Pigs are intelligent animals that are rather independent and can easily take care of themselves. Instead of being kept in small muddy pens, pigs like to wander around and are very curious about their surroundings. They're also often affectionate animals that become attached to the humans who handle them on a regular basis. It is believed that pigs are actually more intelligent and trainable than dogs and even three year-old humans. It breaks my heart to know how horribly pigs are often treated in the farming industry.
PETA caught on camera heinous acts of cruelty being committed against pigs at an Iowa farm, acts such as pigs being castrated and having their tails docked without anesthetic, unhealthy piglets held by their back feet and their heads slammed onto concrete to kill them, and pigs who were repeatedly kicked and beaten with metal rods. It is disgusting that these things happen and it baffles me how any human being could commit these acts and still be able to go to sleep at night.
Mother pigs (sows) are kept in gestation crates most of their lives, and these crates are so small they can't even turn around. Once they've given birth, they're transferred to slightly larger crates that allow them to lie down and nurse. Usually within ten days of their birth, the piglets are taken away from their mothers and she is impregnated again. This cycle continues the duration of her life, about four to five years.
Pigs in gestation crates.
Pigs in a nursing crate.
Piglets are confined to small pens until they are separated to be raised for either breeding or slaughter for meat. Male piglets are usually castrated (without anesthetic). When piglets are confined to these small spaces, they often resort to such behaviors as tail-biting and even cannibalism, so farmers often cut their tails off and use pliers to break off the ends of their teeth (again, without anesthetic) to prevent injuries from these behaviors. Piglets are also often tattooed or have chunks of their ears cut out for identification purposes. It's one thing for a human to choose to have the pain of a tattoo inflicted upon himself, but to force an innocent animal to endure that is horrifically cruel.
Once pigs are fully grown and shipped off for slaughter, they endure the final acts of cruelty in their short lives. They're often prodded onto shipping trucks with electric rods that shoot painful currents through their bodies which causes pigs to squeal incessantly, lose their balance, and become overheated and have racing pulses because they are terrified of what's to come. Like many other animals who are slaughtered for meat, pigs are stunned with electrical currents and dunked in scalding hot water (often fully conscious) so their skin is softened and their hair comes off easily.
I have a difficult time understanding why or how people can treat pigs so inhumanely and be completely okay with themselves. I truly couldn't sleep at night knowing I'd treated another living creature so horribly. At PETA you can find out ways to help pigs to be treated more humanely in the farming industry.
