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Press Release |
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14 January, 1998 |
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Who Loves Ya Babe...? |
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For further |
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The pigs that have escaped the horror of the slaughterhouse in Wiltshire have captured the heart of the nation. Viva! is being inundated with calls from the public demanding that the pigs are not killed. These two real life Babes may not be able to talk, but they've made it very clear that they want to live. Juliet Gellatley, Director of Viva! says: "These pigs have tasted freedom for the first time and should not be taken back to the abattoir. We would ensure they live out the rest of their lives safely and happily. Why is the farmer who owns the animals so unwilling to let us buy them?" Pigs lived wild in the great forests and woods that covered most of the UK eating beech nuts, acorns, other seeds and nuts, insects, roots and sometimes small mammals until the seventeenth century when they were hunted to extinction. Instead of being free, with a right to a natural existence, breeding sows spend their lives in squalid concrete prisons, with no space to walk or run. In Europe, where much of the UK's bacon originates, sows kept for breeding spend their 16½ week pregnancy in metal-barred "dry-sow" stalls, measuring 1.3 x 0.6-1.0m. Their prisons are so small they stop the pregnant pigs from being able to move properly. Standing day after day in a barren stall not surprisingly sends many sows mad and causes searing back and leg pain. The sows, naturally sociable animals, are stopped from having any companionship. Some are even fitted with girdles to strap them to the floor whilst others are chained by the neck. When the pigs are ready to have their piglets they are moved to a small farrowing crate on a concrete or perforated metal floor. Sows have strong maternal feelings and would normally spend days building a "nest" of leaves or straw. In a crate they cannot do this and so lapse into stereotyped behaviour where they repeatedly try to build a nest in their barren cell. The bars on the crates stop the mother pigs from reaching their babies, although the babies can reach their mother's teats to suckle. The piglets are weaned early and then crammed into small cages known as piggi-boxes which are stacked in tiers. Next, they are put into fattening pens - packed together on a bare floor without bedding, without trees, flowers, sunlight, the freedom to run, snuffle up food or choose their mate. Conditions may be so cramped that the piglets hurt each other by biting one another's tails. Instead of allowing the animals more room, farmers remove the piglets' tails, either whole or in part, by cutting through the bone - without anaesthetic. Their teeth may also be removed with pliers ....and you thought it was bad going to the dentist. Five days after her piglets are taken away, the sow is made pregnant again and the whole misery-go-round continues. Pigs that are bred for ham and pork are killed at 18 - 22 weeks while the remainder are fattened up and slaughtered at 5-6 months old for bacon. 20 million pigs are killed in the UK each year. Juliet Gellatley adds: "Hopefully these pigs will save their own bacon."
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