Former 'King of Pork' Discovers the Horrible Truth Behind Factory Farming
After viewing undercover footage of factory farm conditions, which showed that animals were packed into tiny metal crates in which they couldn't even turn around, comedian and former spokesperson for the New Zealand Pork Industry Mike King recently spoke out against the atrocious conditions that pigs on factory farms in New Zealand must endure.
Mike decided to find out the facts for himself in a visit to a New Zealand factory farm, which he describes as, "absolutely harrowing." Mike visited a North Island piggery and discovered pregnant sows confined in steel stalls that were too small for them even to turn around, let alone exhibit any natural behaviors. Mike says that the noise of the distressed animals was deafening and that the smell of the urine and feces that was caked on the floor was overpowering. Some pigs could barely stand, and one sow was dead in her crate.
"All I remember when we walked through the door was the screaming. These pigs were screaming. It is one of those sounds you never forget. It was the same way you hear babies crying in distress," says Mike. "I just walked around, looking at these beautiful animals, huge animals, wedged in these cages. You look into their eyes and they were either despairing, terrified, lost ...."
Mike's discovery is unfortunately not unique. Factory farms are exactly as their name suggests: factories that breed and treat animals as products and exploit them for profit. Pregnant pigs are contained in stalls for up to 16 weeks and are then moved to a farrowing crate, where they give birth to their babies on a cold concrete floor. Most sows have two pregnancies per year, meaning they will still spend a third of their miserable lives in sow stalls or farrowing crates.
Pigs are highly social and intelligent creatures, who are considered smarter than 3-year-old human children by some scientists. Please join New Zealand animal rights group S.A.F.E., PETA Asia-Pacific, and Mike in calling for an end to the cruel practices on factory farms by using the form below to send an e-mail to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.
