Unable to exercise, the sowвЂ™s muscles will weaken to the point where she has difficulty standing up or lying downвЂ¦ Those who fall into the effluent system through gaps in the flooring are left to starve or drown in the river of waste.ДЄ week before they are due to give birth, theyвЂ™re moved into the farrowing crate cages, where theyвЂ™ll remain for the next 4-6 weeks. A lack of space and stimuli can cause the pigs to become aggressive. The alternative, group housing, sees pregnant pigs packed into small concrete pens. The extreme confinement takes a heavy psychological toll. When given the choice, pigs will relieve themselves far away from where they sleep and eat. This is similar to the apparent вЂњbanвЂќ on sow stalls in the European Union which actually allows up to 4 weeks in them per pregnancy. While gradually being phased out by the majority of piggeries in Australia, sow stalls remain entirely legal with no penalties for keeping sows confined to them for longer than the voluntary limit of 5 days. Sow stalls are individual cages in which, like in the farrowing crates, sows are only able to take one or two steps forwards or backwards and are unable to turn around. When confirmed pregnant, the sow is moved into one of two types of confined housing for the entirety of her 16 week gestation. Workers collect the semen by masturbating the boars, then insert it into the sows via a raised catheter known as a pork stork.Д«oars are still physically used to excite the females prior to insemination, but are prevented from actually mating. Most pig farms utilise artificial insemination rather than natural mating, as it allows them to impregnate up to 30-40 female pigs from a single boar.

Some female pigs are kept on to replace the sows in the breeding cycle, carefully selected for their perceived ability to produce large litters. Stuck in these small pens for months at a time, they turn to cannibalism. Most are destined for slaughter around 5 months later.ДЄs they age, they are moved into grower pens, crowded together in their own waste. They are taken from their mothers at 3-5 weeks of age. Those who survive the first few days are mutilated without pain relief, their tails and teeth cut to reduce cannibalismвЂ¦ and pieces cut from their ears or tags punched in as a means of identification.

Included in the death toll are the runts of the litter, who are considered economically unviable and killed by staff. The frequency of stillborn or mummified piglets generally increases with each litter as the sowsвЂ™ bodies become less capable of handling the large litter sizes encouraged by the industry.ДЎ0-18% of piglets who are born alive wonвЂ™t make it until weaning age, succumbing to disease, starvation or dehydration, or being accidentally crushed by their trapped mothers. Most pigs bred for food begin life in a farrowing crate, a small pen with a central cage, designed to allow the piglets to feed from their mother вЂ“ the sow вЂ“ while preventing her from moving around. As of 2015, 49 farms housed 60% of the countryвЂ™s total pig population. Today, there are less than 1,400, and yet the total number of pigs bred and slaughtered for food has increased. In the 1960s, there were around 50,000 pig farms in Australia. Their value determined only by their usefulness to humankind, rationalised by a belief in our own superiority and the notion that might equals right. Hidden by this narrative, out of sight, out of mind, they cease to be individuals, most known only as livestock, faceless units of production in a system of incomprehensible scale, exempt from the cruelty laws that protect our companion animals. A humane and painless end, a small price happily paid for a life well lived.

The picturesque family farm and the iconic, loving farmer. So for those who feed, clothe or entertain us, we choose to follow a narrative that minimises or altogether eliminates their suffering. The thought of unnecessarily causing them harm or suffering, is to many, unbearable. We take pleasure from their pleasure, we anguish over their pain, celebrating their intelligence and individuality as welcome them into our families, or revere them in their natural element. We recognise them not as objects, but as complex beings with whom we share the planet, our lives, our homes.

Most people consider themselves animal lovers. References are available on the Facts & References page.

Cheaper by the dozen script pdf