Factory Farming Fact of the Week

Industrial pig farms keep female pigs pregnant or nursing their entire adult lives, so that they produce the maximum number of offspring. To conserve space, they are kept in crates too small for them to turn around in. (1)

They live in this intensive confinement for four years having their piglets taken from them, fattened and sent to slaughter as soon as they are old enough to eat solid food. (2)

As one pig farmer said in an industry journal, "Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory." (3)

Each one of us has the power to stop this. Every day, by choosing vegetarian diets, we can boycott industries which are cruel to animals. For more information about vegetarian diets, visit our Why Vegan? section, as well as our Nutrition section and our Resources section.

Each week, the Vegan Society selects an unfortunate but true fact about the factory farming industry, which produces the vast majority of the animal products that Americans eat. This week's fact comes from VIVA USA's report "When Pigs Cry", which examines the lives of pigs raised for their meat in America.

Photographs from Viva USA

Citations

1Harmon, Jay, et. al. Swine Breeding and Gestation Facilities Handbook. MidWest Plan Service. MWPS-43, 2001.

2 Satchell, Michael. Hog Heaven - And Hell, Pig farming has gone high tech, and that's creating new pollution woes. U.S. News & World Report. 1/22/96 120(3):55.

3 Byrnes, John. Hog Farm Management, September 1976.

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