Modern Pig Production - a form Vegetarians View

[Lazy J]

I was just sent this article. I found it interesting.

Jim

http://www.watchusgrow.org/_blog/Ill...d_the_Farmers/

[wwubben]

She needs to visit a breeding barn to see how happy those sows and gilts are when they are confined to a stall.Buy pasture raised pork if you want to feel good about eating pork.

[buffalocreek]

I was just talking to a fellow who works in one of those pig concentration camps. He says the company makes them weigh all newborn piglets and if they don't weigh at least 1.7 lbs at birth, into the CO2 gas chamber with them. He said he's gassed as many as 50 piglets a night, and there's no adopting them out for someone else to raise because of disease considerations. He says some of the most active piglets are the smaller ones. Want to support a company like that? Open air, ground raised pigs is the only way to go.

[Randy Rooster]

The only lives these animals will ever live will be nothing but deprived confinement in a smelly dark airless building. Regardless if you are a vegetarian or not, is it too much to ask to have some respect for your fellow creatures? Is paying a few cents more per pound for humanely raised and slaughtered animals too much to ask?

I have a consciense. Animal meat factories are the primary reason I quit meat about 15 years ago.

[fishhead]

That's why I don't eat pork.

[Maverick_mg]

This is why we raise our own. I like bacon too much to just cut out pork.

[Old Vet]

Every body knows you don't eat pigs. If you want ham pork chops or bacon you go to the store and buy it in a plastic wrapper that way no animals are harmed.

[highlands]

That article you linked to reads like a propaganda piece for factory farming. Makes me doubt that the 'writer' is a real person. Rather I suspect that 'she' is a PR shill. They need to be more subtle if they want to be believable.

[JLMissouri]

I couldn't in good conscience raise any animal like that. There are several factory pork farms north of me, you can smell them up to several miles before you even get there. They are always hiring as its hard to find anyone who would work at them between just the smell and the way the pigs are kept.

[fireweed farm]

Originally Posted by highlands

That article you linked to reads like a propaganda piece for factory farming. Makes me doubt that the 'writer' is a real person. Rather I suspect that 'she' is a PR shill. They need to be more subtle if they want to be believable.

Exactly, and people will fall for it because it's coming from a "vegetarian".
Pigs shouldn't have access to mud? The best time of their life is in mud.

[KimTN]

My pigs love mud and they do not poop in it. This person obviously knows nothing about pigs. My pigs spend their days rooting about in a forest eating all sorts of things. They make their beds with weeds and leaves out side even though they have houses. When they have piglets, they dig a burrow under logs and brush, even though they have houses. I guess what I'm trying to say is, hogs don't really like being indoors.

[ItchingDuck]

My initial reaction is "Propaganda". That is not how pigs are raised in reality. There is a reason I have bought less than 50lbs of pork in the last 10 years for a family of 8...

My 6 pigs were raised on almost an acre with my kids playing with them . Those were the happiest piggies I ever saw. I look forward to more. Factory pigs make me miserable. That is no way for any animal to live- much less one as intelligent as a pig.

[arabian knight]

Originally Posted by Old Vet

Every body knows you don't eat pigs. If you want ham pork chops or bacon you go to the store and buy it in a plastic wrapper that way no animals are harmed.

Of course and that is why I enjoyed a nice pork chop last night for supper. Nobody pays any attention to where or how that pig was raised I sure don;t and millions of shoppers in this country don't either.
But i do wish there was more fat on pigs they have made pork so lean these days that even bacon is not the same.

[haypoint]

Originally Posted by highlands

That article you linked to reads like a propaganda piece for factory farming. Makes me doubt that the 'writer' is a real person. Rather I suspect that 'she' is a PR shill. They need to be more subtle if they want to be believable.

Of course. Anyone with a different viewpoint from yours is automatically a rube for Big Ag. Heaven forbid that someone real could have a different view than the one you sell.
I have seen poorly cared for pastured pigs and well cared for pigs kept in bright, well ventilated, comfortable confinement buildings. Perhaps your experience has provided different views.
People that do things different from you aren't necessarily wrong.

[TedH71]

I prefer feral hogs. They're a challenge to catch and are real smart to boot: http://news.yahoo.com/1m-pilot-proje...--finance.html

[JohnL751]

I think this grain fed pork that ran lose in forty acres of woods tastes better than store bought pork!

[Paquebot]

On our old home farm, there was a small seepage spring in the middle of the hog pasture. Over the years the hogs worked that into a wallow 5' deep and 20' across. There were times when their eyes and nose were the only parts not covered with mud and excrement. They were in "Hog Heaven"! Come anywhere near creating a similar man-made situation and everyone screams cruelty.

Martin

[tailwagging]

I have become a believer in concert with pigs.
Not that mine don't have dirt/mud pens to play in too.
but I poured a pad to feed them on. and if you are keeping a lot.....

[Pops2]

Originally Posted by TedH71

I prefer feral hogs. They're a challenge to catch and are real smart to boot: http://news.yahoo.com/1m-pilot-proje...--finance.html

Govt stupidity for you. If they just put an adequate bounty on them, they'd be wiped out pretty quick. When people can make a descent living off killing something it doesn't take long before they are GONE. Doubt it? Lets go hunt some passenger pigeons, or red wolves, eastern woods bison, Appalachian elk, Virginia alligators, plains elk, or California grizzly.

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by Pops2

Govt stupidity for you. If they just put an adequate bounty on them, they'd be wiped out pretty quick. When people can make a descent living off killing something it doesn't take long before they are GONE. Doubt it? Lets go hunt some passenger pigeons, or red wolves, eastern woods bison, Appalachian elk, Virginia alligators, plains elk, or California grizzly.

Looks like the Federal Government plans to spend a million dollars to keep feral hogs from overrunning New Mexico.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/18/feral-pigs-project-new-mexico-texas_n_2902876.html?utm_hp_ref=animals

Martin