Pigs are proven to be smarter than 3-year-old children on cognition tests and are more intelligent than any domestic animal. Animal experts consider them to be easier trained than cats or dogs.
Pigs are capable of playing video games with more focus and success than chimps! They also have excellent object-location memory. If they find food in one spot, they’ll remember to look there next time.
They are socially complex too, like many other highly intelligent animals, as evidenced by their social structure. Their ability to discriminate among individuals (both pigs and humans), and apparent awareness of the mindset of others are all markers of high cognitive social functioning.
Pigs tend to be peaceful animals and only show aggression when they or their young are threatened. Pigs are curious, insightful, enthusiastic, and optimistic animals who like to be entertained and have fun.
Sources:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160629100349.htm
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/phenomenal-reasons-to-love-pigs/
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TSP_PIGS_WhitePaper_vF.pdf
Products That Result From Pig Slaughter
Pigs are more than just sausages, chops, ham and other pork food items. Here are other things that come from the slaughter of pigs…
- Valves in heart surgery
- Insulin
- Antifreeze
- Fertilizer
- Adhesives
- Lard
- Makeup
- Soap
- Footballs
- Clothes
What You May Not Know About Pigs In The UK
“Oh I can’t live without my bacon!” You hear this repeatedly. I was one who stated these exact words over and over when confronted with animal cruelty. One day, I faced the reality of animal agriculture and went down the rabbit hole to find out the true journey of my food and how it arrived on my plate.
If you have a strong stomach and you seriously want to know about pig slaughter and to see exactly what you are paying for, watch this video:
https://video.wixstatic.com/video/6e9c64_666a77c4a6944337bd8dad8b5b71c158/720p/mp4/file.mp4
Watch the full documentary here
This is what you need to know:
There are around 11,000 pig farms in the UK. Around 1,400 of these units house more than 1,000 pigs and hold around 85% of the total pig population in the UK.
Sources:
http://pork.ahdb.org.uk/prices-stats/industry-structure/pig-holdings-in-the-uk/
http://pork.ahdb.org.uk/prices-stats/news/2014/september/reduction-in-number-of-uk-pig-farms/
It occurred to me recently that I have NEVER seen pigs in a field. Here is why:
Only 3% of UK pigs spend their entire lives outdoors.
Sources:
https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/farm/pigs/farming
Farmers inflict mutilations on piglets by amputating their tails and clipping their teeth, all of which is done without anaesthetic or painkillers.
Sources:
,https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/5235121/Welfare-sheet-Pigs.pdf – pg. 6
If you think that you can eat pork from pigs that are free-range, you better think again:
There is no legal definition or formal standards for free-range pigs, which means retailers can label pork products as free-range without having to adhere to any standards or guidelines.
Sources:
https://www.animalaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Highwelfare.pdf
This brings us to the next point which is:
The vast majority of the pork products sold in the UK come from factory farms.
Sources:
Can you imagine not being able to move around? How slow will time pass? Would you go insane? Check this out:
Most pigs are officially entitled to less than one square metre of space each and the majority of sows (female breeding pigs) are kept in farrowing crates. Farrowing crates were made illegal in several countries across Europe, but are still standard farming practice here in the UK.
Sources:
FAWC Report: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/478588/Opinion_on_Free_Farrowing_Systems.pdf – pg. 4
Farrowing crates are so small that the sows cannot turn around in them. The mother pigs are kept in these crates for up to 5 weeks at a time, every time they give birth.
Sources:
https://www.viva.org.uk/pigs/farrowing-crate-fact-sheet
Imagine the pain and discomfort. There is also a lot of disease from the bacteria present. In order to remedy this, the pigs are given anti-biotics. In the very near future we are going to see a huge pandemic of anti-biotic resistance. That subject is for another article.
Around half of all antibiotics sold in the UK are used on farmed animals with 60% of these being used on pigs.
Sources:
https://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/2014/07/the-use-of-antibiotics-in-farm-animals-is-killing-people
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3861254/UK-livestock-pumped-antibiotics-infected-MRSA.html
Wild piglets remain with their mothers for around 12 – 14 weeks, but in UK farms piglets are taken from their mothers after only 3 – 4 weeks. At this point they begin the process of being given incredibly powerful antibiotic drugs.
Sources:
S. Edwards, ‘Pigs’, in J. Webster (ed.) Management and Welfare of Farm Animals: The UFAW Handbook (5th edn.), West Sussex,
Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, pg. 252-29
https://www.ciwf.org.uk/farm-animals/pigs/pig-welfare/
What happens to a pig who is sick, injured or simply “no good”?
If piglets are not growing fast enough or are sick and injured they are seen as unprofitable to the industry so are killed. This is done in the most cost effective manner, meaning that often piglets are slammed against walls, concrete floors or bludgeoned with metal poles.
Sources:
,https://www.animalaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pigreport.pdf – pg. 11
The natural lifespan of a pig is 15-20 years! If only they could live this long! They are slaughtered as children when they are only 6 months old!
When the pigs reach slaughter age at around 6 months, they are transported in cramped and over-crowded trucks with no water or food – regardless of the weather.
Sources:
https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/5235118/The-life-of-Pigs.pdf
The Slaughter Of The Pigs
One of the methods of slaughter for pigs in the UK is the gas chamber, where groups of pigs are herded into metal cages which are then dropped into a chamber that is filled with carbon dioxide. Once inside the chamber, the pigs scream and thrash, fighting for their lives for up to 30 seconds. This method of slaughter is used for UK supermarkets including Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Waitrose.
Sources:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-meat-slaughterhouses-restraining-stunning-killing-animals
https://www.viva.org.uk/sentenced-death/part-six-pig-slaughter
1/3 of pigs in the UK are killed in gas chambers.
Sources:
The other certified humane method of pig slaughter in the UK is electrical stunning with the aim to render the animals unconscious before they have their throats slit, however stunning is often poorly executed by rushed slaughterhouse workers which results in an estimated 1.8 million pigs regaining consciousness on the production line each year and being fully conscious as they die from blood loss.
Sources:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-meat-slaughterhouses-restraining-stunning-killing-animals
,https://www.viva.org.uk/what-we-do/pregnant-cow-massacre/briefing-notes
My Summary
Pigs are clearly conscious, sentient beings with personality, emotions and pretty much all the attributes that you have yourself. You are a human animal and they are non-human animals. Both you and they are mammals. They want to live like you do and they want happiness like you do. As we have seen from this article, pigs are so intelligent, they are as intelligent as a 3 year old human child and have even excelled the cognitive abilities of a 3 year old.
How dare we breed them into existence to slaughter them at 6 months old when they have another 15-20 years ahead of them?
Why do we do it? Because we like the taste of them? You value your taste preferences over the life of a being?
If you think we need to eat pigs or any animals for that matter for survival, you are mistaken. You ought to do some health research and get yourself some empathy.
Please stop paying for the slaughter of our non-human animal friends. This means, go vegan. Animal enslavement, torture and murder will reduce and eventually end when we all wake up and stop paying for it.
