It’s the Year of the Pig, according to the Chinese zodiac. In Chinese culture, pigs are a symbol of wealth and their chubby faces and big ears are signs of good fortune. But today, pigs have come to mean so much more.
Image from Jo-Anne
McArthur/We Animals
Most pigs don’t get a name, like Wilbur, Timon, or Miss Piggy. They get a
number and live their lives under the yoke of industrial animal farming.
This year, entire parades will be held in honor of an animal that lives and
dies on factory farms by the billions. Pigs are special creatures that share
distinct personality traits and behavior with humans. Despite what popular
turns-of-phrase might lead you to believe, pigs are smart and clean–when
they are given the opportunity to live a natural life.
Inside factory farms, they’re afforded none of these basic animal rights.
Nearly 1.5 billion pigs are killed for food every year. They live their
lives in horrible, overcrowded pens as if to hide their incredibly loyal,
friendly, and playful personalities from the light of day.
The Year of the Pig is just beginning. Let’s take a moment and consider the
pig.
Pigs share distinct personality traits and behavior with humans
Off the farm, pigs are often compared to dogs. They’re incredibly friendly,
loyal, and smart. Pigs are playful. They like to lie in the sun and sniff
around the yard like everyone’s favorite furry companion.
Pigs are social with other animals, but for the most part, they’re better
off around other pigs because pigs are prey animals. Dogs, on the other
hand, are predators. That being said, pigs are known to befriend dogs and
cats in the home, as well as horses in a pasture setting.
Mother pigs form especially strong bonds with their litters. They form
social networks with other pigs, a level of non-human socialization
associated most often with primates–but pigs know how to get to know each
other, too.
Pigs share a striking number of characteristics with humans. They like music
and speak to each other in a series of oinks and grunts. Mother pigs are
known to sing to their young while nursing. Just like puppies, baby pigs
learn their names after just three weeks and respond to them. This can take
up to seven months in newborn humans.
Interestingly, pigs are close to humans in another unique characteristic.
They “wear” mud much like humans wear clothes, primarily in order to shield
themselves from the environment – mud regulates their body temperature, and
blocks harmful radiation from the sun. Pigs, like humans, can otherwise get
sunburn.
Image from Jo-Anne
McArthur/We Animals
Pigs are misunderstood and misrepresented
Traditionally, many people would never go out of their way to call a pig
clean, but in their natural habitat, pigs are very clean animals. They keep
their sleeping area poop-free, that is, when they’re given enough space to
do so.
Sadly pigs, like most farm animals, lose almost all of their dignity the
second they step foot on a factory farm. They go from kind, caring,
intelligent beings to sloppy, smelly animals on their way to becoming food.
This is no fault of theirs, of course. It is the industrial factory farming
system that reduces them to that state and perpetuates the view that they
have no value.
Pigs also have the dubious honor of serving as a slur for people who behave
in selfish, inconsiderate, and cruel ways – which is ironic given the
cruelty and selfishness that humans are imposing on pigs.
There are many sayings featuring pigs that also illustrate how poorly these
intelligent animals are considered. “To put lipstick on a pig” is one
example, which is usually taken to mean that you in vain try to make
something ugly pretty. We at Sentient Media would like to point out that
this saying is illogical. Pigs are already beautiful. Putting lipstick on a
pig doesn’t make it any prettier, so the saying should instead be taken to
mean that you can’t beautify that which is already beautiful.
Nearly 1.5 billion pigs are killed around the world every year for
food
In the U.S. alone, PETA estimates 121 million pigs are slaughtered every
year. Since 1978, the number of pigs on industrial pig farms has ballooned
to nearly 60 million animals, while smaller, family-run pig farms have
become nearly obsolete.
As of 2007, there were less than 1 million animals on farms of less than 100
animals in size.
Plus, industrial pig farms were 20 times bigger in 2007 than they were in
1978, according to the Humane Society. More pigs on bigger farms have only
made their lives worse.
Piglets are separated from their mothers after 10 short days, while their
mothers lie in crates so small they can’t even turn around, let alone roam
freely.
Factory farms strip pigs of their natural environment without regard to any
social bonds the animal may have previously established with other pigs and,
in turn, force the animals to live under nearly constant psychological
stress.
Image from Jo-Anne
McArthur/We Animals
Between 5% and 35% of piglets die within the first three weeks on factory
farms. They are crowded into metal-barred pens with concrete floors, where
they live–cold and afraid–until they’re about 100 pounds. Often, there are
up to 30 animals in one pen.
Mother pigs, called sows, give birth repeatedly for up to four years before
they’re slaughtered, which puts immense stress on their bodies and minds,
never releasing the mother pig from the cycle of giving birth and seeing its
children taken away from her.
The problem with overcrowding most cruelly manifests in transport to the
slaughterhouse. Pigs grow to upwards of 300 pounds before they are herded
into the back of a truck and sent to be killed.
As many as 1 million pigs die every year on the way to slaughterhouses. Pigs
freeze to death, suffer heat stroke, and suffocate in transit.
Celebrating the Year of the Pig
It’s hard to forget how many pigs are killed every day after living
miserable, painful lives. It’s even harder to get the atrocities committed
on factory farms to go away. Part of the problem is that despite how much we
hope for the best in other people, factory farms won’t simply disappear
overnight.
Celebrating the Year of the Pig means standing up for pigs ourselves. Cut
out meat, join your local animal rights organization, share this story with
someone that needs to know how pigs are being treated on factory farms.
Give animals a voice!
Number of animals killed in the world by the fishing, meat, dairy and egg industries, since you opened this webpage.
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