It’s actually a protest by PETA, the animal rights organisation that certainly makes you think. The point of this pregnant woman in fetching pastel pink undies crouching on all fours in a small cage in London, is to highlight the awful plight of pregnant female pigs who are forced to stand in teeny little cages.
More info after the jump if you’re interested……..
From the PETA website: FACTORY FARMING OF PIGS
Pigs are very clean animals who take to the
mud primarily to cool off and evade flies. They are just as friendly
and gregarious as dogs, and according to Professor Donald Broom at the
Cambridge University Veterinary School, “They have the cognitive
ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly
three-year-olds.”(17) Mother pigs in factory farms in the U.S. live
most of their lives in individual crates that are 7 feet long and 2
feet wide.(18) They display signs of extreme boredom and stress, such
as biting the bars of their cages and gnashing their teeth.(19) Their
piglets are taken away three weeks after birth and packed into pens
until they are singled out to be raised for breeding or for meat.20
Like chickens and turkeys, pigs are genetically manipulated and pumped
full of drugs, and many become crippled under their own weight.
Although pigs are naturally affable and social animals, the confinement
of these crowded pens causes neurotic behaviors such as cannibalism and
tail-biting, so farmers use pliers to break off the ends of piglets’
teeth and cut off their tails without any painkillers.(21)Pigs are transported through all weather extremes, often freezing to
the sides of transport trucks in leading pig-slaughtering states like
Iowa and Nebraska or dying from dehydration in states like North
Carolina. According to the industry, more than 100,000 pigs die en
route to slaughter each year, and more than 400,000 arrive crippled
from the journey.(22)At the slaughterhouse, improper stunning means that many hogs reach
the scalding-hot water baths—which are intended to soften their skin
and remove their hair—while they are still conscious.(23) U.S.
Department of Agriculture inspection records documented 14 humane
slaughter violations at one processing plant, including finding hogs
who “were walking and squealing after being stunned [with a stun gun]
as many as four times.”(24) A PETA investigation found that workers at
an Oklahoma farm were killing pigs by slamming the animals’ heads
against the floor and beating them with a hammer.(25)
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As the custodians of farmed animals, we have a responsibility for their welfare. This means that at a minimum we should provide for them a life with minimal pain and suffering as well as the ability to express natural behaviours including the rearing of offspring. These basic requirements should be a requisite for the care of any animal we are charged with caring for or raising, and especially those sacrificed for our use (food or otherwise). Sacrificed animals should be killed in a way to minimise distress and pain.
In this wealthy country of ours, there can be no excuse for the inhumane treatment of animals. Australians should be especially concerned about the welfare of pigs reared intensively, battery (or overcrowded barn) hen farming for meat and eggs, as well as the live export of our sheep. As Aussies we appreciate and are proud of our concept of a 'fair go' for each other, and we should recognise that farmed animals also deserve the same.
Before you ask, I am not a vegetarian. I enjoy a thick cut of steak as much as the next person. However, I am trying to reduce my reliance on meat for environmental reasons and to reduce the number of animals sacrificed for my table. I accept that humans are omnivorous and that it is unrealistic for all of us to give up meat altogether. When buying meat, I buy from suppliers of free-range meat and eggs. There is a cost premium, but if more of us elect to support a free-range market then this will improve over time.
I ask you to please think about your choice carefully when purchasing meat and eggs.
If you share similar views to me, then you may want to see the RSPCA's website where there is a link to an online petition in support of better treatment of farmed animals.
If we all try to make small changes such as purchasing meat from 'ethical' producers (be that those who reduce their reliance on chemicals, those with improved and acceptable husbandry practices, and those who send their stock for 'humane' slaughter) then over time we will be able to create a market which will drive change in favour of the ethical treatment of farmed animals.
thanks for reading.
Thank god someones finally trying to raise awareness over the plight of animals bred and raised for slaughter! I know that the majority of people just don't think about the way these animals are treated before they eat them, but I think everyone needs to be aware! I don't know if any of you have read skinny bitch and the section on the way in which they slaughter animals is beyond cruelty!! Reading that one chapter on the subject has changed the way I feel about eating meat! Everyone is just kinda mislead to believe that however they kill these animals is quick and painless and humane, but it really isn't! All I can say is that knowing that book was written in the USA, we can only hope that things are different here in Australia! Otherwise something as simple as drinking a glass of milk would make you feel guilty if the part about dairy cows is also true!