A friend of mine who lives in the United Kingdom once scoffed at my then-vegetarianism. His father was a butcher, and he maintained that the animals he ate were well cared-for and humanely killed. I’m still not sure I believe in a “humane kill,” but I can maintain that here in America, our factory farms are quite different, as this new footage shows. (Warning: the content of this video is very graphic.)
The pigs being harvested for sale at Wal-Mart are being treated anything but humanely. Not only are they crammed into tiny gestation crates where they can’t turn around (can you imagine a life like that?), they are also having their tails and testicles cut off without anesthesia. “Runts” and other pigs that don’t grow correctly are smashed to death and put into a pile. I am writing this as plainly as I can; I do not mean to shock, but to simply help people be aware of what they are paying for when they spend their money on pigs treated this way.