Right that's it

[smokingboot]

Saw less than 5 minutes of a Gordon Ramse(a?}y programme last night. Piglets, 7 to 9 weeks old being castrated without anaesthetic, even he looked shocked. The reasoning is that boar hormones mean their wee has a really strong smell. The little things screamed and screamed, and I am awake now because I heard them in my dreams. Pigs are clever, highly sentient. They think and they feel, unlike the chimpthings doing this to them.

Been vegetarian before, 5 years of it, though not properly as I never gave up fish. Not that healthy for me...surf and turf and sushi is the best kind of food for me cos I'm part crocodile. As of now, I am giving up all pork unless I know it has been farmed humanely. Bye bye bacon, bye bye sausages. I won't miss you a bit. I'll hear that sound in my head, and eat veggie burgers content.

Comments

[falco-biarmicus.livejournal.com]

Honey - just by British.

As you know, my bro is a pig farmer. Castration is not needed in this country because we cull the piglets younger - so the hormones have no chance to taint the meat. Any outdoor reared british pig is highly unlikely to be castrated.

Tail docking is another matter. Happy outdoor pigs play - and nip each others tails. Sow's are bad mums, and if they smell blood, they will eat whichever offspring is bleeding. And I can promise you that if the guy on the tv had held the piglets properly, they wouldn't have been screaming like that. Whenever I have docked their tails, there is a little grunt, and then you pop them back down on the floor and they happily go about their business.

So buy British outdoor reared meat. I can promise you it comes from happy pigs - and it may help keep the few decent farmers we have left in business.

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Thank you for putting my mind at rest about some of the issues that have troubled me. It really helps. I'm certainly going to be careful about the source of my meat from now on.