Saving the Baby Pigs

Immature swine are actually called shoats, female shoats are gilts until they give birth to shoats, when they then become sows. Male swine are called boars at any age unless they've been castrated. They are then known as barrows.

The Animal Alliance Network holds a vigil on every Wednesday outside the Vernon, CA packing house that butchers and processes pigs for its Farmer John products. They refer to immature swine as "baby pigs" rather than shoats. Humans have babies, pigs have shoats. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, on to the story.

 

(Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) 

Smithfield Foods, a global operation with over 50,000 employees and and an annual revenue of over $14 billion, has been owned by the Chinese WH Group since 2013 when it was purchased for $4.72 billion. It is the owner of the Vernon, CA plant, which has been a target for animal rights advocates for some time. Company representatives say that it's no longer possible to operate in the Golden State. Closure of the plant will put 1500 butchers out on the street.

The protesters certainly have a point in their objection to the treatment of hogs, not to mention cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and turkeys, in their journey from the factory farm to the dinner table. It's a process that most people try to ignore. At the same time, industrial food production has brought relatively healthy, cheap protein to the masses for the first time in world history. Many of those masses prefer to be omnivores rather vegans.

Which brings up another point. Who is to say that the members of the plant world should be exploited for their nutritional value? Just because plants don't seem to have the power of abstract thought, don't mimic the appearance of higher mammals with expressive eyes and mouths and can't show signs of affection toward humans, should they be planted, swathed, ground and turned into bread, mashed potatoes, popcorn and pasta?

It wasn't too long ago that objecting to the use of lower forms of animal life for food would have earned the objector contempt and derision, although at the same time normal folk also tried to be humane to their animal subjects. It is a sign of the change in culture over time that ideas that would never have occurred in the past are now taken somewhat seriously by a vocal segment of society.