Pig farming – Animal Liberation South Australia

No animals deserve this

Pigs are wonderful animals. They’re as intelligent as dogs, and they form strong relationships in small family groups.

But sadly, the pork industry is one of the cruellest meat industries – it’s terrible for the pigs at all stages of their lives.

The industry has been clever at keeping this secret, because many Australians would refuse to buy pork products if they knew about the cruelty in factory farms and during the slaughter process.

Despite this consecutive governments have provided legal exceptions for farmers, to prevent them being prosecuted for animal cruelty, so they can maximise their profits.

This documentary video shows the reality of a South Australian piggery.

It shows us that factory farming is as terrible here as anywhere in the world.

WARNING: This video contains scenes which some viewers might find upsetting.

The mothers

In most pig farms, pregnant sows are kept in metal stalls for their entire four-month pregnancies.

They are not allowed to exercise – they exist only as ‘units’ to create profit.

Their stalls are not much bigger than their bodies, and are built on concrete floors.

These poor expectant mothers can never turn around in these concrete prisons. All they can do is to take one step forward or back.

The hard cold concrete and metal damage their skin.

They develop neurotic behaviour – repeatedly chewing the bars or waving their heads back and forth.

Their joints ache continually through lack of exercise and standing on hard floors.

Sows are moved to even smaller farrowing crates to give birth, still surrounded by metal bars.

Mothers can’t build nests by collecting materials, as their instincts tell them. They cannot interact with their babies, or even lick or nuzzle them.

Hardly able to move, sows are kept in farrowing crates until their piglets are about three weeks old.

A female pig in a factory farm is treated as a breeding machine. Her worth is determined by the number of piglets she can produce each litter.

She will only be kept alive as long as her body can physically endure the demands of being kept continually pregnant and confined, and standing with minimal movement on a hard floor

She endures continual cycles of suffering and deprivation. Like all factory farmed animals, her behavioural, mental and emotional needs are irrelevant.

Pig with piglets

The babies

Piglets are intelligent and sensitive, naturally playful and active, and make wonderful family pets. But in factory farms, they are forced to endure overcrowding, poor sanitation, and unhealthy diets.

These poor babies suffer surgical procedures without any pain relief.

Their teeth are clipped, so they don’t ‘damage’ their mothers’ teats as they suckle.

Their tails are cut off so they can’t nibble each other’s tails from the frustration of their unnatural confinement.

Notches are cut out of their ears.

Most farmers still castrate their young boars, without any form of pain relief, because consumers supposedly complain of ‘boar taint’ in meat that comes from intact animals, although they are slaughtered before becoming sexually mature, at about three months of age.

Lucent

‘Lucent’ is a documentary that must be seen.

Lucent is a video which has been produced by the wonderful people at the Farm Transparency Project. It is a full documentary on the horrors of the Australian pig farming industry.

This movie shows how terrible conditions and shocking cruelty have become the ‘norm’ in pig farming, and how animal welfare considerations have gone out the window in the quest for higher profits.

Lucent has been filmed by hidden and hand-held cameras, in dozens of farms and slaughterhouses across Australia.

It’s hard to watch – it shows things as they really are, rather than as the pig industry would like us to think they are.

But it’s essential viewing for anybody who’s happy to eat bacon for breakfast, or tuck into a Christmas ham.