Pigs @ MindSay 
police
Did I ever tell you that I hate cops?
Read all about it.
Gosh, you would think I would learn after
a while.
Click on the link and check out the photos. Watch the video below:
OK folks this is a serious thing - Factory farming -
this is something we should all be aware of. I don't particularly like animals, I don't have pets like cats and dogs etc but I don't mind eating animals, I'm carnivorous. I do mind it when they are treated badly. I've seen TV shows about abbatoires and I truly believe those people care about their work and do everything they can to be quick and painless. Farming methods are different. The methods used today in factory farming, can be quite barbaric and we just don't get the information about it. Here in Canberra, we're banning battery-cage chicken farming but there's more to do.
Our farming methods are becoming ever more like those in the U.S. because of the commercial element of farming. It's getting harder to make a buck as a farmer but they have to have limits, there must be a line we simply don't cross. There must be a line that says "we just don't do this to other creatures, no matter what."
Folks, the environment is important and we're trying to change our methods in order to help the place we live in. It's time we made the same effort to change the way the animals we depend on, live. Cruelty is never OK, keeping an animal confined in a space, too small to turn around in, is never OK. Keeping them away from sunlight is never OK and there are many more things we need to change.
Take a look:
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
(And unless you have been a vegan your entire life, I don’t want to hear any whining)
Many problems are caused when non native species get loose in the wild. The bird population in Australia has been decimated by feral cats, the American Lobster is destroying the Scandinavian coast line and here in the US we are host to an estimated 50,000 invasive species. Of course some of these uninvited guests are worse than others. One of the more prolific and destructive of invasive animals in our area is feral hogs. This problem started when domesticated pigs were turned loose to forage in the wild, as well as, when a few escaped pigs formed breeding colonies in wild areas. The feral hogs, which can grow up to 1,200 pounds, are extensively damaging to the local eco-system. Their omnivorous diet, aggressive behavior and their feeding method of rooting in the ground all combine to severely alter ecosystems unused to pigs. Pigs will even eat small animals and destroy nests of ground nesting birds. The Invasive Species Specialist Group lists feral pigs on the list of the world's 100 worst invasive species and says about them: “Feral pigs like other introduced mammals are major drivers of extinction and ecosystem change. They have been introduced into many parts of the world, and will damage crops and home gardens as well as potentially spreading disease. They uproot large areas of land, eliminating native vegetation and spreading weeds. This results in habitat alteration, a change in plant succession and composition and a decrease in native fauna dependent on the original habitat.”
That being said, we can move on to the story.
Here at the local State park there has been an outbreak of feral pigs. And during the past winter the park management was able to capture quite a few of the wild pigs and destroy them. In the process of the wild hog round up, they caught three baby pigs. In a wave of compassion the decision was made to spare the little piglets the pain of starving to death without their mothers, so the baby pigs were placed in a large pen, where they were bottle fed until they were big enough to eat solid food. The baby pigs grew rapidly and were soon consuming up to 50 pounds of corn a day. Well with that much corn going in one end, something had to be coming out the other and that stuff coming out of the backside put together with all of the rain we wear having this spring, combined to make a large stinking mud hole just out side the back door of the person taking care of the piglets. As the flies grew worse and worse, a power struggle ensued in the household, as to who’s job it should be to clean out the pig pen and then dispatch the piglets, which were still pretty cute, but were getting larger, more aggressive and smellier. The result ended up being that nobody cleaned the pen and the piglets were just tuned loose. For a while just letting roam free seemed to have solved the problem. They would wander around the area, foraging for food, lying in shade and come “home” in the evenings for supper and to frolic in the lawn sprinklers. They were still skittish and wild, but it was pretty cute when they would come up and beg for food. Their favorite piggy treat being cheetos, of course. It seemed like the perfect happy ending. But that was really just the beginning of the problems. As the piglets grew larger, they became also more inquisitive and began traveling farther and farther from the house. Until they roamed far enough, that they found that the best place for a little extra food, was not at their house, but at the picnic area of the park. There they gorged themselves on half eaten sandwiches, oreo cookies, and other detritus found in a typical picnic area. While some of the park patrons found this highly entertaining, it was definitely a problem. The pigs were becoming more aggressive and less fearful of people, which in turn was starting to scare the hell out of the visitors to the park. The situation was a bad deal all the way around. While for the time being the pigs were not particularly dangerous, as they grew that situation would change for the worse. The decision was made to kill the pigs, before they became a real danger.
That’s where I came in. I thought since the pigs were going to die, it would be a real shame to waste the meat. So I volunteered to take care of the problem pigs. The pigs were captured and lured into a large dog carrier. After that, I loaded the pigs into the back of my Jeep and hauled them out to the farm. (We decided that the State Park would probably not be the best place to butcher a bunch of hogs) Once at the farm I was joined by a co-worker, who is excellent at handling meat and we prepared an area to deal with the pigs. Once the area was prepared, we removed the first piglet from the cage. I quickly shut the cage door and grabbed the hind legs of the pig as my co-worker (Beto) held on tightly to the pigs ears. After I got a firm grasp on the pig Beto took hold of the pig’s front legs and we heaved it onto a metal work table. We positioned the pig on its side and I pinned its hind legs with one hand and with the other hand locked its left front leg onto its back. While I wrestled to muddy, little piglet to the table Beto inserted a long knife into the pigs exposed heart. The pig’s death came quickly. Of course it felt like hours, as I held the piglet close and its life ebbed away. As the pig expired, I said a few comforting words of thanks to the animal that was giving its life, so that we may eat. I then placed some tobacco in its mouth, as we moved on to the two other pigs. After repeating this process a couple more times, it was time to actually butcher the animals. I held the pigs up as Beto tied one of their hind legs to a mesquite branch. We then proceeded to skin and gut the pigs as they hung swinging from the mesquite tree.
This brings me to another point that I would like to make. I think that anyone who decides to eat meat, should be willing to butcher their own animals. I feel that you develop a much greater understanding what it takes to consume this resource, when you reach inside an animal with bare hands and pull its still warm guts out and onto the ground. In today’s day and age, too many people seem to think that meat just appears in the refrigerated cases on Styrofoam trays at their local big box store. I think that if a person can not face the reality of just exactly where meat comes from, then they have no business at all eating meat.
Now my freezer is full of chops, cutlets, roasts, and ribs. Some of which I’ll thaw out and cook for my birthday party on Sunday. Let me know if you can make it over and I’ll set out an extra rack of ribs for you.
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