“I wish death for them, knowing that that will likely be the only release they have from pain.”
This pig, photographed in a Spanish farm, is a “breeder pig”.
Breeder sows are artificially inseminated and give birth to a litter
twice or three times a year. She’s kept behind bars in a crate,
where she cannot turn around and has trouble lying down. When her
babies are born they can suckle, but she is unable to interact with
them.
Renowned photo-journalist
Jo-Anne McArthur of We Animals Media has
devoted nearly two decades to photographing animals in desperate
circumstances – those who live inside farms, labs and cages all over
the world. The photos that accompany this article were taken by
McArthur inside industrialised pig agriculture in Europe.
Pigs are commonly placed around fifth or sixth in the list of most
intelligent animals, higher than dogs. They solve mazes, understand
and display emotions, and understand symbolic language. Six-week-old
piglets that see food in a mirror can work out where the food is
located. In contrast, it takes human babies several months to
understand reflection. Pigs also understand abstract representations
and can play video games using a joystick. In Nature, pigs have
excellent object-location memory. If they find food anywhere,
they’ll remember to look there again. They also possess a
sophisticated sense of direction, and can find their way home from
huge distances away. Like other mammals, pigs are sentient beings,
who experience joy, loneliness, frustration, fear, and pain. Despite
this, most pigs alive today are kept in cruel factory farms where
mothers are confined in barren metal cages so small they’re unable
to turn around. Piglets are castrated without painkillers, and sick
piglets are routinely slammed headfirst into concrete floor. These
are all standard practices in industrialised pig farming.
If there is a baby who has strayed behind her, she cannot even
reach over and pick her up. If there is a dead baby next to her,
there’s nothing she can do but watch it lying there.
It is common for their urine and feces to build up under captive
pigs, causing them to develop respiratory problems due to the
ammonia inside the farms.
In the extreme conditions of their confinement, pigs feel enormous
pressures that can result in mental illnesses. Some literally go
insane, and frustration spilling over to violence is common. This
pig has lost an ear, most likely in a fight.
A pig’s intelligence is partly demonstrated through their curiosity.
When she is inside factory farms, McArthur notices that pigs will
make eye contact with her as she passes. “They’re asking questions,”
she says. “They have no answers. They don’t know what happens next.
They know we— humans— are the ones who hold the key. We’re the ones
who move them from crate to crate. We’re the ones who take away
their young.”
“I wish death for them, knowing that that will likely be the only
release they have from pain.”