What you said was mean spirited and unprovoked. You're right, there is no real humane way to kill, that's why some people omit meat altogether. Also, there are a lot of unnatural levels of hormones pumped into the meat which if digested, ends up in your system as well. Not necessarily something I want to partake in.
Cecilia, you should watch a video of how wolves take down a caribou. Often they bite down on the animal's hindquarters and rip open it's anus and wait for the animal to slowly bleed out. Or ever watch a python eat an animal? Every time the animal exhales the snake tightens it grip until the animal slowly suffocates (sometimes feeding occurs before the animal is fully dead).
Yes there are problems with meat production in this country but don't be so ridiculous and present the matter as all or nothing. There are humane ways to slaughter animals and humane ways to raise them. Don't go veg!
That's exactly the same thing I wonder every time I hear a vegetarian lament how horrific it is to raise animals for slaughter. Have they not ever seen wolves take down a deer, one biting its face to hold its head down while others take turns tearing its entrails out its anus? Lemme tell ya, a cut throat or a bolt to the brain is a much easier way to go!
But, humans aren't wolves and have the choice. For some reason some choose to slaughter in an inhumane way. I have had to 'sacrifice' animals for science research labs in a 'humane' way. After that I choose not to work in animal labs or eat meat, as I can get my nutrients easily from sources that don't inflict pain onto animals. It is all personal choice really, so why would one urge others not to be a vegetarian/vegan?
I've always been curious why so many omnivore people insist other people don't go vegan or vegetarian. They have as much right to their diets as you do. I'm not a vegetarian myself, I just find other non-veg people to be oddly defensive about their dietary habits when they have no reason to be. More so, strangely, then vegetarians. To this day, I have yet to meet a vegan or vegetarian that tried to enforce their diet on me. Not one. If it were not for company meals, I would have never known their dietary choices. But you'd better believe as soon as other non-veg found out, they made it their business to convert them to meat.
Exactly! I've noticed the same thing! It's like vegetarians/vegans are being persecuted or something, it's messed-up! I think if a person has the right to consume animal flesh, then I have the right not to!
petakillsanimals.com
Cecilia,
I have been in many, many hog slaughterhouses in the United States, and your statements are false. I have not seen the humane society or Peta sites, largely because they broadcast inaccurate information. In the vast majority of hog slaughter operations, hogs are not alive when they are bled out-they have already been killed via CO2 gas, and then immediately bled. The CO2 process is rapid and painless. In the balance of the slaughter operations, hogs are electrically stunned, and then bled out. In both cases, the hog is not sentient at the time of slaughter. This is consistently audited as very humane to the animal. Introducing hormones to hogs is illegal. It is not done. If by chemicals you mean medicines, then yes, medicines to prevent swine born diseases, protect the herds, and protect consumers are introduced. I would be interested to find what study you can cite that shows a connection between swine medicines and cancer in human beings. You are welcome to STAY VEGE, but know the facts before you make your anonymous claims.
As humans we have the ability to reason and make choices that effect other species. This is immoral and anybody who says otherwise doesn't have a single empathetic cell in their body and I pity them. My family became aware of the practices of factory farming 15 years ago and immediately made the decision to become vegetarian (practically vegan). I'm glad to hear that they are taking steps to become more ethical, although I do wish it was more.
and not a single f*u*c*k was given
Let's try again. Not a single f*** was given by people who can't be bothered to give a f***. Don't speak for the rest of us.
According to the World Health Organization there are 925 Million people starving in the world each day. I think before we condemn such farming practices, we must use any means possible to alleviate world wide hunger of Humans. World Hunger should be our human priority.
yeah that pork isn't exactly going to starving children in Africa.. more like down the gullets of already morbidly obese americans
Yes, you are right about that. But if the high production practices were allowed to be implemented in countries where cheaper high quality food could be utilized, it could help alleviate some of the problems with starvation. Unfortunately, those countries are killing their own people too.
Don't forget we are one of the biggest exporters of food and providers of food aid. GO USA FARMS!
Really? The reason some human somewhere is always going to be starving is because the human species – supposedly the most intelligent – is too stupid to realize the dangers of over population. Oh, just where people are concerned. If there are too many wolves in Montana, we just shoot them – even if they're overall population is still endangered. The issue is about factory farming methods that are cruel and inhuman. We don't need to treat animals this way in order to have a food source, some of us just do it because the profit is greater. No compassion, no sympathy, no heart at all ... cold as ice. As a species, we are a danger to the entire planet and too stupid to limit our own population boom.
Get a vasectomy. That would eliminate a bunch of stupid people.
You do realize that most of the crops in the world today go to feeding farm animals for meat production, right? The quickest way to solve the starvation problem is to make it less profitable for countries with starving populations to export the food for the meat industry.
is that a fact! okay big mouth, please detail what you are doing or have done to help this problem other than pontificate from your chair on your fat as s.
Ok! I have worked 25 years in Sub Sahara Africa to improve the production of crops, and the formation of clean water supplies. I can understand peoples aversion to mass meat production. It is sometimes seemingly cruel. But, if you are concerned about the treatment of animals that are used as food source, then, take a stance and boycott mass produced meat by not eating meat at all. I find it terrible that a lot of cereal crops are used to feed animals for slaughter. The crops could be used for human consumption. The conversion of feed to meat is inefficient. By the way, try to make an argument without resorting to calling people names. It is very juvenile.
SamH – I completely agree. The use of gestation crates as described and shown in the above article is horrifying. I had no idea American farmers engaged in such practices. It's made all the worse by the fact that pigs are considered to be among the most intelligent of all mammals. Thank you CNN for posting this article. Though I'm not a vegetarian (yet), I don't think I'll ever eat pork again.
I used to buy pigs and raise them for food and took the best care of my pigs I could. I would build them (3-5) at a time a nice pen outside on fresh ground every year. I would build them a hut with a roof and lay pallets down on the ground and cover them with hay for sleeping and for when it rained. I would have a automatic waterer and feeder, with fresh water and food all the time. I would make the pen big enough so they could root in the dirt, give them an area that i would wet down so they could lay in the mud too cool off and cover themslves with mud so they wouldn't get sun burned and an area to go poo and pee. Some people don't give their pigs a area to do this and the pigs have no choice, but to lay in their poo and pee to cool off(pigs don't sweat). When I would go to the breeder to get my pigs his sows would only be in these caged in areas when they were going to have piglets and when they had the piglets. If they didn't the sows would step on the piglets sometimes if the sows moved around to much. When the piglets were weened, the piglets would be move to a seperate area and the sows would be moved to a large area until they would be ready to have more piglets. Some people might not like any of this, but we tried to take the best care of our pigs we could. While they were alive we tried to make the pigs as happy as we could.
They are just pigs to be eaten. Its the same situation with the chickens... WHY do we care!? We shouldn't, there are more important issues in the world like human children starving and dying. I will start worrying about animals when the worlds humanitarian crisis is solved.
Hi Frogz, The reason we have world hunger is because of the issues with factory farming. It is very unsustainable. They feed the animals a tremendous amount of grain they can feed the world to, which leads to so much waste. I have much info on this issue and I will be happy to send your way ; )
The pigs I had were smarter than you. It's people like you make humans the worst animals on earth. Most animals and fish kill to eat, but as humans we should raise the animals that we eat the best we can.
Right, why should we care about animals? Kicking dogs - which are dumber than pigs - should be encouraged, right? What a healthy world view!
I agree with Frogz. What difference does it make to the pig to be happy, sad, angry, etc etc....no matter how you slice it.... it is not going to stop one way or another from going to the slicer to be eaten. The next stupid test in this will be attaching wires to the pigs head living in each tpe of living arrangment to monitor its brain waves just to find out the pig doesn't have the capacity to care one way or the other. Maybe they could teach a spider to write "Some Pig" in its web to save the smart ones.....
Don't tell me, let me guess,...yer an orphaned butthead. I once had a hat made out of one.
another full of shi* big mouth who has never done a thing in his life about anything except his own fat as s but finds people who care about other living things contemptible...you are a jerk and liar.
You and your heartless attitude toward animals is symptomatic of why I find the human species to be so thoroughly disappointing. Next time you watch a SciFy movies about aliens with superior intelligence coming to earth and destroying humanity so they can own and exploit our habitat, don't be horrified at the concept – that's basically what humans do to every other species on earth. You believe since we are more intelligent and stronger, we have the god-given right to abuse every other species on earth.
To think that I am a member of a species that is capable of such an atrocity disgusts me beyond words. If I ever come across a person involved with such a crime, God give me strength not to strangle that person on the spot with my bare hands. I will never consume pork again.
If you're strong enough and ballsy enough to try and choke someone who has to wrestle with pigs all day then God help you indeed.
oh ... you mean the pigs we keep locked up in gestation crates all day? Try spending an hour, just one hour, outside locked in a crate where you can hardly move, can't turn around. I'll bring you food and water occasionally. Wanna try?
Jimmy boy I think the desert heats fried your brain.
That said, it's always fun to watch an idiot libtard stammer about, telling me what is good for me because they know best. And everyone knows libtards are the most intelligent and compassionate creatures on Earth, right? Except of course if yuo happen to disagree with them. In that case they'll maim and eat you like a mad sow.
You realize there are options out there, right? It is not at all difficult to find pork that is humanely raised in a pasture environment. I do this. In fact, my hog is going to slaughter in just 3 weeks. He spent his whole life freely roaming and rooting on a farm. The catch is, you have to be willing to pay a little more.
You people who chose one of these two options below are no better than serial killers or child molesters, in my opinion. You are what's wrong with this world. When you're all alone because no one can stand you or things aren't going your way because you contribute nothing good to society, think back to this moment and realize what a miserable, bitter, hateful, useless person you are. You get what you give and since you can't even give an innocent animal a second thought, it will come back to you in a bad way. But you'll deserve it so don't go whining about your miserable life because, guess what – you don't really matter and your welfare is the last thing in the world anyone would consider. Stupid wastes of oxygen and space.
–It really doesn't matter to me
–Animal welfare is the last thing in the world I consider
Wow. Your cardiologist must love you.
Your anger and intolerance are what is wrong with this world. It is YOU who is the waste of oxygen and space.
No lobster, Rachel has compassion for helpless animals and she feels their suffering. You – on the other hand – have none. Rachel is intolerant of needless suffering. You, on the other hand, just don't give a sh!t and insult people who feel otherwise. You not only waste our planet's oxygen, you make it stink.
Your entire statement is an exercise in hypocrisy. Who's the intolerant one, James?
L.G., you really ought not to chew on yer toenails. It makes you so cantankerous and P-R-I-C-K-ly.
Chances are they are uneducated and overweight, which isn't punishment enough, but it's a start.
I am educated...slightly overweight...raise pigs as a hobby...and answered that I do not care. It is meat plan and simple.
Please explain your response and all your concerns to the baby pigs my sows step on because I both use farrowing crates and use open pen birthing. FYI the sows and baby pigs in the farrowing crates do not have nasty scars and are alive for 10 months longer than the babies who were suffocated because their mom did not get up after laying down on them. Do not judge what you have not experienced.
You're right. I haven't experienced raising an animal for the sole purpose of killing it and eating it. I don't think you should either.
"realize what a miserable, bitter, hateful, useless person you are." Rachel, there's plenty to be admired about your intention to be empathetic, but do not let the irony of that sentence be lost on you. Being bitter about others' lack of empathy is not the way.
There are kids in this country that live in worst conditions than the pigs and you worry about some animals. Get your priorities right. If you listed "That is at the top of my list" , you should be ashamed of yourself.
Factory farming - partiicularly of pigs - is what turned me into a vegetarian. People seem to focus too often on the way the meat pigs are kept, but it's the breeding sows that exist in a living he ll, for years and years. There is no excuse for it.
Why not let them roam free, and when it comes down to feeding them, crate them until feeding time is over. This makes me sick.
Probably because this would require a lot more land than the average farm has access to. Of course people would then be whining about runoff from pig poop and we'd be back at square one. All these nut cases crying over anything make everything a no-win proposition for anybody.
Which is why it has to go back to local, small farms.
Gee, I didn't know 'pig poop' just magically disappears at a factory farm.
There's no controversy. They are WRONG. If we have to tie, pen, chain, or abuse animals just so we an get enough food out of them then we're doing it wrong. Maybe if there were a few billion less people on the planet, and we in the west weren't all such fat slobs, animals wouldn't have to suffer so we could have our 99 cent bacon burger.
any cruelty ........I will choose another form of food.
I fail to see what the big deal here is. The animals obviously don't mind it that much, hence they don't escape. Likewise, their lives have a purpose, and they are well fed and cared for because of their slaughter value.
What next, should we go to what's left of Detroit and protest assembly lines? Oh, the horror!
Sort of like a maximum security prison – the prisoners obviously don't mind it much since they don't escape????
Let's put you in a crate and see if you don't mind it so much. Pffff...
yes, but I've experienced something better. These pigs don't know of anything better thus this is normal. Kinda like a pet dog that lives in a two room apartment vs one that lives on a 100 acre farm.
Maybe you should try watching the linked video of the conditions uncovered in Wyoming before you make such an ignorant statement. Many of these animals are NOT well cared for. Dead and rotting piglets strewn across the floors, people kicking and tossing babies like soccer balls, sick pigs laying with flies gathering in their mouths, employees punching, kicking, screaming at sows, including those too injured and sick to move is not what I would constitute as being "well-treated". Treatment like this is utterly despicable, vile, and unforgivable.
The current system of industrial farming HURTS small farmers. These factory conditions decrease the price of every commodity from eggs to pork bellies. It forces the small producers to buy extremely expensive equipment, go deeper into debt just to keep up with lowering commodity prices. If you really care about farmers, supporting animal welfare helps the small producers that can't afford the massive operations that these bigger producers use. It also brings a better, healthy product to the consumers.
I raise free range goats and chickens and these "big guys " can break and bend the rules of common sense. Don't get suckered into their big-ag propoganda.
The current system of _______ hurts smale scale _______. Generally speaking that's how capitalism works. I think you have a problem with capitalism first and foremost, which is a perfectly acceptable viewpoint. But please don't decorate your views with a care for animal rights, whether they be legitimate or contrived.
Hate the factory farm but I bet you don't mind the price of food that they bring?
Either you respect all life or no life
I'd respect those pigs a lot more if they'd just cook themselves and be waiting on the kitchen table for me when I get home from work today. And a side salad would be nice, too.
Lobster is a bottom feeder, you are what you eat!
How about your and your neighbor's dog? Would you like him grilled up with a salad too? I grew up with a pig who lived indoors with us - his name was Edward. He potty trained faster than any of our dogs. Pigs are loyal, smart, emotional animals and I loved Edward very much.
Lobster, Liz might have something there. If you need it, I have several recipes for dog. Don’t get me wrong, I loved dogs as pets but once they become annoying or to old they suffice as dinner. Liz, when your pet pig died, did you burry him or pay homage by serving him up as dinner.
God Bless You for making an animal feel happy while it was living.
Exactly right. Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Banks, Big Everything in this country has taken the Soul of what America stood for, repackaged it and sold shares. The Supreme Court got it wrong when they said a Corporation is like a person. I don't know anyone that would allow their business to treat any living thing this way. Sad...Very Sad.
What a disgusting practice. Farmers that treat their animals this way have no ethics or morals. Animals have feelings just like humans do. I won't be buying pork anymore, and no matter how the grocers label the product, I won't believe it.
If you want to make pork (or beef) part of your menu, buy a whole or half from a small private farm. They do still exsist (I am one).
Exactly! My family has a medium size cattle operation and we sell the beef locally. Alot of people in this country don't know that they can go buy even a 1/4 of a beef or pork from a farmer. The taste difference is amazing, you'll pay close to the same price, and have better quality meat.
Have you been to a pig farm? I encourage you to knock on any pork producer's door and they would be happy to give you a tour. I attest that these sows and their litters are cared for properly.
If you would like to visit my farm please let me know.
Funny – Liberals are all in a tizzy because of a farm pig can't roam around his pen before being slaughtered. However, try to legislate a ban on barbaric gender-based abortions of human babies and they cry "it's the woman's right to choose". So, Insane liberal logic puts pigs before babies. What retards.
I am liberal as f**k and I don't know a single person who thinks aborting a baby because of sex is okay. Where are you getting your info, or are you just making it up? I know people who will abort a baby because it is defective, but that's it.
Perhaps we should ask the pig what it chooses.
More idiotic hyperbole from some right wing tool.
More idiotic hyperbole from some left wing tool.
Maybe if yer right-wing and yer left-wing worked together you could fly straighter. As it is, yer making me dizzy watchin' you flyin' in circles like yer in a never endin' tail sniffin' contest. But, if you like sniffin' yer rear......
I do not support abortions for frivolous reasons, but there is a relevant difference: human fetuses w/o brain stems cannot feel pain or fear. These poor animals do.
Watch, out Pepperment Patty! That logic is just too sound!
But, yeah, I agree. I've met people in tears over the death (such as it is) of an embryo dumber than a fly, but utterly callous towards the lives of other animals vastly more intelligent and sentient: such as pigs, dogs, dolphins, and children that are actually born.
You "preach" the value of human life according to God by judging and hating on others. You make assumptions of people you do not even know, attacking their values, morals and standards.
You then excuse man abusing animals which are God's creation, and excuse the abuse while JUDGING a small percentage of others who believe they have a right to control their own body and soul.
If an individual does have an abortion that is NOT YOUR BUSINESS, that is between that woman and whatever God she believes in to deal with her actions.
You believe you are doing the "MISSION" of God by judging, hating and attacking others........God speak's very clearly about the sin of GREED............WHEN WILL YOU LIVE GOD'S WORD AND PREACH ABOUT THE SIN OF GREED ?
JESUS, PLEASE SAVE US FROM YOUR FOLLOWERS !!!!
Stupid conservative....you are on a food blog.
I support a pigs right to an abortion if she chooses.
I've been trying to transition over to buying pasture raised meat only. It isn't easy or cheap but I feel like it's the right thing to do. Though honestly if I had a family and could buy a half or whole hog or a half or whole beef from one of the local farmers I use, it would actually be cheaper then going to the grocery store. The real tricky part for me is finding chicken that is reasonably priced.
Are you achin' (yep yep yep) for some bacon (yep yep yep)
Id bet money your main instrument of choice is a banjo
He's quoting a line from the kids' film "The Lion King".
Idiot.
A banjo is the only instrument he's got. Eating bacon and other high-fat foods leads to impotence. Just saying...
I visited a factory farm one time and after spending some time around the animals it is pretty clear that it is pointless to try to make their lives meaningful. Their lives are so far from pleasant that getting rid of the crates wouldn't do a whole lot. Their lives are pretty much a living hell.
Visit a factory farm, it will make you a vegetarian. Really the only meat I comfortably eat now is from animals that my friends and family raised. I know a lot of people don't have access to family raised animals, but I am fortunate enough to have that.
amen!
most folks think their plastic-wrapped, pink, shiny meat wafts down from the clouds into their grocery store cooler, they don't realize the true horror of modern-day food supply chain methods.
right on! see FOOD INC too. modern day food processing is gross and mind boggling.
In fact, our farm policies are geared to the food manufacturers – not the farmers. Thus, we grow corn and subsidizes corn growers. why? because it's a major ingredient in many things. This has caused us to have e.coli. Cows aren't meant to eat corn they are made to eat grass. Pigs weren't meant to live in crates either.
Amen. I was almost brought to tears yesterday at the grocery store. I'm a vegan and the customers in front and behind me were buying shrink-wrapped bacon and some sort of diced steak. Can you not see the BLOOD? Cruel world.
For those of us who DO eat meat, when the price starts going up because the baby pigs are being crushed or eaten by the sows and the price skyrockets – well, you'll be complaining about that too. They "sought to breed hybrid pigs with temperaments that were less aggressive and more suitable to communal living" – this statement bothers me. How is this different than the GMO corn that people rebelled against? Let's focus on getting children out of homelessness and poverty and leave farmers alone.
Confused,
Selective breeding is the old method for farmers. They take animals that have the traits they want and allow them to breed so that their offspring will inherit these traits. GMO is taking something and alterning its DNA using science. The first has been used for thousands of years by farmers. GMO has just started in the last 30-40 years and is an aboration of nature.
Exactly! If every farm in the US switched over to organic and strictly pasture practices, we could only feed the state of Texas. We can't feed the world using these practices. Gestation crates benefit the sow and piglets. The sow will crush the entire litter before you can blink. Sows aren't like dogs and kittens, they don't have extereme mothering characteristics. Being a mother is feeding her young. Also, She isn't stressed or scared in a farrowing crate. I am an animal science student who's future includes growing and raising the food for everyone. If people are so against practices such as this, they need to do their research. Go talk to a farmer about this, I'm sure they would love to talk about it.
Really? No mothering instincts? Have you SEEN the video from the Wyoming pig farm? The piglet is taken from her mother and the mother is screaming on the top of her lungs in distress, for which she is beat to death. I have not eaten pork since seeing that video and never will again. If that is not a maternal instinct, I don't know what is.
And yet a wild sow will kill anything that tries to take her piglets. I'm not denying that sows will kill piglets, they certain will, but the reality is a bit more complex. They remind me of bears, actually. Bears are extremely defensive of their cubs, but mothers WILL eat their own cubs if they feel a lack in nutrition, or sometimes for seemingly no reason.
I have know cat mothers that were execellant nurturers; I had one cat that ignored her kittens and behaved as if they were not there. You can't paint them all with one brush.
It is apparent that the people in today's culture have absolutely no compassion for feeling for anything but themselves. Why don't they live in a crate, think what it would save on...gas, emissions, food, murder...and the list could go on. Some of these comments sicken me.
Reading all the comments that run along the lines of "We're human, so we get to eat pigs no matter how much suffering they endure, because AREN'T animals or they ARE'NT humans", makes me wonder if any other animal besides us became capable of understanding and utilizing human speech, if there would be humans that would still insist on eating that animal even as it insisted on keeping its life.
I'm no animal rights activist by any means, and I have no problem with eating meat on principle, but it is simply ignorant to believe that pigs do not feel or suffer or think. They are as clever as the most intelligent dogs and more intelligent than most of them. You cannot wish away that fact. They FEEL. They SUFFER. We owe it to them from one intelligent being to another to ensure that they are treated with as much care for their welfare as possible and not let base needs get in the way. Better yet, we could stop eating them altogether and only kill pigs for research and medical usage. We don't actually NEED to eat pigs specifically to live. Plenty of people in the world don't eat pigs and live just fine.
Part of the "it doesn't really to me," bunch! :)
people could also argue the fact that the way chickens are raised in the US is just as cruel if not even worse. some chickens do not even see the light of day during their entire lifespan. the food industry in the US can be pulled many different ways making many different arguments. either way the food system in America is quite hidden from consumers.
it is terrible, FOOD INC really spells out what is going on in our modern food supply. it is sickening. Farm policies are geared towards the manufacturer, not the farmer.
Animals were put on earth for us to utilize them, but not to ABUSE them.
We can still use them for food, but to expose them to inhumane conditions and cruelty is just awful.
The key is compassion and humanity for animals and ALL the living things of the earth and the earth, too.
Nothing was "put" here. Therin lies the flaw undermining your entire argument.
Lee qeenbeee is not trying to sound religious but this is a religious post because they think they can use anything on earth
WOW .... What is disappointing about this is how social media can be used to twist the truth to achieve big salaries for activest groups that represent a small % of the population. And in the end, the activest will be wealthier while the rest of us will have to pay more for food while we all ask "Why are more people hungry and our food cost is higher". All becuase we have brought value of human life DOWN to the level of animal's. Treat animals with repspect not rights, which most farmers do. If you want to make a difference, start working on HUMAN causes, not animals.
Whether or not you care about the animals, you can at least care about your own health. These crates are breeding grounds for disease.
Also, activist is spelled activist.
Apparantly you have never seen the normal habitat in pig farms (aka pig sty), with the pigs wallowing in the mud, excretement and their food. The crates are a perfect place, the pigs are happy, all they have to do is eat and poop.
While you are at it, you should force the farmers to stop planting their crops, and have them just throw the seeds on the ground.
Breeding ground for disease? This is false.
We are nothing more than animals ourselves. Why are our lives so much more valuable than any other animal?
Last I looked, a lot of Americans are overweight anyway.
Why can't you care for both? Since when did caring for humans and nonhuman animals become mutually exclusive of one another? Why treat everything as if it were a zero-sum game?
Farmers don't treat them right, they do abuse and it's been caught on tape numerous times.Humane farming is slowly catching on, and I, as a consumer support it. People want to eat meat fine, but allow those poor creatures that you will eventually eat, to live a some what decent life, free from pain and abuse until their lives must end. They feel pain and discomfort just like you and I do and have emotions. BTW pigs are very smart, Smarter than dogs... so compassion for these creatures is essential in my book.
Since pigs are so smart why dont they gang up on the people that control them even after they have slaughtered their loved ones time after time after time, probably even right in front of them. Running up to the hand that feeds you and wil eventually kill you is not neccesarily a sign of intelligence. What is a sign of intelligence is that humans have been able to over the course of thousands of years, turn animals into willing meals.
I think I actually became dumber after having read this application of false logic.
You provided zero reasons why it was what you say it is. Typical.
@austintech, all you have to do is look at how pigs in the wild, or any other animal in the wild responds to humans, and then see how the domesticated version of that animals responds. it doesnt take a genius to figure it out.
I do agree with you on your post below. It all comes down to supply and demand If people could keep their reproductive and eating habits in check none of this would be neccessary. Even if all that was in order there still would be a demand for meat products.
Oh right, because pigs have so many options for fighting back. Those stockpiles of weapons buried under the breeding crates, for example. Oh wait, no opposable thumbs...
Well, any truly intelligent animal would recognize their superioirity in numbers and overall strength and be able to coordinate, wait, we are still talking baout pigs arent we? You answered your own question.
I don't know, if human embryos didn't like being aborted, why don't they fight back?
AC – I am loving you right now
Oh but they do AC. The actually try and get out of the way and if you've seen the videos you can see their little faces screaming. You should try watching one.
Haha - let me guess: if you had a mentally retarded child or sibling, you'd eat her too, wouldn't you? If it's unintelligent it should be exploited, right?
I have farmed for 14 years for many types of operations and have worked for the USDA for over 5 years at this time. I have worked with hundreds of farmers in my state. I have rearely seen a 2 foot wide gestation crate. Most pregnant sows could not fit in a crate that size. I have rarely seen a farmer confine all his hogs to a crate for their entire life. I have seen farmers use crates to protect piglets from sows like many other people have mentioned and this is standard and to protect all involved. This lasts for a few weeks at a time twice a year. Don't we confine mothers to beds during and after birth? Don't we put our babies in cribs and play pens to keep them safe?
HSUS is a joke. Less than 1/4 of their cash instake last year went to animal programs. Check out the fat pay checks their exec's get as well as the size of their retirement funds. Support your local farmer. Most are knowledgable folks who want to do what their customers are asking for. Go and ask for grass fed beef, ask for humane raised animals, and I bet you will be surprised how many local farms already do this.
I wish it were so easy. Most people can't afford grass-fed, humanely raised meat. How much easier just to eat plant food. There is no reason in the 21st century to use meat as food. We are only feeding an addiction that is killing us. Humans no longer do hard physical labor to work off the animal fat. It's time to see vegetable foods as the way to go.
Yessir! that's the answer. Won't get the neanderthals to join up, but thanks for trying.
I'm sorry but you're delusional if you think that no humans do hard work. Have you ever been outside of the U.S. or even outside of a city in the U.S.? Millions of people work 16 hours a day on their feet doing back breaking labor. It's this mentality of trust-fund baby hippies that have no concept of hard work that is so ludicrous. If I laid around sucking off the government teet all day and talking about what I think people should do I would only need a vegetable diet as well. Get a life.
Have you lost your mind? So, your logic is that humans no longer do the phyical labor (really?) needed to work off animal fat. You have lost it. Meat is essential to the human body in every way. ONLY when abused does it become a health problem.
All amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) we need to thrive are found in plant food. There is no physiological reason we need to eat meat. Science, check it out sometime.
You are so right. There are tons of local farmers out there who treat their animals really well. Most of them are more than happy to take you for a tour and show you everything. These are my sources for meat and it's really NOT that crazy expensive. Yes you do have to buy in bulk, but a chest freezer really isn't that expensive and can hold a LOT of meat. I bought 1/2 hog that will be ready in July – - $220 for ~70 lbs of meat. What a great deal! And then animal was 100% pastured its whole lift.
If you wanna be a vegetarian for ethical reasons, have at it. But don't pretend that there aren't excellent options for sources of meat that are good for you, the animal, and the environment. They're out there, just not if you only shop in the narrow aisles of the grocery store. Expand your horizons to locals farms, CSAs and farmer's markets and you'll find so much more! With my diet being nearly 100% meat and vegetables, these are my go-to sources for organic, grassfed, pastured food.
We don't "need" to consume animals because we are PRIMATES and it's not necessary or even suitable for our physiology to eat flesh, eggs or milk of other species. If it were, I'd have been dead sometime during the last 25 years – since I am vegan. Never ill, healthiest person in my age cohort and medical practitioners love me – I show up for my checkup once a year and they have little or nothing to do. Can't beat it. Insurers love it, too.
Besides, if you agree that slavery is wrong, then it's wrong in EVERY SINGLE INSTANCE – not just the ones that profit some or gratify another's selfish pleasures. Animals don't belong to us and they shouldn't be treated this way. Unless you are willing to trade places with another being, don't be so quick to hide behind some religion or your own selfishness by condemning another being to suffer *FOR* you. That's not our "right" as humans.
Think about it!
DarthPug/heroic aren't any type of human beings I want to be around, that's for sure. Not religious at all, don't support PETA, not a liberal, but trolls and classless, uncompassionate scum are pretty easy to spot, that's for sure. It seems the neanderthal genes are still going strong in homo sapiens. Be careful who you breed with people. You might poop out one of these losers.
If you enjoy meat, and meat on the vast scale we can produce it. Stop complaining. If you like to BBQ, stop complaining. Unfortunately to live in a society with meat around every corner and available in basically every restaurant that chooses to sell it, these things must happen.
Yes. How else are we going to continue to have exploding obesity rates in our adults and children and our kids getting type 2 diabetes unless we can keep meat cheap!! Screw those pig-hugging liberals, let's eat!!!! MMMMM!!!
meat is not the problem...sugar is
agreed! AND ultra-processed flour and starch products that turn to sugar after eating them.
Nonsense. I choose with my pocketbook. I pay the price to buy my meat from Wholefoods only. Clearly, many others agree with me since economic pressure is triggering these changes. Good for us! I also ask restaurants where they get their meat, how it was raised, etc. If they can't answer my questions, or don't answer them to my liking, I explain to the waiter that I will not be buying the more expensive meat entrees, even though I want them, because of their policies. This of course costs the owner money. I also explain that, since his/her tip is based on the tab, he/she will be receiving less of a tip due to the lesser cost of the non-meat entrees, despite him/her doing the same work. I encourage him/her to explain these financial losses to his employer.
Karma will work it's magic, it always does.
Karma is a lie that the weak tell themselves after they are taken advantage of or beaten.
Whatever you have to tell yourself, I guess.
@heroicslugtest....sounds like you're fearful of karma. btw, it does exist. see...bin laden, jeffrey dahmer, o j
No, and no. You're referring to justice, not karma. OBL and JD were killed for their by humans.
Not by a mystical energy force that keeps a running tally on our good and bad deeds.
Thats a fairy-tale you tell kids so they don't misbehave. Hate to break it to you, but Jesus and Santa aren't real either.
Invoking karma? Save the pigs, it's good karma, but let's not worry about starving people, pestilence, war, or any of those other people problems. They don't matter so much, karmically speaking, do they. This article is noting but a distraction to real world problems, and the comments on this article show how screwed up our priorities are.
Shame on CNN for pushing these fluff pieces, and shame on the public for tolerating it.
it wouldn't be such a fluff piece if YOU were residing in a crate for your natural life. no one is ignoring all the other problems, this is just ANOTHER problem. humans aren't the only living things on this planet; other living things deserve respect.
I'd love to see you confront someone who's lost their family to starvation or genocide to tell them that you care more about a pigs living space than their suffering.
We are such a brutal, distructive, cruel, parasitic species. Yes there are a few people that try to do their best for the inviroment, other people and animals but unfortunatly too few. Unless mankind evloves into something greater than we are, we as a species is doomed. Do your best!
Factory animal farming methods like this are the one of the big reasons I'm vegetarian. With all the antibiotics, steroids, and hormones they give the animals, and the cruel, albeit (sometimes) healthy conditions they live in, I have no interest in anything that comes from a factory farm.
I would not trust the reliability of the measurements produced from Texas Tech, as they have horrendous animal welfare practices and double standards. To place merit in the evaluation system and improve the quality of life for the animal, while considering the economic restraints of the farms; I suggest the Pork Board establish a new measurement standard from an institute better able to produce ethical results. In conjunction, if the gestation crates are to be improved, then the farrowing crates should be equally improved and piglet survivability and health should be investigated.
Go vegetarian and be part of the solution not the problem. Supply and demand!
And yet there's so much debate about abortion at the fetal stages. Humans are so vain and cruel.
stay on topic Bob, this is an article about sows, not an unborn cluster of human cells.
I believe in logic. I'm a vegetarian because eating meat is not an efficient way to eat. Instead of the pig eating the plant food and me eating the pig, I'd rather just eat the plants in the first place. You save on water, energy, suffering, healthcare expenses, and waste this way.
Regarding abortion: I don't think a human life should be brought into the world when the mother doesn't want it. Whether or not the baby feels pain when it is aborted may be debatable (depending on the stage), but a lifetime of pain from terrible parenting is surely more.
Don't eat meat. You don't need it for health. It is all cruel, unnecessary, and damages the environment. The question isn't are gestation crates OK, it is why are we taught that eating the flesh of other creatures is OK. As Paul McCartney so aptly said; the reason people eat meat is because there are no windows on slaughter houses.
yeah i mean because paul mccartney is such a f**king visionary. CMON WAKE UP!!! We are top of the food chain, we have incisors, our bodies are make to break down and process meat...what else do you need to know? Oh yeah...I'm sorry...all that fact is skewed by some hippy song writer from the 60s.
Come down to earth and visit the rest of some time...you might like it.
I'm eating a piece of fried chicken and a pork sparerib as I read your post.
Delicious. Thinking I'll go back to Asimov for the reading material, though.
You can get rid of the "heroic" and "test" in your handle. What's left is perfect.
Keep eating that factory chicken, bubba. I can hear you getting fatter.
Lol. Wow, you guys are full of hate.
Good luck with those aneurysms.
I have compassion for you as I once didn't make the connection between my meal and the animal it came from. I'd love for you to see the truth - once you do, you can't ignore it. I just hope your diet doesn't kill you first.
Vegan = compassion and love
Really? The reason my mother eats meat is because she's allergic to soy and nuts, and she's anemic and those iron tablets give her intense stomach pain/constipation.
Also, on the subject of gestation crates, I'm siding with the farmers on this one, simply because I HAVE raised animals before, and I can tell you, it's super hard to keep a bunch of breeding females together without them competing over resources. (Even if they have enough to go around, they will still compete. If you raise parakeets, you literally need two times the number of nest boxes per parakeet and even then sometimes females will just decide to claim ALL the boxes.) And when they start fighting, it stresses the animals out and their quality of life plummets.
Now, do I wish the pens were a little bigger? Yeah, it'd be nice if they could turn around. But for the pigs own safety, they should NOT be kept in group housing.
Paul McCartney is an idiot. Roughly 50% of the meat I consume comes from wild game that I harvested myself. I didn't need to see someone else kill that animal from inside a slaughter house. I watched them all die through my rifle scope.
Amen to that!
It is factory farming (Notice, I did not say farming) that has inhumane practices. With regards to game hunting, the animal usually leads a "normal" life until it is very quickly put to death by the hunter. Generally, hunting is humane. I bet most hunters would not be comfortable with factory farming or factory slaughter house practices. For many of us, it is not killing and eating animals that is the problem- instead the problem is the inhumane practices associated with mass production.
Ask him how Linda is doing. Oh wait, SHE'S DEAD.
I will only buy meat from animals that have been raised humanely and slaughtered humanely. I live in the USA, where the vast majority of us have plenty to eat and many, many of us are overweight. In my opinion, meat in the USA is not a necessity but a luxury. I think changes that lead to treating animals more humanely, even if it raises the price of pork by a few cent per pound, are completely worth it.
How do you "humanely" slaughter anything? By the term itself it should be an acceptable way to do away with a person. I believe that you should not eat anything that you, personally, would not be willing to kill, dress, clean, and cook. That would move many to vegetarianism.
Amen Sam the Sham! Well said.
Some methods are far more humane than others. Instantaneous unconsciousness via a captive bolt is humane. Chickens and other poultry are not covered by the Humane Slaughter Act and do not get the privileged to be rendered unconscious before the slaughter process begins. I think the USA should amend the Act to cover poultry and all other animals slaughter for human consumption.
Here is an article about captive bolt stunning: http://www.grandin.com/humane/cap.bolt.tips.html
The current system of industrial farming HURTS small farmers. These factory conditions decrease the price of every commodity from eggs to pork bellies. It forces the small producers to buy extremely expensive equipment, go deeper into debt just to keep up with lowering commodity prices. If you really care about farmers, supporting animal welfare helps the small producers that can't afford the massive operations that these bigger producers use. It also brings a better, healthy product to the consumers.
Now I see why greed is a sin.
That's right. Praise the dear and fluffy lord.
Also, Paypal me all your money. It will enhance your quest for enlightenment.
It'll enlighten your pocketbook at least.
i'm a vegan (ten years plus) and a strict vegetarian for more than a decade before that. never liked meat or milk as a kid and happen to love animals, too. i do my thing passively and try to practice ahimsa.
i'd love for animals to, at the very least, have the right to move around. to stay confined for life...oh what a life that isn't. i wouldn't wish that upon anyone. to spend a life without the joy of moving, the ability to stretch if you feel the need.
it's a travesty for any being and i'm glad some awareness is being brought to these issues lately. there is so much that needs improvement - with human lives, with the lives of our animal friends, and with the environment. glad to see a bit of compassion spreading.
Hey buddy..why don't you read some of these other posts and do some research as to when these types of crates are actually used. The sad part about you libtards is that you just take an article, from a leftist rag like cnn, for its word. After you find out what these crates are really used for you have to come to one of two conclusions #1 The reporter is HORRIBLE and didn't do his job to investigate this correctly or most likely #2 cnn, the reporters are editors are typical leftist pigs with an agenda to push.
Let me know what you think.
OK then, since you are the expert, how are they used?
I vote that you spend the rest of your life in an area just a few inches wider and longer than your likely ample body.
GO VEG!
Ok Darthpug, we get it. You are extremely unintelligent. You don't need to keep pointing it out. You criticize the article but trust the people that post they own pigs (and therefore their only concern is profit). These sows are kept pregnant constantly, so they are almost always in these crates. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see it is cruel. Anyone who looks at the picture and has common sense can see this. And this is why several huge companies will no longer allow it.
There's nothing wrong with wanting to treat animals humanely. Pigs are smarter than dogs. Would you do this to a dog? If you would, you may want to get treatment because most serial killers also enjoy torturing animals.
These are not wild pigs. This is what these animals are bred to do, provide us with food. There are plenty of wild pigs out there blissfully frolicing in nature, and then being brutally murdered by packs of wild dogs for food. Just think of that when you are eating a delicious BLT. Ask yourself this, whats the greatest invention since bacon? I couldnt think of anything either.
Well, Slaves were born and raised to be slaves, but that does not make it right.
Ha! Great reply!
Are you comparing black slaves to pigs? Better not say that too loudly. Otherwise you'll be on TV with Jesse and Al, telling everyone how you talked to your black friends and they explained why this was so offensive and that you're terribly sorry for offending anyone.
MIke you forgot to explain how that makes any sense at all. Most people that were slaves were captured after living free for most of their lives. Why do you think the slave triangle peristed for such a ling time? Nice try though.
When I say not wild pigs I meant like, these animals have been bred over thousands of years to be food. Same with every single other food or vegetable or fruit out there. Heck, look at dogs and cats. Domestication has been going on for ten thousand years. Get your head out of your butt.
just because they were bred for food does not diminish their need for physiologic and emotional comfort. Their sentient nature was not bred out of them. They still FEEL...do you?
Why dont you go talk to them about it then? You wont be happy until they have a psychiatrist out there making sure the pigs are mentally fit to be slaughtered will you? That how ridiculous people like you sound.
Maybe they'd like to sit on the couch next to Tony Soprano and talk to Dr. Melfi about how their mom was an evil sow and that's why they're so messed up in the head.
I think farm animals should be treated decently and allowed more space and motion. It is just not right to use these crates, same with the chickens that get put in cages that they cannot stand in or turn around. We have chickens but never cage them in small cages. We use rolling pens, not fully free range but they have lots of room and the whole system rolls so that every few days we move them to clean ground and they love pecking around on fresh ground not covered with poo. We get plenty of good eggs never a problem and they are healthy birds who actually like when they see us coming because they know that when they see us it means something good like fresh food, water, moving pen to fresh ground or every once in a while just talking to them, dogs even like to say hey to the birds.
I read some post from farmers who say the crates are used for short periods to protect the young. If that is the case I see no problem. The article indicates that they are often used for life of the pig and that would be wrong, I don't care if it protects piglets there needs to be some way to allow something more of a normal life for an animal. So short term use for reasons said seems fine but long term life sentence in a tiny crate seems cruel for any animal.
I hunt on occasion and I have no problem killing an animal that I am going to eat but when I hear about hunting for trophy only I think that is wrong. I am pretty sure God did not create animals for us to be cruel to or to use as decoration and I am pretty sure if God create all then God loves all
Many people commenting are full of it, they spend most of their lives like this. From the article:
There are approximately 5.8 million breeding sows living on pig farms across the United States, according to the USDA, and 60 to 70 percent of them spend the majority of their lives in metal-sided stalls that are two feet wide and seven feet long. They are pregnant for most of their lifespan and then moved to a farrowing stall to give birth.
If the sows are crated ONLY for birthing and a short time thereafter, I would see no issue with it, but as has been pointed out, some industries do it for the life of the animal–which for these intelligent animals is dead wrong. Most people would balk at letting that happen to dogs (which, if the puppies are ill, the dam will sometimes eat her puppies too). The more intelligent pig should be treated no differently. And, why aren't we focusing more on hunting the feral nonnative pigs destroying wildlife habitat in Texas and Florida? I guess the meat isn't what people are used to, but hunting game is more humane than industrial farming.
There is always going to be meat eaters. Its not a crime, its not inhumane and its not cruel. It is part of the food chain. How we go about procurring our meat is sometimes questionable and that needs to be looked at. Trying to convert everyone to be a vegan is not in the cards.
No surprise.. there are lots of neanderthals posting about how they couldn't care less whether these animals suffer. How I would love to see you walking piles of offal stuck in a tiny box, unable to move, forced to live your life to serve the dinner plate of some predator. No tears, no regret, no pity.. just a celebration, and a great sense of relief that you're locked away, and unable to pass on your horrible genes to the genepool. The filthiest pigs are > many people who walk this earth.
I riase pigs. I know a little bit about it. Gestation crates are used for a short time so the sow doesn't kill her young. Sows are smart animals, but terrible mothers. If left alone they will roll over and kill the babies. If a baby is not doing well, she quite often will bite it and kill it.
Any person who thinks "Animal welfare is the last thing in the world I consider" is evil and should be behind bars themselves, period. Yes, people come first, but we are intelligent enough to do things the right way and to ensure that needless suffering does not happen just so someone can make a buck.
Jason...so let me get this straight. What you're saying is that your way is the right way and the only way. If we don't like to do it that way we should be in jail....let me take a wild guess that you're voting for Obama in November. Am I right? People like you and most of the left scare me because of these types of mentalities.
How about you read up on these creates. There are many people who wrote posts about what and when they are actually used. You know what? I bet after you read them, even though they are farmers and work with live stock all the time, you'll still think your way is the best way. Just because you're a typical leftist, hipster that wants to save the world by bringing humans down to the level of animals.
What an idiot!
You're an idiot. All he said was humans should be sophisticated enough in 2012 to avoid needless inhumane treatment of animals. And if you don’t think animal welfare is important you probably are a sociopath – Nothing to do with politics just being a moral person.
I was referring to darthpug. My reply was to his stupid remarks.
Doesn't look like what he's saying at out all.
Yes, there is such a thing as 'right' and 'wrong'. Animal abuse (which this clearly is) is 'wrong' and is immoral and illegal. Those who commit abuse should be jailed (or worse). Those who defend abusers should be ashamed.
And this is not about 'farmers' doing what is best for the farm- it's about factories doing what is best for the profit margin, at any and all cost to animal suffering.
And you know what else? People who don't vote for Obama care about animal suffering too- you sir, are in a tiny, tiny minority, and (I suspect) would never dare to speak your twisted mind while your face was showing.
Jason is the kind of person that thinks mass murderers have "rights" He has no clue about prioritues and sets his own selfish agenda in front of everyone else. He is the perfect example of the failure of our society, I wonder if he knows that people have been slitting the throats of entire herds of livestock for thousand sof years and letting the blood drain out while the animal is still alive, just so they can appease some guy in the sky.
The greatness of a society and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
-Gandhi
Having seen sows kill piglets when they get tired of having them around, and sows fighting, crates are a more humane way of raising hogs. Pigs aren't like Babe the move. Once a hog starts to bleed, the other hogs will rip it apart and eat it. If a animal is not comfortable, it will not produce as well. Hence, dairy farmers using recycled rubber in matts for the dairy cows to lay on.
Well if using for short periods to control violence or cannibalism I can see its merits but the article indicates that it is standard practice with many big farms for the pig to live its life in these tight crates. That is wrong if that happens I know some big chicken producers use tiny cages for life and that is wrong and horrible, think about how you or any animal would feel not to be able to move, walk around, see the ground, fresh air.
Consumption of too much pork can make one stupid!!...explains half the posts on this thread..you should "Really" try to cut back a bit.
Harry after that statement, and if it were true, you sure you're not sneaking some bacon every now and then? LOL libtard!
Once again...thank you for proving my point.
LOL no thank YOU for proving my point libtard.
Using a variant of a disability as a perjoritive? Really? Can't think of an insult that is insulting to the person and not the disabled? Can't think? Disabled?
mmmmm, bacon!
I am a vegetarian and so is my family and each time I come across an article like this I really feel extremely proud that none of my family members are contributing to the sufferings of livestock. If only more people were to move to vegetarianism the world would be a much less free of pain
Plants are living organisms as well.
Betsy...last time I checked...aren't plans "living" organisms too?
Posts like yours make me glad I'm not a vegetarian/vegan. I could never stoop to that level to associate with the likes of you "holier than thou" pinheads.
I agree. Live and Let Live !
Did yout children ever even get a chance to choose for themselves? Be honest now.
I am vegetarian and feel the exact same pride. I refuse to eat anything with a nervous system (something plants are lacking for all those of you who have such a great degree of trouble making the distinction). We live in an environment that affords us the opportunity to extend our morality further, and all you people can do is be jocund towards the notion that people expect some degree of humanity from you. Don't be so threatened by people trying to make the world a more humane place.
You should watch that episode of 'South Park' where these overly sanctimonious people drive hybrid cars (Toyota Pius, not Prius) and smell their own farts because they think their (poop) don't stink. You remind me of them.
and i suppose carrots dont feel pain as you rip them from the nice warm womb ground...or as you twist the neck of a nice ripe lettuce....or hack a pineapple from it's mothers hold.... vegans and peta members are all morons who think they are better than everyone else... but we all know what you are.. lol... look up the word hypocrite..
Seriously? We keep harking about Animal welfare, but we eventually kill and eat them! The humane or inhumane treatment does not take away from the fact that we have a ridiculous appetite for meat consumption, and we need these mass farming facilities to find all kinds of ways to feed that appetite. Look at the toll our meat consumption .... losing forested land to grazing, methane in the air from cows, swine flu (and lots of other "flus" that came from the mother of meat eating Guandong, China).
I even have friends who have grown up not eating any vegetables, their parents just didn't teach them how to, so now they will pull out the lettuce from the burger and pick through any green stuff in their food. This is an absurd planet, 7 billion and growing, yet everyone is adopting this American diet of fat laden junk dedicated to meatietarianism.
The problem starts at home, if we didn't need to eat so much meat, these farmers wouldn't need to constantly find more efficient ways of - growing meat!
"if we didn't need to eat so much meat" I think you meant "want" not "need" and the fact is we want to and will pay for it and inhumane treatment does take away from that fact. If we want to eat all we can and the animal feels no death-pain but it's life is torture how do humans justify that? A painless death is unlikely but a life should not be torturous. It isn't good for business (shortens livestock lives and weights) and what kind of people does such a system foster? Are these people good for society? Meat eating is a fact, torture is not.
or adding that lovely pink slime they like to add to hamburger.. disgusting..check out jamie oliver on youtube and search pink slime... thank god they went bankrupt after it hit the news
I do respect those who have chosen not to eat meat. I on the otherhand do eat meat and dont think there is anything unnatural about it. I think that happiness is a relative term. There are some people that are happy lazying on a couch all day. I am sure some animals are that way as well. Animals are driven by three factors food, survival and reproduction. If those factors are taken care of then theoretically they should be happy. I think the question here is does this cause stress to the pig? That I dont know but if they can mitigate that possibility by providing more space then I am all for it.
Having read a bit on this subject, I'm pretty much of the opinion that there isn't much to recommend one option over the other. Would I prefer a "first class seat" all to my lonesome but with little room to move. Or, would I prefer a group cage where I could move around a bit but where I could be mortally wounded by another occupant? Hmmmm, decisions, decisions. I believe that most of us are horrified by the photo of the sows laid out in rows in the gestation crates – but we don't see images of the horrors of the alternative.
Setting aside the vegetarian lifestyle (which I'm not going to adopt), the option that most of us would love to see is the idyllic farm with happy pigs in huge pens by themselves. But how many American consumers would be willing to purchase pork (or beef, or chicken, or whatever) at a significantly higher price?
Even if the meat turns out slightly inferior I believe people do not have the right to torture animals at will for their own benefit. Animals raised for food still need a fair treatment. Let us take some hints from mother nature where hunting takes place but the prey usually dies instantly after living the life nature intended it to live.
Per the article, this practice is safer than letting them rough each other up in a group pen.
So would you live your life safe and secure in a box designed to fit you but doesn't allow movement? That's a coffin my friend.
I think he was talking about the pigs, not him.
Apparently, all the available evidence shows that the pigs are happy to sit in tiny boxes.
They are animals. They don't aspire to live in studio apartments or ranch houses.
Exactly. If small spaces are all they've ever known, they don't have any other experiences to compare their situation to.
"...their resistance to outside input is based on an "archaic philosophy" that the only people who should have any say in how animals are treated are those who have the animal."
Exactly.
Many farmers only put their sows in gestation crates when they are ready to give birth and for a short time afterwards. Not allowing the pig to turn around helps prevent an angry sow from killing its own piglets by snapping their necks with its mouth. In most cases it is not done so that more pigs can be crammed into spaces, it is done to protect the piglets, which in turn leads to higher mortality rates and lower prices for consumers. Comparing pigs to humans in this case is unreasonable given how psychologically different pigs and humans are.
Shhhhh. That would make too much sense for these welfare activists. Their heads would explode if they knew the truth.
Many people don't have to compare an animal to a human to be considerate of life. Some can respect a pig for being a pig or an eagle for being an eagle.
Lobster, have YOU ever met a pig? If you have, were you raising it to become food? I actually KNOW some pigs, who will never be part of the food chain, and live in comfortable, roomy indoor/outdoor housing, free to come and go as they please. And guess what? They are friendly and sweet, and come running to greet me, whether or not I have food for them. They love a good belly rub, or a scratch behind the ears. They don't fear for their lives, and are free to be pigs. Amazingly, they are much like any other animal, humans included. Open your heart and your mind. Treat others as you would be treated.
Oh I've known a few pigs in my life. Most of them were self-righteous A-holes.
Fancy you telling me to open my heart and my mind. How about we put that shoe on the other cloven hoof and tell YOU to open YOUR heart and YOUR mind. Silly do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do libtards.
Fancy you telling me to open my heart and my mind. How about we put that shoe on the other cloven hoof and tell YOU to open YOUR heart and YOUR mind.
Does anyone else think L.G. likes pissin' in the wind? I guess he's tired of singin' to the choir....Yawn.
Dear Mr. Farmer,
Pigs are actually very smart. They are much smarter than dogs.
Dear Mr. Tony...#1 who cares, even if it was true #2 send me some video of a pig hurdling cattle, fetching a duck..hell how about a simple sit...can you do that Mr. Tony..can you send me a video of a pig sitting on command?
Where do you retards come up with this crap? LOL Please enlighten me as to how pigs are more intelligent than dogs. AND tell me why it matters?
Have you never seen 'Babe'?
If I were your father and saw what a worthless pile of offal I had brought into the world, I'd put you down. Ignorant and worthless doesn't even being to describe you.
Enlighten yourself and better yet get yourself some education. You've made it on here so I KNOW you must understand how to use Google at the very least. Use it before the next time you open your uneducated mouth.
DarthPug – as requested...\
Squeaky the herding pig (she is used by a cattle farmer to herd his cattle):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc0fY3BstdU
Oh and just for good measure a pig who sits on command:
Not real hard to find on YouTube.
Enjoy!!
DarthPug, you are a very bad person. I hope the Pug in your name is because you drool and have wrinkles and not because you actually own a dog.
Which stil makes them horribly stupid.
Thank you for that insight James. I'm sure this typical leftist rag knew about that too, but decided to leave it out of their story. Know why? Because it makes perfect sense and libtards don't like facts or scientific findings that make sense. They would rather live by their bullet points and dreams of a Utopian society.
Yeah, darth , striving to achieve a nicer, smarter plant is the wrong way to go. You and your Tea Party neo-con war mongers just want to take everything you can during your time here on the planet, to hell with what's left behind. As long as were making a profit, it's all good and if you don't agree with us, we'll bomb you until you agree with us. PS: Why do people like you have to turn everything into a political thing? There are conservative and liberal farmers and consumers. Your paranoia is a disturbing trend among the crazies on both sides.
thank you pm, for so perfectly putting into words what many of us are thinking here! these types of "it's my world and I will do to it what I want" are tragically degrading the planet for the rest of us.
It's fun to see crazies like you lose an argument. They always make some political comment totally unrelated to throw people off from the fact they had to stick their foot in their mouth. :)
Now watch as the price of pork begins escalating. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to start shooting more feral hogs. They live their lives in harmony with nature and are happy as pigs in, well, poop, right up until the moment that bullet puts 'em on a plate.
As an aside, JMV needs to stick to eating beavers. It'll keep her quieter that way, too.
Stop – your making me hungry. Best pork chop I ever had was a wild hog cooked low & slow on hardwood charcoal.
Darn right. None of that fat gristle crap you find on a domestic pig. Or at least not as much of it.
Not many of you have see aggressive sows eating baby pigs. By isolating them death loss has been minimized. Yes, that increases profits. Then the animal activist would be on the farmers to prevent cannibalism. Trust me you would be more upset watching that than a sow in a gestation stall. Also, nutrition is extremly important. I am inovlved with agriculture and most farms have nutritionists that they work with on monthly if not weekly basis making sure that the rations are sutited for the animal in whatever stage of life they are at. If all of you sheeples looked at what you out into your bodies and talked to nutritionists maybe then we wouldn't be such an obese nation
Wow, I really don't care. I'll simply buy whatever is cheapest.
Animal welfare, eh? Don't we have bigger fish to fry?
Oh darn, what a cruel turn of phrase. Heh. Get a hobby, PETArds.
Perhaps you should try living in a gestation crate.
It's could to be at the top of the food chain, no?
Kimberly...WE ARE HUMANS...top of the food chain. This is what god or evolution, whatever you believe I don't want to make this religious, has created. So when you say, "go live in a gestation create" it makes no sense. I just don't get you hippy tree huggers that want to bring us down to an animals levels. THEY ARE ANIMALS, WE ARE HUMANS...WE ARE NOT ON THE SAME LEVEL.
I'm not saying that people should be allowed to go around and kick their pets if they are having a bad day, but this is for our survival. This is a way that we can enjoy a nice pork chop at a price most people could afford. To me that is much more important than a pig being able to stretch its legs every now and then.
Also don't give me "we could live on fruits and berries"...once god or evolution removes my incisors I will start thinking about that, but the last time I checked I still have mine.
Wouldn't want to go gettin' religious on us Darth...but politicizing everything is o.k. Becasue YOU are always right.
Well, he did list a lot of things that are going to be hard to disprove. Go ahead and try though, I just expect more whining and name throwing on CNN though.
unfortunately DarthPug is of the anthrocentric mindset that has got us into the mess we are in right now. fortunately, others are capable of looking at things more holistically and know that what affects one, affects all, and yes D.P. and Lee S. affecting animals, humans and plants alike. Because last time I checked we all share the planet.
And may I say that "eating a nice pork chop from time to time" can NOT be equated with needs for survival. It is luxury, pure and simple, and it comes with a higher price than what the tag at the grocery store reflects.
Hey, could you enlighten me on what you are using your appendix for? It's obviously there for a good reason, right?!
kind of looks like my cubicle..except I get in trouble for lying down........
LOL that's awesome! Just made me spit out my water.
What is wrog with treating 'our food' humanely?
Maybe we should, as a nation, focus on issues that have real-world significance and not ones that will only make animal enthusiasts feel all warm and fluffy.
Cruelty is interconnected at multiple levels.
the belief in the existence of an all-pervasive Divinity throughout the universe creates an attitude of reverence, benevolence and compassion for all animate and inanimate beings. This equals ahimsa, non-hurtfulness. The belief in the duality of heaven and hell, the white forces and the dark forces, creates the attitude that we must be on our guard, and that we are justified in giving injury, physically and emotionally to others whom we judge to be bad, pagan or unworthy for other reasons. Such thinking leads to rationalizing so-called righteous wars and conflicts.
@heroicSLUGtest. The only thing warm and fluffy about you is that ol' raggy baby blanket you carry around in yer backpack. I have a curlin' iron you might stick in yer mouth, to help you with gettin' over suckin' yer thumb. Ya gotta plug it in first.
Why did you read this article if it sparks no interest for you?
You say we should focus on bigger issues, but you yourself are focusing on animal enthusiasts, as you say. Maybe a different article would be best for you to discuss, something more in line with what you are passionate about.
What an awful thing to say. I have nothing to do with PETA-whatever gave you the idea that even meateaters don't want to hear about animals being abused and this is abuse no question. You can try to salve your conscience saying you'll eat whatever is cheapest but we are here charged to care for animals as well as other people. Even if you care nothing for humane treatment of animals you might at least consider that meat from sick or abused creatures will not taste as good. People who don't care about treating animals humanely are often the same ones who go on to torture and kill people in the future as per the horible recent event in Canada.
Your boys Bush and his neo-cons are ok with torturing people, so if it is o.k. for the leader of the free world to torture humans, why should we worry about hogs that are only bred for our consumption?
@heroicSLUGtest – I have some left over wallpaper on a roll you can have. Got little dancing pigs with bibs, holding knives and forks pattern on it. (sort'a gives me nightmares).
Glad I stopped eating red meat over 20 years ago. Not that poultry is so clean, but it at least limits me down to one source of potential bad meat.
Pork isn't red meat. That would be beef.
Well, it's pink. Close enough I suspect.
People like you, just suck man... There's a little child in you that is hurting real bad and the only way to feel better is to think and act the way you do. Seriously get help....
Lol, what?
When most (at least me) people say red meat they mean pork and beef.
Pork is actually a very healthy meat. Chicken is more prone to being "bad"
Pork and poultry are considered "white meats". Lamb, beef, and game meats (venison) are in the "red meat" category.
you've been watching too many pork industry commercials. it is not, in fact, the "other white meat."
"Thou shall not kill". There is no mention of "unless it tastes good" Temptation is a tool of evil, and while I will agree bacon sure is tempting, we need to resist things like it if we want to call ourselfs the most intelligent beings on this world.
As the most intelligent beings, it is our right to do with the other lifeforms as we please.
Misrepresenting garbage from old books is a poor way to frame your argument.
Besides, didn't those characters sacrifice goats and sheep to their big bad sky daddy on like every other page?
I thought we were also moral creatures, and that's what seperated us from the beasts? Even Sagan warned against anthropocentrism. Wisen up.
Intelligence separates us from the beasts.
Morality is realative, and a function of culture.
Sagan warned against anthropocentrism in the sense that, as stewards of the world, we need to take other creatures into account. I take this to mean no harming wildlife, habitat, endangered species, etc.
Farm animals are food, and their QoL is irrelevant to everyone. Some pretend otherwise. That's okay, I guess.
Don't try to pretend you know what you're talking about now. I've already read some of your other comments.
I assure you, I don't pretend to know anything.
I'm not even sure how that would work. Lol.
You have definitely left yourself out of "most intelligent beings" pool based on your comments.
Actually, God gave man dominion over all of the beasts of the earth. Animals and plants are to be used for food. If you are going to use an argument from the bible, you should read the whole thing so you understand what you are talking about.
Actually, what most people don't realize is the 'dominion' part is disputed to be a mistranslation and actually means 'stewardship'. Of course, Christians will never take that much responsibility. It's a lot easier to pray and pretend God or Jesus will take care of it.
I am sure God meant thou shalll not kill HUMANS, but since your fairy tale book is open to all sorts of interpretation, I guess you might have a point...if you believe in 2000 year old stories to subgegate the meek.
Happy animals fed their natural diet and allowed to move make for better tasting food. Higher production is great and all, but there's very real money to be made in producing a higher quality product too. It's the difference between off-brand value chicken and something you'd buy at Whole Paycheck.
How can you tell if an animal is happy, especially right before you kill it for food ?
I'm a vegetarian fairy! God save the animals! I especially love sheep, but in a carnal way. The way I love animals is illegal in most states.
you're an idiot.
If you love sheep in 'that way', you probably have Syphillis by now. Next, we'll all be hearin' you like doin' Koala Bears.
Industrial food.
Bigger cities get more efficent farms need to be to feed us.
Not like we'd haul our fat buts out and get our own food anyway.
To people who think it's perfectly OK to confine pregnant animals in cells so small that they cannot turn around or lie down comfortably or take a single step forward or backward or escape the stench of their own and their neighbors' waste for the entire length of their pregnancies, I ask: How would YOU like to be pregnant and so confined? We are not so very different.
The real problem is that animal farmers try to cram WAY too many animals in the smallest space imaginable to make the most profit possible. Protecting profits (not pigs) is foremost on a factory farmer's mind. When animals are crowded together for months on end in barren, foul, dimly-lit sheds, naturally there will be some aggression and hostility from the extreme stress and boredom. Picture a roomful of humans crowded together, elbow to elbow, in a too small space for months at a time with no escape, no fresh air, and no place but the floor to relieve themselves. Aggression and hostility begin to make sense. We are not so very different.
Given enough space to walk around; breathe fresh air; feel the sun; gather leaves, twigs, and grasses; build a nest; bear and protect her young as nature intended, a sow would rarely, if ever, squash or smother her young as factory farmers say they do if not separated from their young with iron bars. Nor would a sow cannibalize her infants if her biological needs for privacy and space are respected.
No, the problem is with animal farmers–not with the animals. It's time for gestation crates AND farrowing stalls to go and for the mass confinement of too many animals in too small of spaces to end. Factory farming is cruel and inhumane and the vast American public knows this. Americans want humane treatment of all animals, including animals raised for food, and food suppliers are responding by refusing to support the cruelest of animal farming practices.
You are spot on! I raise heritage hogs, and treating a sow and her offspring this way is wrong wrong wrong. My sow is always tremendously careful around her piglets, taking special care to not crush or step on them. Nature has made most sows excellent mothers, if they are treated with kindness, dignity, and respect, and given space to roam and rear their young as well as an opportunity to exercise their natural pig behavior, including living in a herd. Treating animals this way is about GREED and PROFIT. If consumers continue to support this through out purchase of "cheap" food, then consumers are as responsible as if they put these animals in these gestation crates themselves. A culture that treats animals this way is going to treat human beings with the same level of cruelty and callousness.
So why does "your way" of farming work on your farm but not others? Just as stalls work well on some other farms regardless of size. We are not pigs and they don't talk, type or read, so don't tell us what YOU think pigs want. WE DON'T KNOW.
Likely because she gives her sow what she needs to be a good mother, and doesn't treat her as if she were a piglet assembly-line. It's the stress of confinement factory farming that causes these sows to kill and injure their young. Turned outside and given plenty of room to roam about, the destructive, violent behaviors go away.
People are a higher form of life than animals, and as such have rights and legal standing.
Animals are here to feed us, amuse us, and to serve as pets, guards, and hunting partners.
Any other view on the matter is one not grounded in reality, and therefore a distortion.
If a pig that is going to be slaughtered anyway is held in a confined space, it is OK by me.
I think it's best if you put down the lighter fluid, it ain't made fer drinkin'.
What is disappointing about this is how social media can be used to twist the truth to achieve big salaries for activest groups that represent a small % of the population. And in the end, the activest will be wealthier while the rest of us will have to pay more for food while we all ask "Why are more people hungry and our food cost is higher". All becuase we have brought value of human life DOWN to the level of animal's. Treat animals with repspect not rights which most farmers do. If you want to make a difference, start working on HUMAN causes, not animals.
When humanity isn't such an embarrassment I'll start caring more. But reading the posts on this article alone completely reinstates how stupid, ignorant, hateful and disgusting humans really are. I wouldn't stop to help the majority of you if I was the last person available. The world could use a little less hateful human beings.
well put WGA!
Again that false logic that those who care about animal welfare do not care about human welfare and it has to be either/or. One is directly connected to the other, you ignorant imcompassionate fool. Please list the human charities you donated to or volunteering you did last year. Color me surprised if you did anything for mankind out of the goodness of your own heart.
"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being."
–Abraham Lincoln
Do your part and stop eating you fat pig. Maybe you'll save a sow by trying not to be a sow.
Consumers, this is our responsibility, not the farmers. The farmers will do whatever we demand. Vote with your money by making ethical food choices. Keep the pressure on big corporate farms.
Agreed. The consumer holds all the power. And I do mean all.
Americans have been doing that, in addition to making better choices, pork demand has gone down too. The problem is they are sending live piglets to other countries like China. China has a pig problem(I know shocking), they are wiping out there own animals. Not only is it cruel to send live baby animals over there, the price of pork will eventually skyrocket in this country because China will pay more for it.
Lila, what you say may be true. Unfortunately one cannot control actions of others, but by spreading the word and doing your part, a difference can be made. It's also unfortunate that if one were to post this to their FB or Twitter account, it would get no response. Yet if I post that I am out [insert any activity here], and I get comments, likes and replies all over the place!
There's a hysterical video out there of two guys in a garage with a live pig. They spread plastic all over the garage floor, then while one guy runs the video camera, the other guy goes up to the pig and shoots it in the head. The pig drops to the floor, stunned, but still alive. Then the guy grabs a chain saw and cuts the pig's head off while the legs kick wildly. Even after the head is off, the legs keep kicking and the torso starts making its way around the garage while the guys are laughing. It really is a funny video.
Pork, the other white meat!
You are disgusting.
I feel you are trying to rile us up. I feel nothing but pity for you, since you have obviously never befriended a pig or even have an iota of empathy in your body. I wish for you what you wish for others.
Do German prisons allow internet access?
I assume you strangled kittens as a child.
That would be cruel. I would set them afloat on a piece of wood on the lake and throw rocks at them.
I'd like to see you danglin' over the canal out back and see if a gator takes a bite outta yer bottom.
Sounds like something I'd love to do to an ignorant arrogant d%^&bag like you carl . Would LOVE the opportunity but you will prob die of some other cancerous disease you are deserving of. What polluted your mothers womb so bad as to offer you to the world?
There's a hysterical video out there of two guys in a garage with a live pig. They spread plastic all over the garage floor, then while one guy runs the video camera, the other guy goes up to the other guy and shoots him in the head. The lifeless bast@rd then drops to the floor, stunned, but still alive. Then the guy grabs a chain saw and cuts the other guys head off while the legs kick wildly. Even after the head is off, the legs keep kicking and the torso starts making its way around the garage while the guy is laughing. It really is a funny video.
Hot Carl, yes, that'd be you, the lifeless one.
My grandparents had a farm. Once, I saw pig slaughter – once throat is slit nothing moves. Sorry, your post is fabrication and intended to upset.
And you should go hide in a hole where you crawled from.
Zima, the video is out there, all you have to do is look. Ever see a chicken run around without its head? Your comment is obvious BS.
Videos can be fabricated too. yes, I saw chicken's body flap around after head is cut off, but not running.
Zima, I swear, the pig runs around, out of the garage, steals the guys' car and crashes it, then jumps a fence and molests a dog before running into an intersection and being taken out by a bus.
Everyone, please ignore Hot Carl and he will eventually go away.
Um......how about, no?
That pig is smarter than your dog. They form family bonds, feel pain, are freightened and can remember.
If you wouldn't eat your dog – you should be eating pigs of any sort.
Industrial farming practices are barbaric and should be outlawed. Animal meat should be so expensive as to make it all but un-affordable for most meals.
Absolute rubbish.
My dog ate a pig.
Thing is, both your dog and the average pig are smarter than Hot Carl.
Sorry guys, this is true – pigs are as intelligent as dogs. Look it up.
Just because an animal is smart doesn't stop me form eating it. I do however buy all my meat at the farmers market where I can talk to the people who raised it and I feel that they have done so in a natural, humaine way. All animals are intelligent to varying levels. That won't make me a vegetarian.
Good for you Phil, now go and say ten rosearies an 20 hail mary's...you're still a sinner...if you believe all that non-sense.
Thats like saying you are less retarded than the other people on here defending animals.
Mmmm, hot delicious murder. I love meat, and I don't care how it gets to my plate.
Your roomate told me you don't use plates. He showed me the bite marks on his face.
Of course sows confined to group housing will fight. The key word is "confined." You can take any group of adolescent pregnant animals (humans included), cram them together in a space barely adequate for one, have them compete for resources (including space), and you can BET that they will fight and harm each other and their offspring. That is NOT, however, sufficient justification for gestation OR farrowing crates. If anything, it merely points out that what we are doing to these animals is unnatural and inhumane. We can, and should, do better. Ceasing the "production" of pigs for food is an excellent start.
I use to turn sows out into a pasture to have their babies and raise their young in the open. I can tell you that having done this in both confinement and in a pasture you will find that sows in the pasture are by far and away more aggressive and mean. They are down right dangerous in the open.
I grew up on a Hog farm. we always took good care of both the sows and piglets. We ran a very Humaine operation, and yes we had gestation crates! Today I am a cattle farmer, I've had to make very tough decisions concern the health of my livestock. I always try and do right by the animal. It's not always easy, you weak city people probably wouldn't last one calving season! It's alot of responsibilty being a farmer 24/7 365 days a year. People who don't understand agriculture would be much better off just keeping your mouth shut!!
if we're the ones buying it and eating it, we don't have to keep our mouths shut.
I'm a network systems operations engineer and I work 24×7 – 365 days a year.
You country people have no idea what it takes to ensure all the things taken for granted in the 21st century remain operational.
With out our hard work and dedication the world would fall back to the stoneage.
And the farmers would still have food why people in the city starve to death. Good luck with that one.
This is funny. Start off by proclaiming 'humane', and then end by being angry at people. Love it. !!
People who understand that it is UNNECESSARY to enslave, torture, and slaughter animals for food will be far better off. I NEVER heard of ANYONE who died, got cancer, heart disease, from eating too much broccoli. Meat is UNNECESSARY PERIOD... Yes we love the taste but as a result of our arrogant ignorant cultural habits we have ignored a way of life that we would NEVER allow to be inflicted upon our pets nor would we let our children watch the videos of the making of their food. How odd isnt it? Most animal rights videos showing what REALLY happens to our food require age verif but you can see just about anything else.. VERY interesting.. ask yourself WHY?? $$$$$$$
Humans are "hunter-gatherers" Humans have been hunting animals for millions of years, to survive. Same as a bear, humans are omniverous. We are also at the top of the food chain. Just becasue food production makes your 21st century sensabilities squirm, it doesn't make it wrong. If you don't want to eat meat, that's fine, but don't feel superior to the rest of us . You are making a choice. So are the rest of us. Live and let live.
People that have never seen their food in it's unprocessed state, have no idea what it takes to produce food for the masses. I respect our farmers and ranchers and the tough decisions they make everyday. Maybe if those demanding things be done a certain way were the ones having to implement that idea, they would have some idea of what it takes and takes out of our food producers.
It amazes me that we have become so politically correct that even our food now has rights.
And it's only going to get worse if the liberals have their way. Imagine, animals having more rights than people? Vote them all out in November and let's get back to the REAL issues that are driving this country to the level of Mexico.
Right, the important issue is getting the tea party out of our lives and government..... Let's just get to doing that first, then the rest should be easier.
Hot Carl, yer a little wilted between the ears. Way past yer 'Sell-by/Use-by dates'. Jump on down from yer shelf and hop into the bin,..we'll take ya out to the curb on trash day.
It is a living creature, for haven's sake. It has feelings, it feels pain. What is wrong with treating them humanely?
Willy- No, we are just trying turn back the clock 100 years or so to the days before factory farming when food animals were raised in a more natural way. They only thing I want coming from a factory is my car...not my food.
Just because animals do not have the brain capacity that we humans do does, NOT mean that we have dominion over them and have a right to abuse them. The fact that they are here and have provided sustenance for humans means we should treat them with respect and dignity while they are alive and gratitude when they are killed to provide us food, as we should with all of nature. Humans, animals, and the natural world form a symbiotic circle. If you cause pain and suffering to one aspect of this circle, everyone and everything is eventually affected. In the end, what goes around, comes around in some form or fashion.
EFF U! A-H^&LE! I cannot wait for the day when the ALMIGHTY puts you in a gestation crate and then lets the pigs at you. You are the type of evil that is soon to be removed from this earth.
puckles, calm down and have a burger already. You need a little more iron and red meat in your blood. Sounds like daddy didn't beat you enough when you were a kid.
Wow. What makes us talk to each other like this? Would you let your children say something like this to anyone? I wish we could be more civil.
MMMMMMMMMMMM......BACON!!!!!!!!
These conditions are the result of an ever increasingly high demand. Farmers are pressured to produce more product at a lower cost just to be able to survive. We must, as a society, decide the animal welfare and environmental and health costs of continuing to consume pork is too great to continue and make the humane, healthy, and right decision to no longer eat the flesh of other animals. Even if you aren't some animal-lover hippie, surely you can appreciate the environmental cost of a factory farm that slaughters 30,000 pigs a day? The waste all those pigs produce? The energy these farms consume? The bacteria, parasites, and germs that are replete through a factory farm? Hey, I get it. My family still has a farm out in the country where my grandfather raises beef cows. His operation is small, so his cows are free range and live a normal cow life – sustaining on grass they eat from the fields and not the corn substitute diet most factory farms give their cattle ... Even still, I believe society would benefit from relying less on the beef, pork, and poultry industries for their food stuffs.
First, if you don't like the way the animals are treated then don't buy pork! The farmers keep them caged like that because they are producing litters which makes them more money. When a woman is stressed during preg terms, they risk the loss of the baby. Pigs are the same and these farmers do not want to risk the sows losing any of the litter due to the aggressive nature of the animal.
F U A-HOLE! I cannot wait for the day when the ALMIGHTY puts you in a gestation crate and then lets the pigs at you. You are the type of evil that is soon to be removed from this earth.
When will people like you just die?
male bovine poop to that observation. sows are kept in gestation crates because it maximizes profits .that's all the entire food supply business is about. it costs more money to give animals even one minute of anything resembling a life without pain and fear. I can't eat meat because when I see and smell it, my stomach turns knowing its history.
Yes and no. A gestation crate does improve profits...but only because it is minimizing loss...both financially and from an animal welfare perspective. I personally know a family that moved from conventional style sow operation to being a main supplier of a branded pork product for Whole Foods. When they moved away from gestation and farrowing crates, they went from averaging 9 piglets per littler to 3. That means on average, 6 PIGLETS WERE KILLED because they went away from them or sows had natural abortions due to increased stress. And these were new sows that had never been in a gestation crate before so there was no transitional effect. It does come down to money, but when your death rate increases by that large of margin, its tough to argue it from a welfare perspective as well.
EFF U A-H%&LE! I cannot wait for the day when the ALMIGHTY puts you in a gestation crate and then lets the pigs at you. You are the type of evil that is soon to be removed from this earth.
As usual, this is really about money, less resources, more profit...
I also sell cookbooks.
Please google Joel Salatin and read about his operation which does farming the right way. His Poly Face farm is beyond fantastic. The food he raises is of the highest possible quality and the animals live a great life.
The entire industry is changing for both good & bad. The crates will go away, but vet costs for injuries to the pigs by other pigs will go up. More regulations will be set to keep animals from being in too small of pens. Prices will go up for those that don't really understand how the meat gets in thier kitchen. All they see are articles like this and want things changed, they never do get the entire picture.
Some states have passed laws that no longer allow pig farmers to raise stock in open fields because they might get out becoming wild. One farmer had all of his pigs killed, under one of these laws, when state authorities came onto his property to shoot them all because they had some brown or black on the them. Now even small farms are restricted right out of business.
Animal right activists will end up helping government legislate the small farmer out of existance. Hope you like everything state owned & operated, that's where we are heading.
Nonsense, we still have all the power. Get out, meet your local farmers, and demand their products. Vote with your dollars and time.
The quality of life an animal has while it is raised has a direct result in the quality of the meat of the animal. For an animal to produce nutritious meat, the animal needs to be able to live the way it evolved to live, and it needs to spend much of its time outdoors breathing in fresh, clean air, enjoying the sunshine, and exercising. I raise chickens and the quality of eggs and meat my chickens produce is vastly superior to anything you can get in the supermarket. If people had any idea how terrible the factory farmed meat they buy in supermarkets is, they wouldn't put up with it. But since people don't know any better, they keep ingesting the poor quality meat produced by these inhumane methods. It is much better to have a few ounces of terrific meat than it is a pound of the poor stuff that the supermarkets and factory farms produce.
Do you honestly thing these farmers care about nutrition?! Are you flipping RETARDED? Its about the almighty $!
Many local farmers around the country care 1st and foremost about the product they produce. The money follows when they concentrate on that.
The Poly Face farm produces income of 3,000 dollars an acre while his neighbor only produces 150.
Outstanding!
I get all my eggs form someone local myself. The eggs are superior in every possible way plus she only charges me 2 bucks per dozen which is cheaper than the stores.
You are so right, Daniel. Organic or locally farm raised meat and produce tastes so much better and is so much healthier! Organic and naturally produced food is becoming more and more reasonable in price. If you care about your health and want to prevent most of the cardiovascular diseases out there, change the quality of your diet and rid yourselves of the chemicals and toxins in processed foods!
You don't know that. People have said that for years but 1) Even in simple taste test people can't tell the difference, and YES I have tried this with "people who know the differnece" 2) Everyone flavors how they want. So don't lie about what you can't prove.
Nope he ain't lyin' about the better taste.. So, Janet, jest fer fun we're are gonna blindfold y'all an see if you can tell the difference 'tween an eyeball and a grape.
This is the reason I turned myself to be vegetarian.
You do not have to adopt an eating disorder to eat responsibly. I hope that you do not damage your health by failing to eat properly. As you may know, our nutritional needs, dentition, and the structure of our digestive system show beyond a doubt that we are supposed to eat meat.
Incorrect.
What we know is that our bodies require a vast number of vitamins minerals and amino acids. There are nine essential amino acids that make a complete protein for our body. Our bodies even store amino acids to eventually combine them when needed. All of which can be found in vegetables.
The point that Hostrel is makiing is that comparing humans to other mammals, our digestive tracts are more similar to meat eaters than vegetarian animals. Evolution gave us the ability to eat both, but mother nature rarely makes mistakes or we wouldn't be here. Your response, although it might be accurate, is missing the point. Humans digestive tracts have evolved to resemble an omnivore or meat eater, more than a vegetarian animal. Don't know what that has to do with amino acids...
Let me make it clear that I find the practice described in the article despicable and for lack od a better word, inhuman. That some animals are treated this way does not justify vegetarianism, which is an eating disorder. You can find meat that isn't produced this way.
Good for you...you help contribute to the destruction of natural habitats everywhere. In South Africa..big game animals are being shot everyday and their natural habitat destroyed to make room for more vegetable farms....their is nothing worse than self righteous vegetarians.
Meat requires 10 times the land to produce vs the same amount of vegetarian food. If America cut back 10% on meat, the grain left over from the feed yards would make up for the food with no extra land being farmed. In addition to that, the left over grain would also be enough to feed every human on earth who is currently starving. Becoming a vegetarian cuts approximately 90% from your global environmental impact.
Did you even think for one second "Hey, what do all the animals on farms eat?".
While you are correct on the space needed to grow animals vs plants, the majority of the "uneaten" grain would not feed humans. THe majority (not all) of feed grain grown is not fit for human consumption. We would need to plant other things. ....which is quite doable, I'm sure.
I became a vegetarian because I hate plants.
Seriously, I became a vegetarian in 1986. So far, I have not died from nutritional problems.
Make sure you get plenty of protein. Rice, beans, soy, free range eggs etc. Take a good vegetarian multi-vitamin and so on.
In the last year I have missed 0 days of work due to illness. Since 2007, I missed 2.5 days. That's an average of 4 hours per year. Not one of my meat eating co-workers came close to that.
...people use sick days for illness now?
Think about this.
From the studies of University of Illinois animal geneticists Lawrence Schook,
"We took the human genome, cut it into 173 puzzle pieces and rearranged it to make a pig," said Schook. "Everything matches up perfectly. The pig is genetically very close to humans."
We can use pig arteries and transplant them into human subjects without the body rejecting them. Why? Because they are so similar, our body does not recognize it as foreign and accepts the artery as its own. The genetic make up is just that close.
Eating the flesh from a pig, who has the sentient understandings of a 3 year old child, is just short of cannibalism. Its more like cannibalism's cousin.
Yeah sorry no, it isn't.
Making a claim without some kind of logical backing of some sort is verbal masturbation.
You are the one who claimed it was cannibalism, which is 100% incorrect. I simply called you on it.
"Yeah sorry no, it isn't."
Is a claim. And you offer no logic behind your claim. Now grab your spankerchief and get off the interwebs before you break something.
Nope, not a claim, it's a fact.
Eating pork is nothing like cannibalism, period.
So typing out the word "period" leads you to believe that your claim holds more weight? That is just sad, and silly.
Whats it like to live in a world where facts are so just because you say they are? It seems awfully smug to me.
Primal, not according to cannibals. They say human meat tastes almost the same as pig meat. And they would be in a position to know.
Its because we are mammals and share a common ancestor somewhere along the way. You could say the same thing about many other animals.
People just like to spout off that we're better'n animals even though we are animals ourselves. They're really gonna be surprised when they find the missin' link. Sitll, those folks have never explained how a snake can climb a tree without arms and legs – how butterflies can travel thousands of miles from their place of birth to return to the very same branch they were born on – how individual whales make up a new song every year – that dogs and monkies were flyin' in space vehicles before us. We owe all creatures respect. That is the sign of real intelligence.
Sorry.. But until pigs ARE 3 year old children, then eating them is not like and will never be like "cannibalism".
Case in Point: JCD....."Thank You"
The more I learn about how animals are bred and treated to later become food the more I commit to being a vegetarian. How can we possibly bring into our bodies the dead flesh of an animal that has been abused, that has suffered, that has been contained. We are consuming that; and we are what we eat!
Why not instead visit some local farms and get to know their operations? I get all my animal products that way and they are far better than anything at the super market. Very healthy and delicious plus it supports the local economy.
Pigs are too smart, and I suspect they suffer more in captivity than other animals. They can pick things up with their front trotters and look at them, and curious animals with a way to grasp interesting things are usually smart enough to be bored. Cows and chickens are as stupid as watermelons and deserve to be eaten, but I'm a bit squeamish about swine.
U deserve to be eaten. Tortured first.
I have this little ol' chipped piggy bank to give ya, honey. Yer gonna need to save up and buy some people skills. Either that or, take yerself to the doctor. You could try puttin' some aspirin 'tween yer knees, I know those Republicans think it's good for birth control, and such. Don't think it would work for that, though.
Why does it matter? if the things going to be eaten anyway... if someone was treating their pet this way that'd be one thing, but there are commodities to be slaughtered for food and sale. As long as its quality of life doesn't make it sick or endanger the consumers who will eat the pic, it shouldn't really matter. Once it becomes a health/safety concern for people, then get up in arms. I don't see the point in making a fuss for the quality of life for a pig for slaughter
Maybe because pigs are intelligent beings with the ability to feel stress and pain, and the least we can do is ensure their comfort while they are alive.
The least YOU as a human can do is put your money towards feeding HUMANS in need. As long as millions of PEOPLE are being treated worse than most animals in these farms, welfare of HUMAN beings should be your first priority. NOT ANIMALS meant for CONSUMPTION!!!!!
It enrages me to think people would dedicate this much effort towards the welfare of animals when your own species is in need of help!
Our species would be helped more by diverting crops that are now being used to feed billions of animals to people who are starving. Meat production is wasteful of land, water and energy. And who says that animals "are meant for consumption"? Not the animals, that's for sure.
Ever think that people don't view the world as narrowly as you do?
Do you really think your life has any more value than a pig? In vast stretches of the cosmos do you think your life holds that much weight?
You see the problem of having such an egotistical and arrogant perspective is it puts your idea of man on a pedestal. As if we are special among the stars. You are not a special and unique snowflake. You do not hold more importance to other "animals" of this planet. For the record, humans are animals.
All sentient life should have freedom. Get off your god complex.
"God complex"? lol – are you seriously going to argue that ALL animals are at the same intellectual and spiritual capacity as humans? If you are truly making that argument, then you are in your own league because I am not part of that sub-group of our species, and I can bring along millions that will not stand with you.
You are also falsely classifying animals in general as "sentient". There is no proof for or against non-human animals being sentient, therefore your argument just falls apart at its source. But for the sake of arguing lets say that pigs are sentient, then why do you think they dont collectively fight back against persecution? Why dont they unionize and protest the mistreatment of their species or sub-species? Why do they not communicate with anyone other than an old lady with tarrot cards?
My problem is not with treating animals better. My problem is while there is bigger fish to fry, this is a non-issue. Sentient beings that have positively proven by objective scientific evidence to be sentient (humans) need help all over the world. Forgive me if asking for help first for humans dying in wars, starvation, government persecution is evidence of "God Complex" to you. If that is the case, then I do exhibit signs of that.
Wow, .....no.
You are assuming that everyone defines value as intellectual and spiritual capacity. Don't do that. It is a quite subjective term you see. No where in my statement did I make the claim that "ALL animals are at the same intellectual and spiritual capacity as humans." So lets stick with what I did say, cool?
As for proof of sentient thought, you tube search for:
PIGS PLAYING VIDEO GAMES!
Dog Saves Road-Injured Dog
Amazing Apes: Self-awareness (1/2)
Watch in exactly that order.
Pigs don't fight back against persecution, and are incapable of using tarrot cards for the same reason a 3 year old children (who are of the same intelligence level as a mature pig) do not collectively fight back against parental control nor read your palm. When is the last time you heard of a 3 year old talking about holding a strike with other 3 year olds?
that's the dumbest arguement I've ever heard. In that case, why provide anything to any living being? We're all going to die someday. Some of us from natural death, others from accidents, illness, homicide... Why don't we all live in 2' x 7' cells?
I'm not sure whether there is a right way or wrong way to raise hogs, but when I visited my first pig farm a month or two ago, I learned a lot talking to the farmer. A post that shows my thoughts about the inside of the barns is here http://janiceperson.com/food/pigs-farm-hog-barn-ordering-dominos-pizza/ My brother has a small coop farm and raises a couple of pigs without crates. To me, both of them care for the pigs and want to be sure the animals are treated well throughout their lives.
I think no one should condem this unless they are a hog farmer and no the real story. They are treated just fine and the quality of life is not as bad as people, that have no idea, think. Lets keep in mind they are an animal not a human being. They like to say when a human is caged up that it is being treated like an animal, well that is usually what animals are is caged up. I think some of you people need to get a life and worry about your own instead of someone elses welfare. This is our bread and butter and everyone always wants to pick the farmer apart, if this stuff keeps happening in the U.S. we will surely suffer as a people!!
Pigs and people are very similar. We have the same anatomy, physiology, proteins, lipids, brain structure and behaviors. Many antibodies directed against pig proteins will cross react with our own homologue of that protein. When a pig or person is pinched, they will flinch and vocalize their pain. We are all animals and we react in the same way. Your comment, Terry, is no different than the rediculous belief held by dentists in the 1940s and 50s that children don't feel pain and don't need any anesthesia or analgesia because they aren't fully developled. There is an entire generation of people in their 70s who are afraid to visit the dentist because of cruel acts perpetrated by idiot people who didn't bother to think. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Because I am not a famer I can't empathize with an animal? Humans are animals too. This is not your bread and butter, this is a lifestyle choice. I chose to be vegetarian/vegan. It is easy to think animals have not feelings or thoughts, but if you have ever owned and loved a pet, you know animals have just as much personality and desires as anyone. Being considerate about the welfare of other living things will create a better life for all. Why can't they run around? Animals were not made in cages. Humans put them there. Animals in cages is about as natural as a car. Free range organic meat is healthier for people anyway. Then again, the irony comes from people eating horrible quality of meat in a large amount and eventually dying of cancer and heart disease. Don't see the link? Animals fight back.
BLAH BLAH... at the end of the day we're not talking about dogs and cats! If pigs are so smart and intelligent then why are they not putting us in cages! Its called the food chain....we have evolved to the point where we have the ability to cage these animals in a humane way. Go put your penny in a jar that will help HUMANS suffering in this world. Once you have solved human suffering, I will pay more attention to other species.
What are your feelings about puppy mills? Those are widely condemned because of the treatment of the dogs in conditions very similar to what these pigs go through. Or what about dogfighting? They've bred pitbulls into monsters to favor the breed's aggression as attack dogs. And hey, why not just throw a sack of unwanted kittens onto the highway? I mean, they're just animals, who cares, right?
The hierarchy that Americans have placed on animals is ridiculous. Abuse is abuse. People would be arrested if they treated a dog the way the food industry standard raises pigs.
The whole process is nasty. Read your Bible. We aren't supposed to eat pigs.
If the bible is supposed to be a rule book for every day things such as eating why hasnt it been updated to include things such as computer use, road etiquette etc? Just wondering
Pretty sure yer ma and pop didn't read the owners manual when y'all was born. That's gotta be it.
I'm not a vegan, but I will not consume pork.
I just can't eat a critter thats more intelligent that most humans I encounter.
Yeah, I worry about eating something that smart. Chickens? Fry 'em up. But pigs kinda worry me.
As a farmer myself I have committed to getting rid of these gestation crates. Starting with the newest piglets we started raising them in our house like little puppies. They are the best of friends with my family. We really like to take them out shopping with us. People really love the sight. The best part of all of this is not only do we get to have new, loving members of our family, but once we slaughter and eat them, the taste is fabulous. Pet pigs taste better!!
You are an ass.
No, he's a TROLL.
I would love to have all the animals i eat be hand fed, taken for walks and general made to feel postivie about the fact thier life's purpose is to make me full. But i also like not haveing to pay $45 for a pork chop. There must be a compromise in whats humane and whats an acceptable level of "we are raising them to be eaten not be my friend" housing conditions. I wont go in depth on the whole "to eat meat or not to eat meat" since hey if you dont like meat thats fine but dont touch my plate....hmmmm now where can i get a double 1/4 lb bald eagle burger with baby seal sauce?
It is not about not liking meat, it is about not wanting what goes into my body to be dead flesh that rots in my intestines. It is about not wanting to manufacture food that can be found in nature. It is about treating living things with respect and dignity. I am not saying everyone should be vegetarian, but you should know there is things you can do that don't include reading your stock bedtime stories. It is about giving them better quality of food, more space to move, to actually have a life and respect that they bring you an income, rather than look at them as objects to be moved through a processing plant. The fact that we are asking they move around does not translate to asking extreme measures.
I cannot fathom how you believe that meat "rots" in our intestines. Where on earth is the scientific evidence for that? Please cite a legitimate article from PubMed, not a vegan propaganda website. K thx.
I cannot fathom how you believe that meat "rots" in our intestines. Where on earth is the scientific evidence for that? Please cite a legitimate article from PubMed, not a vegan propaganda website. K thx.
Based on the poll results, it would appear that the majority of people who even bother to read the article and vote are animal rights activists. These very same people would probably be up in arms if children weren't restrained in playpens and car seats for their own protection and will denounce the "greedy" farmers and supermarkets who have to charge more for the unrestrained pig pork.
Did you read what you wrote?
Up in arms if a child is not in a car seat? The fact that you even bring that up as some kind of grey area issue clearly states that you are an idiot.
so your advocating children should be restrained in their child safety seats for a lifetime?
Pigs are not pets. Outside of a few potbellied pigs, most pigs would not exist if it werent for farmers raising them for their delicious meat. Gestation crates exist to prevent other pigs from biting their ears, biting their tails, and preventing weaker pigs from eating at the community feed trough. Gestation crates are the single best option for a pig, and they would thank you for this (if they could). Once again, pigs are not raised because they are cute, friendly animals. This rarely happens. They are only raised for meat and us pork loving citizens thank all farmers for that.
"people would probably be up in arms if children weren't restrained in playpens and car seats"
1. We're not EATING children.
2. Children and pigs are not equivalent, at least to ME. Your kid might be a pig, but not mine.
Yeah, except we don't go to the bathroom in our airplane seat, they are laying in their waste. What these so called experts wrote makes my head hurt. Confine any intelligent animal including humans and they will become aggressive with each other and fight. It doesn't mean sticking them inside a coffin like crate is the answer. Pigs are intelligent animals that need to move, look how happy a dog is for a walk. It's unnatural for animal to be confined like that. Also, American demand for pork has gone down, the farmers keep reproducing at such as high rate because they are shipping live piglets off to countries like China. What they should be doing instead is improving the conditions for the animals in this country and stop making more to sell abroad.
"Confine any intelligent animal including humans and they will become aggressive with each other and fight. It doesn't mean sticking them inside a coffin like crate is the answer." Lets look at the closest situation we (humans) have to an organized farm, its called prision. When a human gets aggressive in the general population (group housing) guess where said 'human' is put? Solitary gestation crates... good thing we climbed to the top of the food chain so that pigs can have their feelings addressed by the very creatures that will be consuming 100% of them. Get a clue, no literally... go find a friggin clue because you dont have one, especially on this subject.. go eat an ear of corn, before someone says they are planted to close to each other.
What a fool. Prisoners aren't put in metal coffins lying in their waste so they can't move or turn around. If pigs got the same space as a prisoner in solitary confinement it would be luxury accommodations for the pig.
Pigs in gestational crates do not lay in their own waste. They stand on a grate and any waste falls below to a conveyor belt that moves the waste to a lagoon for treatment. Pigs are smart animals and will not lay in their own waste, one of the few livestock that does this. Not saying this system is right or wrong, just wanted to clear up the facts as a former pork producer.
Where is the grate above? Even if there is a grate, grates collect waste and the animal is still stepping and laying in it. When animals have a larger area they pick a corner or a spot to go and choose to eat and sleep in a different area.
Can you not read? Hog barns are built above a "basement" which contains conveyors that collects the waste from the pigs above. the floors in the hog barn are slotted grates which allow feces and wastes to fall through the floor and on to the conveyor where it is escorted out of the barn. This eliminates the farmer havign to move and disturb every pig in order to scrape the pens. Doing this will stress out the pigs and therefore the floors are slotted grates to prevent any excess handling a pig will not enjoy. the slotted floors prevent waste build up in the pens and allow the pig to lay on a floor not covered in waste. Every so often the pens are hosed down and disinfected for cleanliness purposes but it's done only when needed to prevent stress on the animals
If humans weren't so glutenous with meat products, there wouldn't be such an issue of having to mass-produce. Humans eat WAY too much meat. Humans don't need near the amount of protein that the FDA states. (Meat is big business, therefore the govt pushes consumption.)
That's "gluttonous", I think.
Amazing contribution to the discussion.
I know!
Protein comes from many sources, including animal sources. I agree that Americans eat too much protein and too much meat, in particular. Most people don't know that the protein your body doesn't use exits as free amino acids through the kidneys. A lifetime of abundant amino acid excretion turns into kidney damage and failure. Cats, for example, are obligate carnivores and most of those living into old age die from kidney failure. People with massive crush injuries who survive the injuries frequently go into kidney failure from all the amino acids being flushed out from protein degredation. Everything in moderation. You can eat meat but don't stuff your face with it every day several times per day. When you do choose to eat meat/protein, choose carefully the source of it.
did you know that a lot of the meat that is produced in this country is exported to other nations to feed their populations?? Meat is a necessary part of a balanced diet and im sick of vegan animal rights activists telling me what i should or shouldnt eat based off of your personal opinions. I eat meat every day but in healthy amounts; i dont overindulge. There are A LOT of people living in this world and the food produced here in America doesnt just feed Americans; it feeds the world.
It's brutal and inhumane no matter how you look at it.....
It simply is not credible that an animal would chose to live its entire life in a box barely bigger than itself. Pigs are intellegent curious creatures and have no opportunity to engage in any normal behaviors, exercise, or mental stimulation in gestation crates. We've seen how ineffective self-regulation for food safety and humane care is when big agra is at the helm. I don't trust their claim to be pursuing what is best for the animals that give their lives to feed us.
I agree. Time to embrace open-space rooms/pens! There has been plenty of success with this aproach at well-established breeding herd operations.
FAKE DEGREE? Did you purchase your DVM degree online? Or maybe you are just easly taken in by lies. Because if you had actually learned something with your degree you would have seen both systems and learned that with "lose" housing systems that the animals fight and injury each other. Also in most cases most sows choose to move into stalls when given the choice. Loose housing rarlely address the issues of hot/cold tempertures; malnourishment, or injury from other animals. This is NOT a oneside answer, there are benefits and drawbacks to each method. Focusing on one trait does not make it superior to the others.
@ janet....really you try it. Pigs are intelligent creatures and EVEN if they were not the idea that any animal could be fine so confined that they can not move around is RIDICULOUS. Or maybe the idea of NEVER moving except from side to side is YOUR IDEA of heaven.
Deborah, if you actually go to a farm instead of reading misleading articles like this, it would show you that sows DO sometimes choose to be in stalls. But I missed the part in your blog that you know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING including what a pig thinks. So what is the order of importantance, malnourishment, movement, temperature, or aggression from other animals that a pig would want?
Bacon! Yummmm....
Yes.. let's give the bacon a nice quality of life before we fry it up. Really? This is what's is to be considered news worthy?
I'm not advocated abusing animals, but this is far from abuse when we are considering if Bacon has a good quality of life.
No, you are just a cold hearted, cruel as them person............
Studies continuously show that pigs are smarter than dogs. If everyone spent a week observing how factory farmed animals live and die, we would have a world of vegans in a week. And I say that as a reluctant omnivore...
Rusty, your views are as shallow and outdated as your name
Rusty, be sensible. Pigs are more than just bacon. I especially like the shoulder meat if you slow cook it over hickory or something.
I'm from a family farm with cattle, horses, and on occasion a few pigs, chickens for our own freezer. I've also worked in large cattle feedlots in different parts of the country. Farmers (both large and small) I've worked with all care about providing a quality life for their animals. There's no other way around it. If someone doesn't, we have a problem to work out. It's our responsibility, and do the best we can with tools, technology, and respond to customer demands. Gestation crates were one of those tools for pig farmers.
If these animals are giving their lives for ours, why can't we treat them with more respect? The small farmer does not need to do this because they don't over produce. The only reason these crates exist is because the CAFO wants maximum output in a small space. It has absolutely nothing to do with it being better for the sow.
Animals should NOT be raised for humans to eat. Channeling plant foods through billions of animals so humans can eat the animals is unsustainable and a complete waste of Earth's precious resources, principally water, land, and air. Humans can and do thrive on plant-based foods. Become vegan: For Animals; For Humanity; For Earth.
Vegans are weak pale and slow witted. People who raise children vegan should be arrested for neglect and abuse.
Also correct. Plus they are smug and think they are better than everyone else. The best part though, they are less healthy than anyone who follows the Primal Blueprint or Paleo Solution.
And you are just as ignorant as they come!
Nonsense, there are serveral world-class athletes (bodybuilders, etc.) that are vegan, being vegan has nothing to do with being unhealthy or pale.
That said, I'm not a vegan, just better informed than the average schmoe.
I don't eat beef, pork, chicken, etc. because of the very conditions described in this article (I eat a lot of fish, so I can't really call myself a vegetarian either).
BUT, most vegetarians and vegans I know couldn't care less what you eat. I know I couldn't. Then again, anyone who can look at things like gestation crates and debeaking of laying hens and think "whatever, as long as it tastes good" has a bit of a warped personality.
For instance, look up the following (all Vegans):
Robert Cheek (professional bodybuilder)
Luke Commo (MMA fighter)
Patrik Baboumian (Strongman competitor and bodybuilder)
Brendan Brazier (triathlon competitor)
Dwayne DeRosario (professional soccer player)
Michael Zigomanis (professional hockey player, played for the Maple Leafs)
You know what . . . I'll stop listing, just take a look at the list of vegans on Wikipedia . . much like any other group, you'll find all types, thin, fat, pasty, athletic, fit, etc. Using broad stereotypes is foolish
I am a vegan.
I bench 250.
I'm trained in multiple disciplines, I would most likely wipe the mat with you unless you have studied more jujitsu than I.
I am a little light skinned since I don't like the idea of skin cancer from being over exposed to the sun.
As far as my intellectual capacity, well with comments like yours, I don't think you would understand anyways.
You are a moron. Totally and completely wrong, and you spout off absurd notions a if they are fact. wow. You wouldn't know a vegan if they slapped you upside the head with a head of lettuce.
LMAO at all the idiots who replied. So gullible, so stupid, so pathetic.
Oh and thanks for absolutely proving the smug part.
Close minded much? All the vegans I know (including former President Clinton, Mike Tyson, Kathy Freston, etc) look incredibly healthy. Have any credible research to back up your ridiculous claims?
Totally and completely false. Please see the Poly Face farm for reasons why you are 100% wrong.
Primal, your knuclkes are dragging.
Name should be "primitive brain for life". Go back to the cave where you belong.
LMAO at YPP, I was born more intelligent than you will ever be little peon. Enjoy your ignorant existence.
Nice try but keep up with daily affirmations, they may work for you one day.
As much as I admire your conviction for your belief in veganism, I am happy with my belief that meat-eaters are aok and have nothing to be ashamed of.
The loss of efficiency for some tasty pork? Fine by me.
No thanks, I'll eat what tastes good.
On the bright side, more soy-fu for you!
Vegan lifestyle is unhealthy and humans do not possess the necessary GI tract for it. Primordial humans ate meat when available, however about 80% of their diets consisted of what they could forage. Modern humans should follow the same pattern, 80% plant based, 20% meat.
We raise our own so I know they had happy peaceful and productive lives.
We raised our first batch this year. Not only did ours live good lives, too, but there is NO comparrison to the quality of the meat. It's like switching from imatation crab to the real thing.
I'm a cattle rancher and I believe it is my responsibility to provide my livestock a happy, safe, and comfortable life.
I'm not a rancher. I don't even work with animals. I'm not into PETA or animal activism. I love to eat meat. But even I, the basic consumer, know that gestation crates are cruel and evil. Just look at the photo. A non-pregnant animal shouldn't be in a pen that's too small to roll over in. Pregnant ones definitely shouldn't be treated that way. One pig has her neighbor's foot in her belly. Death row prisoners are given more space. Me, I like my meat healthy and relaxed; not traumatized.
Debbie, even though I don't eat meat I commend you for giving the animals a good -free life as long as that lasts.
Will you represent me and my televison show against those that would call me a hypocrite cow? Or, even a hypocrite pig? I believe in Capitalism at all costs. As long as it don't cost me. Could we trade up? You know a crate for your services? You might as well train your children early where they're gonna be spendin' their virginal teenage years.
Talk about advertisement. Whoa ! How Sleazy is this,
Hey!! Where'd that lawyer guy scoot off to? Must a been somethin' I said. Oh, well, some folks don't like to be called Ambulance Chasers. Maybe, it was you that were the cause of his fleein'.