Friday, July 01, 2011

Please, Mercy for the PIgs!

US Person does not make a habit of posting videos or pictures for their shock value or to appeal to perverted interest.  The animal welfare group Mercy for Animals has release a shocking video of a factory pig farm operating in Iowa. The video is extremely graphic and disturbing. The reality of these incredibly cruel practices, which take place all over the country and not just in Iowa, must be exposed and hopefully stopped because of public outrage. Iowa legislators at the behest of agricultural interests are attempting to pass a bill, not to end the cruelty, but conceal it by silencing whistleblowers who document animal abuse.  Iowa's existing statutes prohibiting animal cruelty largely exempt farm animals.  Some of the incredibly cruel and inhuman treatment of intelligent pigs witnessed by an undercover investigator:
  • Mother sows confined to barren metal crates barely larger than their own bodies – unable to turn around or lie down comfortably for nearly their entire lives;
  • Workers ripping out the testicles of conscious piglets without the use of painkillers;
  • Piglets suffering with herniated intestines, due to botched castration;
  • Conscious piglets having their tails painfully sliced into and yanked off with dull clippers;
  • Large, open, pus-filled wounds and pressure sores;
  • Sick and injured pigs left to languish and slowly die without proper veterinary care;
  • Mother pigs – physically taxed from constant birthing – suffering from distended, inflamed, bleeding, and usually fatal uterine prolapses;
  • Management training workers to throw piglets across the room 
You can help stop these abusive practices by contributing to Mercy for Animals,  the Humane Farming Association, or a similar animal welfare group that specializes in protecting farm animals. Humans owe a moral debt to  take care of them and treat them with respect until their lives are ended so our lives can go on.