The Pig

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Gestation Crates

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 01) There is no liberty, or freedom, or joy for farmed pigs; there is only misery from the day they are born to the day they die. Female pigs used for breeding (called 'breeding sows' by industry) are confined most of their lives in 'gestation crates' which are so small that they cannot even turn around. The pigs' basic needs are enied, and they experience severe physical and psychological disorders. They don't even have enough room to lie down in a comfortable position.

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 02) This female pig is attempting to escape from the severe confinement of her gestation crate. There are also noticeable abrasions above her eyes from rubbing her head against the bars. Her life is no different than ours would be if we were forced to live in a coffin all our lives. It is living hell!

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 03) These prison cells are called gestation crates because the pigs in them are pregnant. Approximately three times a year they are raped by the "farmers" to artificially inseminate them.

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 04) Pigs are very intelligent and sensitive beings. Any human being who could knowingly and willfully inflict such suffering upon them, can only be described as evil.

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 05) This factory farming operation utilizes partially open gestation "stalls" in which the pigs are secured by their heads and necks so that they cannot even turn around. All they can do is stand up and lie down with their legs under them. The slotted floor allows urine and feces to be forced town to the sub-floor below. The fumes and odors are atrocious. To understand how these pigs feel, imagine yourself living in these conditions. Then stop eating pork, ham, bacon, and other products made from pig body parts.

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 06) In this factory farming operation, the pregnant pigs are totally enclosed in these extremely cramped crates. Any human woman who has been pregnant knows how uncomfortable pregnancy can be, and how torturous it would be to be unable to change her position, forced to suffer day in and day out all her life, as these pigs are. To treat any living being this way is evil.

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 07) There is never any relief for these suffering pigs. They exist in these cruel conditions every moment of every day during their lives of continual pregnancies. This cruelty must stop! Don't support the meat industry! Don't eat animals!

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 08) This is a view of the rear of the gestation crates, which seem to go on and on in never-ending rows of suffering. The only way this suffering will end is if humans say "No!" to eating these animals and their children.

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 09) Day and night, there is no end to their suffering, and they never get to enjoy the good earth that God created for them. We are always reminded of the message in Proverbs 12:10 which describes the depravity of the humans who cause this suffering: "A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.

(Pig - Gestation Crates - 10) Row upon row upon row of confined, frustrated, tortured sows, bred and born to produce piglets for people who are determined to eat other beings. The specific location of this "farm" is unfortunately of no importance. This is "standard agricultural practice" all over the world.

Farrowing Crates

(Pig - Farrowing Crates - 01) When a pig is ready to give birth to her children, she is moved to a "farrowing crate", which has a second attached cell for her babies. She suffers even while giving birth and nursing her young.

(Pig - Farrowing Crate - 02) A female pig is allowed to nurse her babies for only two to three weeks before being reimpregnated and having her babies stolen from her. This is all done for the love of money; and, as the Bible correctly says, it is the root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10), as we can plainly see.

(Pig - Farrowing Crates - 03) Every one of the prison cells in this concentration camp is occupied by a pig giving birth or nursing her young. This aberration of God's creation intent has to stop. Every time a person eats ham or pork or bacon, he or she is contributing to the pain and suffering of these pigs.

Factory Farming

(Pig - Factory Farming - 01) After young pigs are stolen from their mothers, they are brought to another concentration camp like this one with its concrete floor and steel bars. They never get to walk on a grassy field or feel the coolness of a mud puddle. They just live in misery.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 02) At this factory farm, these two young pigs died before reaching six months of age, when they would normally be slaughtered. That's right. They slaughter babies for human food. They even leave these dead pigs in plain sight of the other pigs, which increases their stress.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 03) Look at the expression on these little pigs' faces. They seek a little love and compassion from the photographer, even though other human beings have mistreated them. The only way we can show them the loving-kindness they seek is for humans to stop eating them.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 04) Pigs who are raised on factory farms, like these, are confined in metal and concrete pens with hard slatted flooring. They live here until they reach slaughter weight of 250 pounds at six months of age. Please have some compassion for these fellow living souls! Don't eat them! Tell other people why you're no longer eating pork, ham, bacon, and other products that come from animals.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 05) With so many plant foods available to us, why do so many people insist on eating animals and causing so much suffering and death? "Let no animal die that we may live!"

(Pig - Factory Farming - 06) Pen after over-crowded pen of sensitive young pigs fill this factory farm building. Imagine the utter frustration that the pig who is chewing on the bar must be feeling. Just because some humans have the power to treat animals so inhumanely is no excuse for doing it and for causing so much pain and suffering.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 07) It is not normal for a happy and healthy pig to chew on a metal bar. It is a sign of his or her mental anguish over being confined in these horrendously cruel conditions.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 08) These little pigs were born in a factory farm prison. They were nursed in prison. And when they were taken away from their mothers, they were placed in their own jail cells. Yet even in the midst of this cruelty, they reach out with love toward humans, only seeking to be loved in return. They know what it means to truly love your neighbor. Why is this concept so hard for most humans to understand?

(Pig - Factory Farming - 09) Take a really good look at the utter despair of the two pigs who are biting the metal bar, and the plea for mercy on the face of the other pig. Look into their faces and eyes and "see" their souls. They're no different from those of our companion cats and dogs. And, if we wouldn't consider eating our companion cats and dogs, we shouldn't eat them either.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 10) Only a human being could devise a torture chamber like this one, where a pig is kept so confined that she can't even scratch herself. It's for reasons like this, that we stopped eating any animals or their by-products. Please do the same as a protest against this cruel industry.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 11) When we look into this prison cell crowded with young pigs, we can't help but think of how most little human children want to make friends with young animals, pet them, and love them, just as in Isaiah's prophecy of the peaceable kingdom (Isaiah 11:6-9). However, sometime in their early lives most of these same children are taught to change their love of a fellow living soul into a love for ham and bacon. Instead of being filled with these animals' love, they are filled with their corpses.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 12) This dead pig was dragged from his or her crowded prison cell and dumped in the aisle. We have learned that the primary causes of premature death are: over-crowded conditions that promote the spread of disease and ammonia fumes, from urine and feces, that injure the pigs' lungs.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 13) The pig in the foreground is suffering from an untreated rupture. Since money is of primary concern to pig farmers and individual medical care costs more than the pig is worth, they let conditions like this go untreated. The skinniness of the pig is an indication of his or her suffering. We need to put a stop to this inhumanity. We need to stop eating animals!

(Pig - Factory Farming - 14) This is another photo of a typical factory farm building for raising young pigs in inhumanely close confinement until they are six months of age, when they are sent to slaughter.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 15) It appears that this factory farm is in the process of "re-stocking" their pens. While the pigs are still quite young, they have a little space in which to move around. As they get older and grow, they get crowded close together. However, at no time do they get to go outside and enjoy the world that God created for them.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 16) The pigs in this photo are covered with their own feces from being forced to lie down in it. Pigs, who have the freedom to go out in a pasture, usually keep themselves quite clean; and they never defecate where they sleep.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 17) One of the pigs in this filthy environment has died, or is near death. Such losses are considered part of doing business at the lowest possible cost. Every time a person eats pork, ham, or bacon, he or she contributes to this depraved indifference to life.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 18) Most of these factory farming concentration camps have several buildings where they inhumanely confine the pigs. Being able to see a part of God's green earth, but never being able to go out and enjoy it, seems, to us, a form of psychological torture.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 19) The only way we could possibly begin to feel what these pigs are forced to suffer is to imagine ourselves in their position. We would be confined in a pen with twenty-five or so other people, and no toilet facilities. We would be forced to urinate and defecate on the floor. Soon there would be no clean space, and we would be forced to lie down in each other's poop and pee. This would go on for months.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 19-a) Unable to move or stand on her own, this pig has been left to die. Her gaunt body indicates that she is starving to death. When pigs who are unable to walk (called "downers") arrive at the slaughterhouse, they have no protection from the most unthinkable cruelty. These sick and injured animals will be kicked, shocked with electric prods, and finally dragged off the trucks to their deaths.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 20) This pig is dead or dying. It is obvious that these pigs have more concern for their fallen companion than the farmers do for their "statistical loss."

(Pig - Factory Farming - 21) Here is another look at this fallen pig, whose friends are pleading for help. The farmers seem to be deaf to their cries. Hopefully, we can hear them. Pork, ham and bacon are not worth this kind of pain and suffering!

(Pig - Factory Farming - 22) We find it amazing that these pigs keep looking toward the photographer with expressions of hope. Humans have caused their misery, yet they seem to understand that other humans can end their suffering. Are you one of them?

(Pig - Factory Farming - 23) It appears that this pig died from head trauma with a blunt instrument. Look at the expression of the living pig beseeching us to end this holocaust.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 24) Here is a closer look at this dead piggy and what appears to be his or her blood on the floor.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 24-a) "Dead piles" are a constant presence in factory farms. While pigs are fed massive amounts of antibiotics to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them, hundreds of thousands succumb to the stress of violent mutilations and intensive confinement. Dead pigs are sent to rendering plants, where they are made into dog and cat food or into feed that will be given to pigs, chickens, and other farmed animals.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 25) Every time we look into the faces of farmed animals, like these two pigs, it's almost as though we can "hear" their haunting questions: "Can you help us? Why are they doing this to us? When is it going to stop?"

(Pig - Factory Farming - 26) This is another look inside a pig factory farming building, with dead pigs lying in the aisle. There is no compassion; there is only suffering, death, and the love of money.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 27) We believe that as long as we abuse our power over animals (as these animal exploitation photo journals attest), we will continue to find excuses for abusing our power over our fellow human beings, and we will not have peace in this world.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 28) This is a photo of another dead pig lying in the aisle. Every time we see such barbarity, we can't help but come to the conclusion that to these farmers, he or she is just a statistical loss, a part of doing business. There is no compassion! There is no feeling of remorse - except for a loss of money.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 29) This is another picture of the pig with the rupture, standing on the hard slatted concrete floor. Her floor is covered with feces and urine, because only a portion of it falls through the cracks. However, it appears that 100% of mercy and compassion has "fallen through the cracks."

(Pig - Factory Farming - 30) A pig does not get this thin overnight. Obviously, she has been suffering with this problem for a fairly long time. We have heard factory farmers say that they love their pigs, and have seen them weep for them when they died in a flood. We find it nearly impossible to believe them, and can only conclude that all they love is money; and all they mourn is the loss of money that the pigs represent!

(Pig - Factory Farming - 31) These factory farmed pigs have no choice but to lie down in each others dung and urine. We hear talk in Christian circles about a fear of hell, yet some of these same people create a hell for others. We cannot help but wonder what will happen to these people when they come before our just God.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 32) Based upon the size of the dead pig in the aisle, we believe that it was "thumped" to death. "Thumping" is an industry term for grabbing a "runt" by the hind legs and swinging it up over the farmers head and then with as much force as possible, slamming the back of the pig's head against the floor.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 33) We believe that thumping a pig to death is a form of murder for hire. For the sake of a few extra dollars in profits, the owner of the farm has a worker kill a "runt", so that they won't "waste" any more food on it. Furthermore, they compound this "crime" against God by killing the piggy in front of the other pigs and leaving it lie around until it's convenient to take it away. We really hope people begin to think about these things every time they consider putting an animal's flesh or by-product on their plates.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 34) Another dead, fly-covered pig lies in the aisle of this pig concentration camp.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 35) This is a photo of a "sea" of misery which seems to go on forever. In this building there is no mercy, no compassion, and no comfort for these pigs. Isn't it time that human beings begin to have some compassion for other living souls, and show some mercy by not eating them? We believe it is!

(Pig - Factory Farming - 36) As the two dead pigs testify, death is a common occurrence on these factory farms. It is not mourned. It is considered only a statistical loss on the farmer's balance sheet.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 37) These are really cute little piggies, aren't they? Do you know what is done to them? 90% of male pigs are castrated before they are weaned. Many have their ears notched when they are 3-days old. 80% have their tails docked. Many have their eight sharp teeth cut when they are 24 hours old. We can also sense the degree of mercy and compassion of these factory farmers by the fact that they perform these mutilations without any anesthesia. Every person who eats pork, ham, bacon, or any other pork product participates in these cruel mutilations by providing a demand for more piggies to torture.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 38) This baby pig is screaming in pain and struggling violently as this worker cuts off his or her tail. No anesthesia is used in this cruel industry.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 39) This is another video still of the screaming and struggling baby pig. In addition to having their tails cut off, baby pigs have to suffer having their teeth clipped and their ears trimmed without anesthesia. Rightly so, does the Bible teach us that the compassion of the wicked is cruel (Proverbs 12:10).

(Pig - Factory Farming - 40 A sow with an open sore on her nose from an apparent beating with a metal gate rod. Her whole life is about being confined, being impregnated, giving birth to piglets she only sees for a few days, being beaten when she doesn't "obey" immediately.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 41) Workers hold sick or injured piglets' by their back legs and slam their heads on the floor rather than ever consider any kind of treatment or care. Oftentimes they do not die immediately but are tossed into a in with other dead or dying piglets.

(Pig - Factory Farming - 42) One employee sprayed paint�for over 30 seconds�into the nostrils of a nursing sow. Just another example of dominance and cruelty tolerated by businesses whose profits are derived from providing cheap "food" for people.

Transportation

(Pig - Transporting - 01) The body of a hog, who died in transit, is being hoisted into the back of a rendering company's truck. Such animal bodies are ground up and used in animal feed, fertilizer, and other rendered products.

(Pig - Transporting - 02) These are the bodies of two pigs who died in transit to a slaughterhouse. To better understand that the love of money is the root of this evil, please read the following quote from Lancaster Farming (October 27, 1990)-- "Death losses during transport are too high--amounting to more than $8 million per year. But it doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out why we load as many hogs on a truck as we do. It's cheaper... Even with a zero death rate that might be associated with providing more space on the truck, the hogs we save would not be enough to pay for the increased transportation costs of hauling fewer hogs on a load."

(Pig - Transporting - 03) In her book, Slaughterhouse, Gail Eisnitz described the transporting of pigs to slaughter on frigid winter days, and the actual freezing of some pigs to the side of the truck. Upon arrival at the slaughterhouse they are pulled loose, leaving chunks of flesh behind. We believe that is what happened to this pig.

(Pig - Transporting - 04) Instead of humanely euthanizing this pig before removing him or her from the truck, he or she was brutally ripped from the truck and and left to die a slow agonizing death.

(Pig - Transportation - 06) In 2004, a transport truck owned by Smithfield Foods and loaded with 180 pigs flipped over in Virginia. Many pigs were killed in the accident, while others lay along the roadside, injured and dying. PETA officials arrived on the scene and offered to humanely euthanize the injured animals, but Smithfield refused to allow the suffering animals a humane death because the company could not legally sell the flesh of animals who had been euthanized. Similar accidents involving animal transport trucks occur almost every day. After an accident in April 2005, Smithfield spokesperson Jerry Hostetter told one reporter, "I hate to admit it, but it happens all the time."

(Pig - Transportation - 05) This pig did not get off the truck when it arrived at the slaughterhouse, so these workers pushed him or her head first off the second tier, a drop of about 4-5 feet. The cruelty in the meat industry seems to know no end!

Slaughter

(Pig - Slaughter - 01) These are pigs in a holding pen waiting to be killed in the adjacent slaughterhouse. They were all dead within a few hours after this photo was taken.

(Pig - Slaughter - 02) This is another look at the holding pen at the slaughterhouse. Left behind is a dead pig (right) and a "downer" pig who is too sick to walk. Typically the downer pig would be left to die if they couldn't get it to walk to his or her slaughter. When a business is based on killing, there can be no compassion or mourning. Won't you please mourn for them and the millions of other animals who suffer and die each day? If your sorrow is true, you'll stop eating them, too.

(Pig - Slaughter - 2a) A worker cuts the pigs' throats and drains their blood. In many slaughterhouses, other terrified animals watch as the pigs further up in the line have their throats slit and are dunked into tanks of scalding-hot water. One slaughterhouse worker explains, "Bad-sticks [pigs whose necks weren't cut deep enough to open the veins] usually don't have enough time to bleed out. They end up drowning in the scalding tank before they ever bleed to death."

(Pig - Slaughter - 03) This and the following 14 photos were taken inside a small slaughterhouse where only one animal is killed and butchered at a time. It is a far cry from the unbelievable horror of an assembly line slaughterhouse where thousands of pigs are "processed" each day. This pig is entering the "stunbox."

(Pig - Slaughter - 04) We believe that this pig has been stunned with a captive bolt gun, which fires a steel pin into the pigs brain to render it unconscious. To kill another living soul requires the person to harden his or her heart toward feeling for that animal, and his or her God-given desire to live and enjoy life just as much as we do.

(Pig - Slaughter - 05) The next step in this slaughtering process was to hoist up the still living pig by one leg and weigh it. We have been informed that in the assembly line operations, about 5% of the pigs hoisted up this way are still fully conscious.

(Pig - Slaughter - 06) The pig is then "stuck" in the neck and the pig's blood and life begins to drain away. A stream of blood can be seen running out of the pig's neck and into the barrel.

(Pig - Slaughter - 07) In this photo the hooves have been cut off and the skinning process has begun.

(Pig - Slaughter - 08) The life's blood of this pig is draining into the barrel.

(Pig - Slaughter - 09) This pig has been skinned and gutted. A sensitive living being (now dead) is in the process of being turned into meat.

(Pig - Slaughter - 10) The smaller pigs are laid on this rack for butchering. In the assembly line slaughterhouses, pigs are butchered while still hanging.

(Pig - Slaughter - 11) This woman is slitting open the pig's belly so she can take out the inner organs. It's one of the pleasures of the killing business!

(Pig - Slaughter - 12) In this photo they are peeling the skin off the pig.

(Pig - Slaughter - 13) The skin of this pig has been pulled down over his or her neck.

(Pig - Slaughter - 14) This once living pig has now been fully skinned.

(Pig - Slaughter - 15) The slaughterhouse workers are now in the process of splitting the pig in half.

(Pig - Slaughter - 16) This slaughterhouse worker has sawn through about half of the pig's back.

(Pig - Slaughter - 17) This pig has now been split into two sides. We hope that this little tour of a slaughtering operation will help people really think about what they put on their plates, and what is really behind the neat plastic-wrapped packages of meat in the market.

(Pig - Slaughter - 18) These pigs are being dumped down a shoot on to the killing room floor. Some are still fully conscious and are struggling. We have seen no compassion in this industry. There is only the inflicting of fear, pain and death.

(Pig - Slaughter - 19) In the background of this killing room video still, a pig that struggled loose from the hanging shackles can be seen struggling to get to his or her feet. In our opinion, there is no such thing as humane slaughter, and everyone who eats their flesh or wears their skin becomes a party to the inflicting of this pain and suffering.

(Pig - Slaughter - 20) These pigs are still fully conscious and struggling. The man with the knife had to repeatedly step back to avoid being kicked. Finally, he is able to grab a foreleg and stab the pig. The cruelty we have viewed in slaughterhouses is beyond belief.

(Pig - Slaughter - 21) While the pig in the foreground is bleeding out, the next pig hanging upside down on the line is struggling violently and screaming, causing the slaughterer to step back out of view. So much for the myth that these animals are unconscious!

(Pig - Slaughter - 22) This is another video still of the pig struggling to get free of the very painful chain that is holding him or her upside down by one leg on the conveyer line. From the movement and the cries, it is obvious that this pig is fully conscious.

(Pig - Slaughter - 23) This is another video still of the violent struggling of this pig to be free from his or her fear and suffering. We cannot understand how anyone who believes in God could allow, and contribute to, this pain and suffering.

(Pig - Slaughter - 24) In this video still, this fully conscious pig's violent struggling to be free, causes the chain that is holding the pig upside down to jump on the conveyer line.

(Pig - Slaughter - 25) In this video still, the struggling pig's overhead shackles came loose and he or she fell to the blood covered floor with a horrible thud.

(Pig - Slaughter - 26) In this video still the pig can be seen struggling in the blood in the blood on the floor. How can humans allow this to happen and still consider themselves to be humane?

(Pig - Slaughter - 27) The pig continues to struggle in the blood covered floor. Don't contribute to these atrocities. Don't eat or wear animal products.

(Pig - Slaughter - 28) Because of the fear caused by "swine flu" in the spring of 2009, Egypt became the only country in the world that decided to slaughter all 300,000 of the pigs, raised in this Muslim country for the Christian minority. The culling was some of the most brutal treatment of "farmed" animals we have ever seen. Pigs and piglets were loaded 5 or 10 a time onto a front loader, that then dumped its cargo into a dump truck with one or two or four layers of previously dumped animals. Suffocating, broken bones, abject terror for all of them. Over and over again until the dump truck was filled to the brim, when the pigs were then transported to mass graves (see Pig-Slaughter-29). Going vegan is the ONLY way for human beings to end these atrocities.

(Pig - Slaughter - 29) After the horrific, debilitating loading of the pigs into dump trucks (see Pig-Slaughter-28), they were taken to mass graves where they were covered in caustic chemicals before being buried. Media reports tell of the pigs screaming at the pain of the chemicals for half hour or more before they are dead. This is the intended fate of all of Egypt�s 300,000 pigs. And in case you might be wondering...in the United States, hundreds of thousands of pigs are killed each and every hour to be turned into bacon or ribs or chops. Go Vegan!

Pig Exploitation