Help Stop Factory Farming

Today I received a letter from SAFE in my mail and I felt that, as it is such an important issue happening in New Zealand right now, I had to contact SAFE to ask if I could copy and paste the letter in its entirety here on my blog.  They kindly said yes.  

I know this is directed towards New Zealanders, but factory farming goes on all over the world, so where ever you may live I hope there is something you can do to help your animals who have to live in these dreadful conditions.

As for any Kiwis who are reading .... please get behind this campaign.

Here is the letter:

If you’re unlucky enough to be born as a female pig on a factory farm, you’ll either be fattened up and sent to slaughter at the age of about 16 weeks, or you’ll be used as a breeding machine.

You’ll be denied your basic natural needs such as 

 sunlight, fresh air, mud baths and room to move.  Instead, you’ll spend your life in a dark, barren shed.

The first four weeks of your 16-week pregnancy will be spent in a sow stall so small, you can’t even turn around. You’ll then be moved to a farrowing crate to give birth. Your babies are born on a metal floor rather than in a soft self-made nest. The farrowing crate is still too small for you to move properly or turn around, so you’re unable to reach your babies to protect and comfort them.

They rely on you for sustenance, but because of the crate you are sometimes unable to care for them properly. 

Once your precious babies are only four weeks old, they’re taken away from you… you’ll never see them again. You are re-impregnated and the cycle of abuse continues.

Because you’re intelligent, inquisitive and affectionate, it’s a life of perpetual sorrow, boredom and depression. After five years of this hell, you are deemed spent. You will see daylight for the first and only time in your life on your way to the slaughterhouse…

Would you want to live like this?
Or will you be a voice for
defenseless sows living in this hell?

Thanks to you and other caring New Zealanders, from 2016 sow stalls will be banned. However, farrowing crates will still be in use.

Together, we can get these cruel crates banned too!

Please donate $20 today and help us
make it happen.

If you’ve already made a donation, thank you. Please consider forwarding this email to someone else who may be interested in helping sows.

FOR ALL ANIMALS

Hans Kriek
Executive Director

View Event link

And, as a p.s. - this is how pigs should be:

 

Whoa - What an Expose on Pig Farming!

The Sunday program on last night really did a bit of a shake up and has, no doubt, been a wake up call to those who insist on eating pork products.

And, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it was a glimpse into the unseen hell of the factory farmed pigs here in good old, clean, green New Zealand.

 Here's the link to the actual program:  http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/shocking-footage-stirs-up-pork-label-criticism-6014397 - be warned, some scenes you may find disturbing .... well, actually sickening!

I've just come off a GoVeg (supporting vegetarian/vegan) stall at a Food Festival and I even had an ethical butcher ask if I knew where they could source free range pork.  Yes, I thought it odd that the butcher would ask an animal welfare, obviously vegan, person where to source meat product.  But this butcher is asked many many times for free range pork and can't supply it and he is totally frustrated at not being able to get it.

We do have free range pork here in N.Z., but, as far as I know, only two farms.  All other pork is farmed in intense factory farms most of which are still using the sow crates for the first 4 weeks of the pregnancy and the farrowing crates to birth and suckle the piglets. 

The sow crates are to be phased out by 2015, however farrowing crates are still allowed.  If you're a piggy lover and don't like the thought of mum pig being caged to give birth and look after her babies and where she can lie down, but can't turn around ..... then please sign the petition to end the use of farrowing crates.  https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/prime-minster-john-key-ban-farrowing-crates

This is how it's done: