Pig industry borrows from Planned Parenthood playbook when confronted with undercover video
Huffington Post has posted an absolutely horrifying undercover video exposing abuse of the pigs and piglets at a Wyoming pig breeding farm. WARNING: Graphic and disturbing…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNY4Fjsdft4[/youtube]
The response by the National Pork Producers Council may sound familiar:
The FTC complaint is the latest attack by animal-rights activists on America’s hog farmers, an assault that seems obviously in response to the U.S. pork industry’s strident opposition to congressional legislation that would allow federal bureaucrats to tell farmers how to raise and care for their animals.
If it sounds familiar it is because the verbiage is about the same as that used by the abortion industry whenever pro-lifers expose its underbelly. For instance, here was Planned Parenthood’s April 23 response to an undercover video sting it thinks was conducted at several of its facilities on the topic of sex selective abortions:
Recent attempts to restrict or deny access to safe abortion… [is] primarily a political tactic of groups who work to make abortion illegal. Planned Parenthood opposes legislation that intrudes on the doctor/patient relationship….
Direct word substitution:
The ___ complaint is the latest attack by anti-choice activists on America’s abortion providers, an assault that seems obviously in response to the U.S. abortion industry’s strident opposition to congressional legislation that would allow federal bureaucrats to tell doctors how to care for their patients.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
This pig video is really making the rounds on Facebook. Two of my nieces were appalled after watching it, vowing to go vegan. Images are a powerful tool for change—including abortion.
Awesome comparison. Most (all?) PETA members are pro-choice, so this comparison should give them food for thought.
Not all, Ensley.
When doctors and other so-called professionals lie and mislead their patients (a fetus with a beating heart is called a clump of cells for example) and put their patients in danger (no gurney access, no emergency care protocol, no admitting at local ER’s etc.), then guess what, we need to hold them accountable.
I’ve known too many good doctors who do their best, and it’s not fair to them to sit idly by and let abortionists ruin the name of the entire profession.
I used to be very strict vegetarian, but even though I eat meat again, I do believe that we can treat animals better before we eat them. But, yes, many of my vegan and veg friends are anti-human and see humans as a pathology on the planet. That mindset is of itself an illness: no species should have a dis-ease toward its own existence. Fortunately, not all vegans feel that way and hopefully those few can set a better example for their self-hating peers.
I am a vegetarian. I am not some huge animal lover and am not opposed to killing animals, but I think there is a minimal level of decency that should be bestowed upon animals i.e. not torturing them. Plus, it cannot be healthy for humans to eat the meat of animals who were so stressed out and maltreated.
I actually have met some animal rights people who are pro-life, but I wish more were. The response of the pork producers really does reek of the pro-choice movement: pay no attention to those being grossly mistreated and killed, and instead focus on the “rights” of those torturing them.
Pigs and Planned Parenthood mentioned in the same post. Wow, the jokes practically write themselves.
Of course, I shouldn’t make any such jokes because it would be offensive to pigs.
“Wow, the jokes practically write themselves.”
Yeah, I know.
Michele Bachmann ran for the Republican presidential nomination.
Now, she’s a citizen of Switzerland.
How funny is that?
I guess she did it because she and her family just luuuuuuv the United States.
Great post, Adair. I am not a vegetarian but I do buy meat from local(ish – greenmarket) vendors who are ethical in their treatment of the animals. It’s more expensive but not unmanageably so for me – I eat less meat overall but I consider the trade-off worth it. Buying from a factory farm would feel to me like taking pills that contain dehydrated fetus powder. If it costs a certain amount of money to treat animals ethically then that’s what meat costs, in my mind.
Hi Adair and Alexandra,
I am a meat eater but like you, oppose cruelty to animals. Yes, I know nature is cruel, but that doesn’t justify humans brutalizing animals. If you can’t or won’t humanely and properly care for an animal, any animal, then don’t keep it.
I am saddened to see such magnificent animals as elephants, bears and big cats forced to perform in circuses in a manner so against their nature, i.e. jumping through hoops or dancing.
Then if the animal goes beserk, its killed. Such a terrible waste. These animals are not on this planet to entertain us.
Oh and Alexandra, like you I also buy local, family farms and free range fed animals. I get my eggs from the Amish farmers who get them right out of the barn. Doesn’t get any fresher than that!
What ticks me off is this *isn’t* what raising food animals has to be and the overpriced free-range/grass fed/cage free etc isn’t the ‘price’ for meat. I come from Oregon, grew up in cattle territory (and general ranch territory). I can walk into the neighborhood grocer in Oregon, not some high priced speciality store, and buy the grass-fed, properly raised/slaughtered beef or the properly raised pork, or 100% natural chicken for more than a dollar less a pound than I’d pay in Iowa (were I live currently) for the factory farmed, inappropriated fed/raised/slaughtered meat that’s readily availible here. It is a complete and utter lie that humanely kept animals have to drive the prices up. And it’s incredibly unethical for ‘organic’ chains to artificially inflate their prices so only the rich or those who eat meat once or twice a month can afford to buy *real* pork or beef or chicken. Why does a lb of ‘real’ chicken cost $5 over here when it costs 97 cents over there? Why does the country fair blue ribbon pork (obviously availible only once a year but still valid) cost less than this undersized stuff they call pork over here? Yeah, I know, I’m ranting and slightly off topic. But how is it ethical to slap a several hundred precent increase on your price just because you slapped on an ‘organic’ lable, thus keeping it from the hands of most people.
Hi Jespren,
Good points. Maybe as free range becomes more popular and demanded, prices will become competitive. Cage free doesn’t always mean what people assume it does. That’s why I go directly to the Amish who will use only traditional methods. A friend of my husband raises and sells free range chickens and you definitely notice the vastly improved taste and texture of the meat. Yes, they are more expensive but hopefully supply and demand will eventually bring prices down.
For hot dogs I always buy Hebrew National. Its Kosher and thus more expensive, but definitely taste better and you know what you’re eating!
Also, try to avoid buying farmed fish. I try to buy the fresh caught in the wild. Or so it says!
That was the first “cruel meat producer” video I’ve ever seen that actually disturbed me :(
What’s wrong with those people?! Treating food like food is fine, I don’t expect compassion for something we’re about to eat, indifference is expected…. but these people acted like they had some kind of personal vendetta and hatred against these pigs :( Just viscous >:(
That’s our FOOD, not GARBAGE, they are ANIMALS, not TOYS. And until slaughter it’s ALIVE. I don’t understand it at all. :((
I couldn’t bring myself to watch the video. I’m not vegetarian, but if I had to do my life over again I’d be a vet, and make a career out of caring for animals.
That said, I love babies, and still cannot believe that so many people are buying that line of @#$%! that PP spins out in the media. I guess the quote from the NPPC just proves my point. I can see it now: “Guys, I know how to cover our behinds. Remember those coupla’ lines that PP hoodwinked everyone with?….” like the Serpant in the garden, the dealers of death are.
Okay, people should relax. I’ve been around pigs before, and they snort and grunt and squeal. They are big and difficult to handle. It is entirely normal to slap them to get them going (moving). While I do not agree with tossing the piglets or intentionally hurting animals, I do think that this video was highly dramatized. Any GOOD and SMART agricultural operation handles its stock carefully. You would not want to injure your animals in anyway by hurting them – this damages and bruises the meat. Not only that, but God does not want us to mistreat His creation. I wonder how much of this video was truth and how much was sensationalism. Anyone who intentionally or by bad herding methods damages and kills their livestock is not only shooting him/herself in the foot (decreasing profits), but is also not honoring God by taking good care of His creatures.
My point is this: we need to look at a video like this with scepticism, and say, “Yes, these people need to be more gentle. They are doing wrong.” On the other hand, what is the agenda of the people filming the video: are they trying to call for restrictive laws on animal handling? Are they trying to sensationalize parts of the video that in reality are a fairly normal way of animal handling?”. Before going crazy about this video, let’s look at what normal animal handling looks like and what MOST agricultural practices do. Let’s not create a bunch of restrictive laws based on what one organization is doing wrong. Penalize the the ones in the wrong, not the ones who are doing things the right way.
Julie, having grown up around cattle ranchers I have traditionally taken the same view. Provided you want the meat to sell you have to treat animals a certain way and, in general, that way is ‘good’. But then, where I grew up no cattle rancher in his right mind would ever feed a cow corn, they can’t digest it properly and it makes them sick. No one feeds a cow *corn*! And pigs need room to move about, they don’t grow right in small places and need some space for muscle development. No pig farmer in his right mind would even *think* about actually raising a pig in a crate (maybe putting them in a restrictive space for a few weeks right before slaughter to fatten them, but that’s after you’ve developed the meat by letting them have space to move)…then I moved and turns out cattle ranchers really do feed their cows corn, they really do raise pigs in crates, and chickens are bred to mature so fast they end up looking like game hens in the store not chickens. The meat sucks, it tastes unnatural, it’s tiny, and they ‘plump’ it to make it look more normal. And people, myself included, buy it cuz there isn’t a choice. The first time I tasted corn fed beef I thought it had gone bad. Most of 3 years later I still can’t believe how small the chickens are, and the pork chops are undersized, not the right color, and taste on the verge of going bad even when ‘fresh’.
So yeah, I still want to believe that the average rancher treats their animals right proper, like where I grew up, because that’s how you get good meat, but judging from the caliber of the meat I’ve run across…
Late, brief comment on this old thread, but… I just watched the video (against my better judgment), and even as one who was raised on a farm (and who eats meat regularly, and who even helped to slaughter animals at need), this turned my stomach. I honestly felt ill; whatever possesses us to treat animals as if they were mere pieces of wood or rubbish, with no nerve-endings or primitive emotions? Part of our calling as children of God is to treat animals with the stewardship appropriate to them… which includes treating them humanely, and avoiding any unnecessary infliction of suffering on them. And I’m quite sorry, but: financial ambitions and fastidious tastes for specific cuisines simply aren’t proportionate moral reasons for inflicting pain/suffering!
I once heard it said that a reliable indicator of future (or present) cruelty to humans is the presence of cruelty to animals, especially helpless and/or tame ones. I find no reason to doubt that.