I’m about to share with you an inconvenient truth: Only you can change the way livestock are reared on commercial farms in the United States. I said it when everyone was in an uproar about routine antibiotic use a few weeks ago and I’ll say it again. American consumers may like the idea of ridding the meat industry of {insert heinous commercial farming practice of the month here}, but they’re not ready for the reality. The pork industry — and every other agricultural industry — has become what it has become as a direct result of consumer demand. If American consumers didn’t demand cheap pork farmers wouldn’t produce cheap pork.
But I’m also about to share with you another inconvenient truth, because unlike the HSUS I don’t intend to blow rainbows and bunnies up your ass: Animals die. Some never live to begin with. Still born piglets– see the shocking image of a bucket full of dead piglets at 0:27 — are not uncommon. Even if you get rid of gestation crates animals will still die. Even on our farm where sunshine, pasture, room to move around, belly rubs and behind-the-ear scratches are the norm, some piglets are born dead; some get stuck in their amniotic sacks and die immediately after birth; still some others are simply not thrivers and die within the first week of life. It sucks, but it’s nature. There is nothing more gut wrenching than disposing of tiny bodies or more exhausting than tending night and day to an ill animal, but it’s part of raising them for any reason — including for meat. Where you have livestock, you have dead stock.
But HSUS and other “animal welfare” organizations wouldn’t have you know it. It’s too inconvenient to their mission. The truth doesn’t further their agenda so they hide it. They hide at 1:51 when the undercover agent whines about seeing piglets scream being one of the “worst things” he’s “ever seen”, that piglets scream the second they’re restrained. For any reason. When I pick up a piglet and cradle it like a newborn baby it screams all the way across the farm until I put it down again. It’s self-preservation. Pigs are prey animals, being physically restrained equals death. They do everything in their power to avoid physical restraint, including blood curdling screams. Which, by the way, are just one of many very loud noises pigs make for many, many reasons. Very few of which have anything to do with pain.
They don’t tell you that the bloody mess you see at 1:35 is a uterine prolapse or that such a prolapse can be caused by numerous factors, none of which are even related to the gestation crates they’re advocating against. Mycotoxins in the feed, genetic propensity for a weak uterine attachment, and constipation are common contributors; to name a few.
They don’t disclose when they tell you the dimensions of gestation crates that pigs are generally afforded more space per pig in crates than in pens (fourteen square feet versus nine). And when they quote the pew research council on the stress the crates cause the sows — which I’m not disputing, not at all — they don’t include that pen rearing can be just as stressful if not more so. They don’t tell you that the scrapes and scratches on the pig shown at 1:32 are probably from fighting with other pigs. (Look closely, that pig is in a pen with others. And those marks are classic fight scratches.) Or that fighting amongst a herd can leave the submissive animals in a constant state of not just stress, but fear.
They don’t tell you these things because these things muddy up the clear (but wholly misleading and inaccurate) depiction of commercial farms they wish you to see. They don’t tell you these things because these things don’t further their agenda. They don’t tell you these things because the truth leaves them without an entity at which to point a finger. Because releasing the real story — telling the public the truth, that these practices are necessary because they refuse to pay more than a couple dollars a pound for pork chops — isn’t something that would make them popular.
But I’m not concerned with being popular. I’m concerned with telling the truth. So I will. If you want pigs out of gestation crates stop buying pork from pigs that have been housed in gestation crates. Only you can affect change. Only your grocery dollars can make a difference; vote with them. These practices are employed because they are necessary to provide the pork products the public demands. Either stop demanding them or, as my mother would say, quit your bitchin’.
Hog Farmer. Goose Wrangler. Sustenance Cultivator. Hobby Photographer. Women's Progress Advocator. Wife. Teacher. Mother. Freelance Writer. Unsophisticated Wine Connoisseur. Sister. Speaker. Friend. Butcher. Ruminator. Student. Reluctant Artist. Wannabe Quilter. Chocolate Addict. Gun Enthusiast. 
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As a beef industry advocate, and a supporter of all animal agriculture, I appreciate this article. I have been interested in how the HSUS and PETA operate, and have debated over and over again with people who think that they know everything there is to know about farming because of the commercials they see on T.V. We as producers know the risks of any animal operation. There are always animals that die, and animals that get hurt. The farmer has a responsibility to their animals. Without healthy animals, there is no profit. Some say we are in it to just make money… isn’t that what businesses are all about? How about that we also feed the world? Not much coverage on that, is there. This article gives some great information, and I like that there are people fighting on their own. It takes each of us speaking out to have a collective voice. Thanks for this source, keep up the good work.
People need to realize that these animal right groups don’t just want animals to be raised more humanely, they don’t want them to be raised (for food or pets) at all. They think all animal breeding is cruel and unethical, even dogs and cats. The edit hundreds of hours of footage just to put the worst of it together and make it seem like it happens all the time.
The president of the organization that made this video, Wayne Pacelle, was featured on a podcast (number 15, near the end) on the HSUS website discussing large snakes. When the host compared breeding large snakes to child prostitution, Wayne Pacelle agreed with her. To Wayne Pacelle, if someone breeds a red tail boa (an animal which has only caused one recorded death in the history of the US), they are comparable to someone who pimps out a 12-year-old child.
These groups really don’t know anything about animal husbandry or animal behavior. Everything is cruel and unethical to them.
Well said! It happens more than we like sometimes, but they’re mortal.
It’s helpful to have someone point out where others are stretching the truth. The question I have is, if people paid more for pork (or stopped buying the cheap stuff), what changes would be made in pig housing? Thanks..
I think that farmers who make wise decisions based on science and experience are going to treat the animals more humanely than anyone who lets themselves be guided, read “yanked around,” by the HSUS.
There is such a thing as necessary abuse and necessary cruelty, or tolerable abuse and cruelty, simply because it can be called “cruel” to hold a piglet in your arms even when the piglet has settled down and decided that you are his friend.
The people who believe the videos made by PETA aren’t thinking or have been living under a rock. Anyone who does think about this will believe you before they will believe PETA or the HSUS.
The HSUS and PeTA would have everyone believe that farm animals are being abused simply because they are not treated the same way as the pets in your house. The non-farm knowing general public readily agrees with anything the HSUS and PeTA say partly because they are ignorant of the subject and partly because they believe that by agreeing with and reinforcing the world view of animal rights activists like HSUS and PeTA they are doing some sort of worldy good. From some of the articles I have read lately, I think that HSUS’s current area of attack is against ranchers and farmers, but HSUS doesn’t know anything about farming – farm animals are not pets and don’t need to be treated like pets. They have different requirements. At the same time, HSUS ignores all the smaller incidents of animal abuse such as dragging dogs behind trucks, barbecuing kittens, etc., etc. Exposing and prosecuting those types of abuse does not bring in the MONEY that raiding farms, ranches, breeders and rescues does. Simple as that.
@Carrie Oliver – Paying more isn’t precisely the point, the point is, if you object to factory farm-raised pork, then buy from a local farmer who raises (so-called) free-range pork. Yes, it will cost more, but it will make you feel better. The more we buy from local farmers, the less factory farm meat will be bought by the major supermarkets, and so the fewer factory farms there will be.
I don’t have the slightest problem with “factory farm” anything. Factories are good things. Mills are good things. Like any good thing they have their problems.
A “factory farm” or a “puppy mill” might be more humane for a couple of reasons. One is because they can pay the veterinarian on time and get fast service. Another is because they have to have healthy animals to make money.
Factories in general produce quality goods in large quantities at low prices. Nature, just by the way, does not provide so much supportive care of its animals and is highly abusive. Factory operators look for a good amount of bang for the buck, which also means that factories find better ways to do things.
A “healthy, holistic” farm looks like they have attempted to go back to 19th century methods and the real 19th century was dirty, brutal, and disease-ridden, whether you are talking about factories or farms. Some of the features from then were worth saving, and factory farms use those features too. More efficient, more “earth friendly” farms depend both on niche markets that are willing to pay premium and on technology that increases efficiency.
I could go on. Burning down “no till” land uses chemicals and the environmentalists just hate chemicals. They’ve spit on most of the periodic table of elements by now, too. Plowing allows dirt to be blown about and that is a problem but that problem was solved largely by windrows. But they insist on no-till although it poisons the land and the water. I guess they pick their poisons.
Jan, when an animal is just left to “free range” a lot of b ad things can happen- to the animal (predation, disease) and to the product I would eventually be feeding my family.
modern housing systems were developed for a reason- they removed noise, odor, manure and other farm problems from neighborhoods where families were being raised. they kept animals safe from the elements, from predation, from infections, and from each other. they make it possible to manage each animal individually for it’s health and welfare instead of waiting until something in a large group you can’t see all the time drops dead.
as you just said yourself, buying from the “local free range” producer is all about making you “feel good”- it has nothing at all to do with whether or not the product is better. I’ve looked closely and numerous methods, been to all kinds of farming operations, and I want a safe, affordable product for my family. I don’t need to assuage a misplaced feeling of guilt for eating an animal by expecting someone to raise it on it’s very own homestead with classical music and coffee breaks and massages, at $$$$ a pound for the privilege, from a producer who makes sure they keep their sales low not because that’s all the volume they can handle, but because they want to avoid USDA inspections.
you make your choices based on what makes you feel good. it’s your right. as long as you can afford it, go for it. I’d prefer not to have my choices, based on facts and personal observations, to be taken away because of misrepresentation of an industry.
Dannielle, I agree whole heartedly with your last sentiment — we don’t want food choices restricted because of misrepresentation of an industry — but remember, it goes both ways. You’ve slung some pretty nasty mud yourself today and contributed to the propagation of misinformation. We need to refrain from that on both sides.
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