Who died for your dinner?

I don’t speak German either, but the visuals are horrifying enough, suffering and violent death are the same in all languages.

Using animals in any manner is unethical and NOT in the best interest of animals, so don’t disingenuously pretend the small-farm model is humane or better for animals, that’s a marketing strategy, not a position of justice or humane consideration. Any time you have a group of beings (non-human animals) as the target of an exploitative system, the dominant beings (human animals) will always exert itself over the weaker ones (you sadly see this dominating control used on humans also, mostly illegal but *still practiced*: child abuse, spousal abuse, bullying, terrorism, racism, misogyny, emotional abuse, etc.), and determine itself as the entitled benefactor and define the exploited groups’ purpose, thus why a small-farming system – that has already BEEN and has devolved into the trillions of animals exploited today – is not the answer to factory farms, CAFOs, or ILOs, that’s just spin to continue the assault on beings who are denied all opportunity to define and defend their own bodies and lives.

If you CARE, you don’t act in a manner of UNCARING, no matter your PR or self-comforting words you exploit to define such. As long as any animal is treated as a product subject to the wants, desires, and whims of humans, intensive operations will ALWAYS follow, as has been already demonstrated and proven with the suffering and blood of trillions of animals butchered yearly and globally today.

I had the nauseating opportunity to read about one such “small farm” of people who openly boasted about how the animals they raised (forcibly produced) were cared for (violated), named (as opposed to numbered), provided shelter (because it’s easier to control them when confined), and killed them (violently, unwillingly).

Humans will always market the violence inflicted on defenseless, vulnerable beings as doing them a favor and appealing to other humans who also want to appear considerate.

As long as you normalize negative, lethal behaviour for the dominant party, suffering will continue, even Pa Ingalls exploited animals, he just didn’t camouflage it as “higher welfare” because it was still enjoyed as socially necessary. It no longer is, thus why “Red Tractor” and “Humane Certified” influence society into believing it is.

If you don’t stop animal exploitation for the animals, you will always resume it for the humans. SL

Source PETA Germany

In Germany alone, almost 60 million pigs are killed in slaughterhouses every year. Each and every one of them ekes out an agonizing existence in one of the many pig breeding, piglet rearing or pig fattening facilities. PETA has again made video recordings from a company, which clearly shows the cruel but everyday suffering in pig farming. 

This company is not a large-scale industrial plant. This is another example of the fact that animals suffer just as much in small businesses as they do in large ones – because even with the “farmer next door”, the animals are purely a product of production. They are used and killed.

A “breeding sow” serves the animal industry for one single purpose: to give birth to as many piglets as possible for meat production. This is done with the help of artificial insemination, for which the female pig is locked in a so-called crate , in which she does not even have enough space to turn around. Up to four weeks after the insemination, the mother sow remains locked in this narrow lattice shed. This type of husbandry causes enormous suffering to the animals: every day, every hour and every minute they have to stand, lie, eat, defecate and urinate in the same place. The sows are then housed together with others in barren group pens. The animals often injure each other due to monotonous keeping, stress and battles of rank.

Shortly before birth, the mother sow is locked in what is known as a farrowing pen: again, a metal cage that does not allow her to turn around or to exercise natural behaviors such as building a nest. The metal bars often press into the belly of the heavily pregnant sows. The mother spends the entire breastfeeding period, i.e. about three weeks, in this lattice cage. She serves as a pure milk machine – she cannot develop a bond with her children in the fixed posture. The animal industry defends this torture with the pseudo-argument that it serves as protection for the piglets that would otherwise be crushed by the mother. In truth, however, control, space as a premium, and economic efficiency, i.e. profit, is behind it. Because in the great outdoors, i.e. with enough space, a mother does not crush her piglets.

Since pigs, like dogs, are very curious and intelligent creatures, the law requires companies to provide them with toys. For legal purposes, a little straw or metal chains hanging from the ceiling are sufficient. However, these measures are dangerous for the animals, as they sometimes involve a high risk of injury. In addition, they do not challenge the pigs and are not suitable as a species-appropriate enrichment activity. This common practice in pig farming is just as absurd as keeping a dog in a tiny kennel and hanging a metal chain on the ceiling to satisfy her urge for activity.

The fact that the individual living creature counts for nothing in pig breeding and fattening is also shown by the approvingly accepted loss account with regard to the death of piglets: Because many of the animals are born weak and sick due to targeted breeding for the largest possible litters, they are stunned by employees with a blow on the head *** before they are killed or thrown in the trash many times while they are still alive , where they die in agony. Recordings from stables repeatedly show that the prescribed procedure – with anesthesia and subsequent bleeding – is too burdensome for a large number of breeders. As a result, many piglets are simply thrown against edges, walls or the floor. The animals that do not die in the process suffer a terrible agony in the garbage cans.

What You Can Do (Will direct you to PETA Germany requiring translation if you don’t speak German, use Google to translate or see below footer for English actions)

• Do not eat pigs or other animals – make a conscious decision in favor of the many animal-friendly meat alternatives . The free Veganstart program supports you in the effortless changeover to a vegan, cruelty-free diet.
• The so-called farm animal husbandry is based on a speciesist thought pattern. That is why it is never ethically correct to use animals for profit. Find out about speciesism – one of the greatest problems facing our society.
• Organize a protest and make the pigs heard. We provide you with the “Schweineleid” demo package free of charge. Request now!

*** This is typically referred to as “thumping” and is an accepted practice of killing piglets in the USA as well, as approved by the AVMA as “manual blunt force trauma” and is NOT recommended on “pet” animals, as discouraged by the same AVMA group. SL

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Pigs are pigs but man is the swine

Karen Lyons Kalmenson