Pigs
A pig has a higher
IQ than a dog. Pigs are sociable, friendly animals
that enjoy human's company. Contrary to popular
belief, pigs are very clean. They roll themselves
in mud only to freshen themselves and to get rid
of mosquitoes.
Like chickens, pigs
in factory farms have to survive in a terrible
environment. Often they are placed in 'boxes'
that are piled up from the floor to the ceiling,
or in restrained spaces that don't give them the
freedom to move. Sometimes a group of pigs have
to live together in overcrowded spaces, and some
pigs panic. Cannibalism is frequent. Pigs chew
on each other's tails because they don't have
enough space to move and they're stressed out.
When nothing is done to prevent cannibalism, some
pigs die and are eaten up by the rest.
Pigs have an excellent
sense of smell. They're capable of detecting different
smells from different types of edible roots through
the ground. When urine and excrements are not
evacuated outside the factory farm building, the
toxic gas that is released in the air fills up
their lungs and cause diseases such as pneumonia.
In order to prevent that (they lose weight and
therefore commercial value when they're sick)
, they're stuffed with drugs such as tetracycline.
Their hooves are
made for scratching the ground when they look
for food, or to defend themselves when needed.
Since they have to stand up on concrete floor
all the time in factory farms, pigs develop painful
lesions and their hooves sometimes split in two
and get infected. To alleviate the pain, they
stand in unnatural positions. This problem could
be fixed simply by allowing them more space so
that they could lie down. But it would be more
expensive, therefore it is not an option to be
considered for producers!
The sow is used
as a reproduction machine. Sows are not conceived
to give birth to more than six piglets a year,
but in factory farms they are giving birth to
as much as forty five piglets a year. These piglets
are taken away from their mother soon after their
birth, and the mother instinctively cries out
for them. When piglets are not fed by their mother
for a few weeks, they die. This is why special
feeding machines have been invented to allow producers
to separate them quickly after they're born.
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