[yorkiekist]

Originally Posted by Wylie's Mom

I watched the whole thing and have been meaning to post about it, but ugh...it's just hard sometimes after seeing all of that.

Nancy, you missed what I thought was the absolute *worst* part of the footage. I'm going to describe it, not bc I'm trying to be morbid or graphic - but bc it was *the* piece of footage that confirmed to me that our current anti-cruelty laws are not well defined and are archaic. If you don't want to, don't read what I'm going to describe next...

Some of the baby piglets are not considered "good enough" to...continue...with life - often, they're considered too skinny and they are called "Skinnies". The farm owner's son, who was just sick imo, took this baby Skinny by the back 2 legs, and swung it up into the air in a circle and coming down hard so that its head hit the side of a table - trying to kill it. Without checking to see if he was successful, he tossed the piglet (about the size of a large yorkie) into a white bucket and walked off. "Pete", the investigator, waited some minutes and then walked over to the bucket and pointed his hidden camera into the bucket. The baby piglet was curled in the bottom of the bucket, twitching/convulsing - still alive. He was left there dying, in the bottom of that bucket of filth.

Next, the owner's son, with a smirk on his face (bc someone made a comment that maybe there was a better way to kill the piglets) - grabbed a hammer. He said he was going outside to bash-in the other piglets' heads with that hammer. They didn't show this footage, if there was any.

Even more upsetting, it is LEGAL to bash-in the head of a baby piglet to kill it. There were no charges brought for that footage, even though the baby was still ALIVE. I don't get that part at all. This showed me that our cruelty laws are absolutely outdated and ineffective as written -- they ENABLE cruelty.

Now for the "downed hog" - that is when a hog is sick and probably will die without vet care. NO vet care was provided. They moved these hogs into a "dying room" (basically) and just left them there - not providing ANY food or water. They would also sometimes let in healthy hogs, who would then CANNIBALIZE the downed/sick/dying hogs. They showed this on film.

Most confounding on that last part is that, even though it seemed, by LAW, that you MUST provide food/water - the charges against Ken Wiles (owner) for cruelty related to not providing these basics were given the verdict of not guilty.

There is so much more - including the disgusting enjoyment by the worker when they were hanging the hogs to kill them. They just stood around and watched these hanging, suffocating, flailing animals - some of them laughing afterward/during.

I fully understand that not all farms are like this - I get that; but many of them are - even the very farmers who were there to support the hog farmer said so on film - that it's "just the way it is".

Well for me, once again - it just proved beyond a doubt that "the way it is" just isn't good enough.

THIS IS GRAPHIC!!!!
I didnt see this film because I dont have TV. But it sounds all too familiar. I went to a pig farm as part of a class I was taking. I think that this farm had about 3000 pigs on about 10 acres(cant remember exactly) All of them were housed in a building. Pigs were crammed into pens based on the size of the pig. There wasnt even room to move. The ones that got trampled died and workers waded through the pigs to get the dead ones out. Back then, these small shelping pens were legal and the moms couldnt move as if they did, they would crush the babies. They were only in the pens until the piglets were weaned, about 6 weeks. Then they were put in a pen outside with a boar to be bred again. I did not witness any cruelty at all, except for the crowded conditions. The smell wasnt great either. But I am sure that they were also on their best behavior as this was a school class that was visiting. The workers did carry clubs as pigs are very dangerous. They will eat you too if given the chance.
I think that this undercover guy should have to visit a slaughter house. If he couldnt stomach the pig farm, he would never stomach a slaughter house. If he want s to see some cruelty of animals that are not dead yet, he needs to visit the slaughter house. He will get the thrill of a hog being butchered. First, they use a hot shot to get the hog to move blindley down a shute. A metal bar is shot into the hogs head, stunning him, but not killing him. The hog wildly thrashes on the floor until men can "hook" him up. They shove big iron hooks through the hocks and hoist the hog up into the air, face down. Another man slits the throat of the hog and the hog is "bled out". This means that the heart is still beating, pushing the blood out of the animal. Big barrels are put under the hog to catch the blood. The hog is still alive through all of this. Then the men start to cut open the hog. The hog is still moving a little. This was another class trip I went on. Did I see cruelty?

Sorry this was a little graphic. Farming is not for the faint of heart, but is a necessary evil if you want to feed the public. I dont predict that all humans will become vegitarians in the near future. Killing baby piglets as you described, is commonplace at alot of pig farms. One bullet to the head doesnt always do the trick either. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 bullets to kill a pig. I wish I knew of "nicer" ways to kill our livestock to feed the people.