A few weeks ago I posted an article about the horrifying conditions that factory-farmed pigs have to endure (you can read it here, in case you missed it). I mentioned ag-gag laws; legislation that tries to prevent the public from knowing about the atrocities being committed by making it illegal for whistleblowers to publish videos and/or photographs of the cruel treatment of the animals. I shared a link to “the case of the two stolen piglets”: In March of 2017 two animal rights activists, Wayne Hsiung and Paul Picklesimer, rescued two baby pigs which they found laying on the ground, visibly ill and near death, surrounded by the rotting corpses of dead piglets. They had entered Circle Four Farms in Utah, a farm owned by Smithfield Foods, a subsidiary of China’s WH Group, in order to record the outrageous brutality the animals have to endure there. When they saw the two baby pigs the activists couldn’t just leave them there – their conscience demanded that they take them, provide veterinary care, and place them in an animal sanctuary. Well, this was a crime. Because of crazy eco-terrorist legislation, the FBI got involved who started an equally crazy piglet-hunt which had them raid sanctuaries where they mutilated piglets by cutting off parts of their ears – for DNA testing, in order to find two piglets named Lucy and Ethel. You can read more about this show of FBI force designed to intimidate the animal sanctuaries.
Because Hsiung and Picklesimer never tried to hide the fact that they took the two piglets but shared the findings of their undercover research on social media, they were charged with burglary and theft – facing prison sentences of more than five years and hefty fines. The value of the baby pigs was set at about $40 each.
Have you ever had anything stolen from your home, reported it to the police, and then waited unsuccessfully to get it back? When I lived in Berkeley, a neighbor had an expensive mountain bike stolen from their yard, worth over $1,000. They filed a report, but never heard anything about it. You have to be a major multinational corporation with a lot of political clout to get the FBI involved.
On Saturday, October 8, an eight-person jury returned a not-guilty verdict on all counts, after the case was presented to them on Friday night and they deliberated until 5 pm the next day. Although Judge Jeffrey C. Wilcox insisted that the case should be about burglary and not animal rights (he wouldn’t admit any evidence that showed cruel treatment), the jury sided with Hsiung who closed his statements with “I want you to acquit us as a matter of conscience. There's a big difference between stealing and rescue."
So, this is the good news. Animal advocates celebrated the verdict which establishes the legal "right to rescue" distressed animals in need of care. Will this have any influence on the not-so-good news?
On October 11 the Supreme Court of the United States will hear a case that challenges California’s Proposition 12, the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act. In 2018, 63% of California voters approved a ballot initiative which prohibits the sale of products derived from the offspring of a pig or other farmed animal “who was confined in a cruel manner.” It’s a pitiful improvement which centers on the size of gestation crates for pregnant pigs. Instead of being confined to crates barely larger than the animal – a four-sided encasement, at 2 feet x 7 feet, or even slightly smaller, for animals weighing between 400 and 500 pounds – Proposition 12 asks that pork sold in California has to come from pregnant pigs who had more room (at least 24 square feet of space) to move in their crates. Because almost all the pork sold in California comes from other states such as Iowa and Minnesota, Proposition 12 forces the farmers in these states to change their practices. The lobby group National Pork Producers Council claims that these changes would constitute an undue financial burden on the farmers, and their attempt to overturn Proposition 12 has finally landed at the Supreme Court. They will decide on the Dormant Commerce Clause, or whether one state can essentially force other states to abide by its regulations.
Profit versus animal welfare couldn’t be in starker contrast. The pork industry worries about the money it would take to improve the lives of mother pigs by a tiny bit. It made me wonder: how horrible have the people to be who make up this industry, who profit from the immense suffering of so many other living beings? How can they sleep at night?
The image above is from an ABC NEWS article about the upcoming Supreme Court decision and features a third-generation pig farmer in Minnesota who raises more than 4,000 sows that produce 100,00 baby pigs per year. He doesn’t look horrible; more like the friendly guy next door. And yet, he has no qualms treating these mother pigs just like breeding machines. "We've been raising pigs in confinement for 40 years," says the farmer, using a common argument to defend all sorts of cruel, outdated practices. “It’s our custom, our culture”. “We’ve done this for hundreds of years”. If this would be valid women couldn’t vote and slavery would be acceptable. It’s an insidious argument used by people too lazy to think things through, fueled by the common cognitive disconnect that allows people to hold diametrically opposite views and not notice the discrepancy. The above farmer claims he cares about the well-being of his pigs. But the enormous physical and emotional pain he inflicts on them can be ignored because – well, this is how it has always been done. And that’s how we make our money.
I won’t hold my breath about the Supreme Court’s decision.
Disgusted enough to stop buying/eating pork.
an insidious horrific issue / how can people be so ignorant ?? but then that question can be asked about so many issues :: the neglect and abuse of our forests and our coral reefs and all the critters who live there to name just two / it becomes outrage overload and people just want to retreat into some kind of oblivious unconsciousness AKA tv sports / i don't have an answer but thanks for posting about it