Pig Farming Conditions in the News
The state of animals in farming is a shocking spectacle. Most people are able to live a life of deliberate ignorance and see meat wrapped in plastic or behind the glass of a deli counter and dis-associate it from the misery of the living being that was the meat before the plastic. The horror of animal farming was highlighted in today’s Independent as they were passed photographs from an Animal Aid undercover investigation.
Government vets have launched an investigation into Britain’s pig farming industry after disturbing images showing dead and diseased animals were passed to The Independent.
Pork farmers have been conducting a high-profile advertising campaign to encourage consumers to buy more expensive British produce, claiming that standards are higher than they are on the Continent. But the images, taken at farms linked to leaders of the industry, raise serious concerns about the welfare of the majority of the country’s 8 million pigs.
Vets at the Government’s Animal Health agency, which enforces welfare legislation and conducts regular inspections of farm premises, said it would investigate the findings.
Activists from the welfare group Animal Aid entered 10 farms in March and April. Two of the farms were operated by companies run by members of the industry’s governing body the British Pig Executive (BPEX), while others were linked to other senior figures in the industry.
Animal Aid claimed its investigation showed that farmers were “falling considerably short” of the images it portrayed in its campaigning. Shot in Cornwall, Somerset, Lincolnshire, North and East Yorkshire, the footage shows pigs with sores where they have rubbed against metal bars; farrowing crates that prevent sows from moving; pigs with bite marks; collapsed and convulsing animals; pigs covered in excrement; dirty pens; and routine tail-docking.
remainder of article at the Independent
- More than nine million pigs are slaughtered annually in the UK.
- Around 450,000 sows are currently used for breeding.
- Seventy per cent of British pigmeat comes from animals reared intensively, but even ‘outdoor reared’ and ‘outdoor raised’ pigs spend half or more of their lives indoors.
- Britain’s modest advances in pig welfare have not been made alone, and this country is certainly not in the vanguard. Sweden, for example, banned tethering almost three decades before Britain. And in 1997, Switzerland banned the use of farrowing crates altogether, making nonsense of Britain?s claims that we lead the way. In Sweden, weaning takes place at 5-6 weeks, an improvement on Britain and yet still far short of the17 weeks that pigs suckle and nurse their young in semi-natural conditions. The tethering of sows is now banned across the entire EU. Sow stalls are banned in Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland, as well as Britain. In 2013 they will be illegal across the whole of the EU. In Sweden, all pigs must be provided with straw or other litter material ? something that British pigs are largely denied. And pigs on Swedish farms may be held in a farrowing crate for a maximum of one week. In Britain, it is four weeks. Norway will enforce a ban on the castration of piglets from 2009 ? something which, although only rarely carried out in the UK, has not been outlawed here.
I am a pig farmer and these pictures are not ordinary actions. People make it seem worse thn it is and really we care about the hogs more then anyone.
that is very bad what hppened
“I am a pig farmer and these pictures are not ordinary actions. People make it seem worse thn it is and really we care about the hogs more then anyone.”
I have seen many farms in this state and worse - it is most deff. common practice. And you care about the hogs? Jeez, I’d hate to see what you do to your enemies.
Routine tail docking is used to prevent tail biting which leads to infection. Farrowing crates keep sows from savaging and laying on their piglets. The bite marks are probably from putting the sows in pens rather then single crates, they do fight for dominance. Pork is one of the cheapest meat products because of mass production and if you have ever smelled a boar, you know why castration occurs. I’m sure you don’t want boar smelling bacon. The sow in the first picture looks like she was a cull sow. (the red X) She was probably sick and died on her own, she doesn’t look skinny or abused.
Pinky T is right, not all hog farmers are abusive. “Humane” is sometimes a term used to prevent emotional distress with humans. A gas box is “humane.” The pigs are infused with C02 and suffocate. Logically, the lack of oxygen to the brain and bodily organs is painful. Blunt force trauma is getting replaced with this method of euthanasia in pigs under a certain weight. The pigs are now forced to sit in a dark box and suffocate.
Not all farming methods are bad. Maintaining good condition is critical, but with the human population demand, certain aspects have to suffer and the image of pigs and their babies running around a 100 acre farm plot is unreal. I do work in a farm and understand that adds for animal abuse leave out the things that make it all make sense. For example, after “processing” the piglets do continue to nurse or sleep and it takes less than 8 hours for them to be up and running around. It really is not all inhumane.