This Little Piggy…
Sow Stalls, originally uploaded by Animal RIghts Advocates Inc..
I am finding the challenge difficult to talk about at the moment without sounding like an over zealous vegan wielding a light sabre of tofu. We were at a Japanese restaurant the other night, I tried to find out where they had procured their meat but the English to Demure Japanese Waitress translation wasn’t working so well. I found out that their meat came from Sydney though and I ate delicious sushi/sashimi and endamame.
Pigs!The magical animal. I am not immune to the beauty of a bacon sarnie, slowly roasted pork belly, prosciutto, ham and cheese toasties, salami, sausages, pork dumplings. I love my pork. But, time to face up to the fact that pigs suffer and die so I can eat pork. So have these piggies had a good life?
From SaveBabe.com:
In Australia, the majority of the 300,000 female breeding pigs (sows) are kept inside sheds continually pregnant and confined. It is these animals that produce the piglets destined to become bacon, ham and pork products. Most sows are confined for at least some of their 16 week pregnancy in tiny metal individual stalls, (and one third for the entire pregnancy!) so small they are unable to turn around. At best they can take a small step forward. They have no bedding. They are forced to stand or lie on hard floors. These ‘sow stalls’ as the industry calls them have been banned in Britain for welfare reasons and are being phased out in the European Union.
Pigs are social animals with innate behaviour to nest, nurture their young, wallow in mud baths to keep cool and interact with other pigs. This natural expression is not allowed with the intensive farming methods used currently in Australia.
Doesn’t sound like such a good life to me?
Alternatives to factory farming pigs are:
Free Range:
Pigs are kept in outdoor paddocks with erected shelters.
Bred Free Range:
Breeding sows and boars (adult males) are kept in paddocks with shelters rather than indoors as in factory farms. The piglets that are born to these pigs are weaned at about 3 to 4 weeks of age and then raised in indoor enclosures
Organic:
Organic farming of pigs requires that pigs are bred and raised in a free range manner. Organic ‘accreditation schemes’ also usually ban mutilations such as teeth clipping and tail docking of piglets and require later weaning of piglets. All organic schemes oppose the use of chemicals and antibiotic.
Additional resources
Save Babe
http://www.savebabe.com
free range pork producers:
http://www.melandapark.com.au/
-has a good FAQ
Organic pork producer:
http://www.pastureperfect.com.au
Animal Rights Advocates
http://www.ara.org.au/
(thank you for the photo)
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