Jimmy the Pig

Hello, my name is Jimmy and I'm a pig. This is the true story of why I was born...

The first thing I knew about life was my brothers and sisters screaming and scrambling to get to our mother's milk. We were in a big shed with no windows and Mummy just lay there - all the time - on her side on the concrete floor, feeding us. She could barely move as she was enclosed in a small confined crate with meant she couldn't even reach us properly. It was dark and noisy from the squealing of all the piglets and there was a terrible stench from the excrement and urine we were forced to lie in. There was no sunlight, so no warmth reached us. Life was a constant regime of day in day out feeding as we were all being held there to be fattened up as quickly as possible. The only human we ever saw was the farmer and he never showed any affection towards us, only anger and exasperation. When he opened the door to come in we could see outside and there were wonders out there! Sunlight, soft grass, places we wanted to explore, and fresh earth which we longed to roll in.

One morning the farmer came in and one by one he picked us up by our tails and crudely sliced them off. We were all screaming in pain, there was blood everywhere and we could see our poor Mum desperately trying to protect us from this horror but she couldn't even get to us as she was imprisoned in her crate. She was distraught and we were terrified. We needed to get close to her for comfort but the bars of the pen we were in only allowed us to reach her milk, they didn't allow us to cuddle up to her body.

The next morning we saw the door open and we gasped in fear, wondering what might happen to us now, as after yesterday we had realised that humans were capable of anything. And we were right to be afraid because again, one by one, we were grabbed and this time the farmer crushed our teeth with a pair of pliers until our mouths were filled with nothing but blunt stumps. We were all still in pain from losing our tails yesterday but this was even worse! My mouth hung open with the agony of it and I felt I would never be able to close it again - this mutilation hurt more than anything I had ever known.

We all hoped that there would be no further horrors but of course there were more to come. When we were only 3 weeks old we were suddenly taken away from our mother. It was such a shock! The shed we were put in was barren and lonely and we cried for her for days. Most of us felt sick from the antibiotics that we were dosed with in our feed. We were also on veterinary growth stimulant so that we would produce as much flesh as possible in the shortest time. I was growing very fast...

Then one terrible morning the door opened again and we cowered in fear. The farmer had a big iron rod in his hand and I knew something very bad was about to happen. He began hitting us and roughly herding us towards the opening and out into a huge truck. We were packed tightly into the vehicle and all the other pigs were panicking, my heart was pounding with terror and I could hardly breathe. The journey began, it seemed to last for hours. I couldn't understand what was happening, why we were being treated in this way. I didn't realise that my life worth was going to be based on the price of pork chops, sausages and bacon. And then I was in a room, more horrific than any nightmare. The friends and family I had travelled with were there too. The smell of terror and death was in the air and I can't tell you what happened next...

I now realise that I was not an individual, my life was only ever going to be exploited... all I am is a product of the meat industry.

For more information about the pork industry see:
www.piggles.org.uk

Love them, don't eat them

Pigs are curious and insightful animals thought to have intelligence beyond that of an average 3-year-old human child. They are smarter than dogs and every bit as friendly, loyal, and affectionate. When in their natural surroundings, not on factory farms, they are social, playful, protective animals who bond with each other, make beds, relax in the sun, and cool off in the mud.

Source: www.meatstinks.com

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