horse-mastPORKY PIG IS CRYING RIVERS OF TEARS
The American Holocaust Against The Animals - Article Series From The Caring Heart with Dr. Joyce from Spokane Washington

“Thou shalt keep therefore all his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth which the Lord thy God giveth thee forever.” (Deuteronomy 4:40)

One of God’s firm commandments for all mankind to follow is “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Do you remember the cute, pink, chubby, smiling animated cartoon pig that was created by Warner Bros. and became a popular star for years? Well, Porky Pig is not smiling now. He is crying rivers of tears because billions of his brother and sister pigs are being mercilessly killed ongoing, all the time. Not only is the killing unthinkably brutal, but their whole lives are!!
People who claim to have Jesus in their hearts are supposed to be reflecting his completely loving, caring spirit. According to Albert Schweitzer, that caring should reflect Reverence For All Life. For Jesus followers to have anything to do with the barbaric pig horrors going on, every minute of every day, does not make sense to me!! Too many support such unthinkable pain and suffering with their dollars at the cash registers and what they put on their dinner plates.

Pigs are the most intelligent of the large domesticated animals, being as smart as the average human three-year-old. They are clever, friendly, outgoing, sensitive, and loyal. The pig’s cognitive abilities include a perception of time, and a perception of future events. Pigs communicate with each other using twenty distinct grunts, squeals, and oinks. Such communication teaches piglets to follow their moms and stay close to her by six days of age. Pigs are loyal to their families and its hierarchies, with sows preferring their own piglets. The piglets, interestingly enough, establish “teat order,” which reduces conflict among them. Pigs can recognize 20 or 30 of their peers. When their social group is disrupted, or they are isolated, they experience great stress and can engage in abnormal behaviors.

Pigs are naturally very clean animals and avoid soiling their living areas. They cannot sweat, so when they become overheated, they need mud to wollow in to cool themselves. When living freely outdoors, they spend hours playing and lying in the sun. They are very explorative of their surroundings with their powerful sense of smell. About a day before giving birth, sows in a natural environment will leave their social group and find a suitable place to gather branches and soft materials to build a nest. After birthing their piglets, the sows will stay in the nest with them for about a week, and will establish tight bond with them.

Pigs have been food for humans for over 10,000 years, ever since humans dropped the nomadic lifestyle and stayed “put” enough to raise them. They have fed trillions of solders during innumerable wars. They helped pioneers settle the West. They reproduce faster than any other large domesticated animal. Presently, 100 million are raised each year in the United States for slaughter. Six million sows are busy producing more than 20 piglets each per year, until they become too exhausted at 5 or 6 years of age and are then sent to slaughter. Pigs are omnivorous and are fed grain and a protein source, such as soy beans, meat, and bone meal. They are given unnecessary antibiotics for growth production. Even so, pork meat has been found to be contaminated with a variety of drug resistant “super bugs,” very dangerous for human beings to eat.

Sows have to live most of their very confined, terribly uncomfortable lives in mental gestation crates, which are too small for them to even turn around in, There has been huge objection to these crates and several countries and US states have banned their use. Consumers and many companies object, too. Crates are widely condemned as being one of the cruelest factory farm practices in the world, with huge, covered sheds housing row upon row of them. Sows can stand up, turn from side to side, lie down, and that is all. They suffer from sores caused by rubbing up against the metal bars. Their muscles atrophy, their bones get weak, and can even break underneath them. (Of course, no veterinary care is given for even serious bodily problems.) The bottoms of the crates are uncomfortably slatted, to allow their manure to fall into deep pool, or lagoons, underneath them. Sows are kept in the crates for the four months of their pregnancies, during which they can often suffer abrasions, sores, ulcers, and leg and feet deformities. Of course, they are denied any opportunity to engage in any natural species behaviors. Being in huge, windowless sheds, they never see the sky or the sun. The air is heavy with ammonia, which burns their eyes and their breathing apparatus. I have not read any mention that they are even taken out of the crates over a four-month period to take a break, stretch, and walk around. (How would you and I feel all cramped up like that for months? It would be awful! I read that some academic dignitaries went in and viewed a gestation crate barn and came out absolutely crying many tears.)

After being in the gestation crates for four months, the sows are moved to equally confining farrowing crates where they will give birth in a few days. There are metal bars separating the sows from their piglets, who have to reach through the bars to suckle. In two to three weeks, the piglets are torn from their distraught mothers and are housed in huge, windowless “finishing” sheds with no fresh air, no sunlight, and no access to the outdoors. Almost all pigs never experience the outdoors. They never feel real dirt or grass under their feet. They are kept in crowded pens with filthy, slatted floors and deep manure pits, called “lagoons,” underneath to hold their wastes. The air is thick with burning ammonia, and the growing pigs are subject to pneumonia at a rate of 65%. Because of the extreme stress and frustration of crowded lives in which they cannot engage in natural behaviors, they become more aggressive and bite each others’ tails. So, their tails are cut off and their teeth are snipped shorter with pliars. The males are grabbed and quickly castrated. No anesthetic or any kind of pain killers are given for such bodily mutilations. The sows are quickly impregnated again by artificial insemination, and are sent back to the gestation crates, to do the whole scenario over and over again.

After being held in “finishing” stockyards for six months, the pigs are loaded into large trucks, off to slaughter. More than one million die in transport each year, and another 40,000 sustain injuries by the time they arrive at the slaughterhouse. For miles and miles of driving, they can be at the mercy of extreme temperatures. They can experience heat exhaustion in the summertime. In the wintertime, they can become frozen to the walls of the truck. The mortality rate for pigs from birth up until slaughter is ten percent.
Slaughter itself is barbaric. Because stunning is often ineffective, many pigs are chained up in the air and dumped into scalding water fully conscious and terrified. They are scalded to death, conscious and alive. The scalding is done to remove their hair and soften up their skin.

Thank goodness there are at least those who take mercy on pigs and want them to have better lives. Some companies, and many consumers, want pigs to have more spacious surroundings for group living, and adequate bedding and nursing materials. A better option for those who do, unfortunately, choose to eat pork is to obtain organic pork from pigs raised in certified humane circumstances. But, of course, the best option by far is to BUY NO PORK AT ALL AND EAT NO PORK AT ALL. When people avoid animal-based foods, they financially weaken the status of the huge corporations that promote violence and suffering towards all species.

As if the “normal” horrors of being raised for meat are not enough agony for pigs, they are also often subjected to unspeakable cruelty by factory farm workers. They can be kicked, beaten, and burned with an electric prod, pregnant or not. I’ve read that workers play football with piglets, tossing them from one to the other. If they miss the catch, the piglets hit the slatted floors very hard. Of course, the poor, helpless piglets are terrified and in a lot of pain. That hurts!

A WONDERFUL TRUE STORY. An elderly woman who lived alone and had a pet pig had either a heart attack or a stroke in her living room. I can’t remember which, but she was unconscious and helpless on her living room floor. Well, that pig took him or herself outdoors and lied down in the street out front, obstructing traffic, until a car did stop and go in the house. The driver discovered the woman on the floor, help was rushed, and the lady recovered. Her pet pig purposely intervened to save his or her mistress. How’s that for intelligence and compassion?

A FINAL INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE. Albert Schweitzer, noble prize winner had this to say about all of it: “We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things humanity will not find peace.” Dr. Schweitzer was adamant for Reverence For All Life.

Copyright - Dr. Joyce 2017 - The Caring Heart

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