This Christmas, Remember the Pigs

A year ago, Precious Life Animal Sanctuary posted this story, titled "A Christmas to Remember":

It is Friday, December 21, 2007, that special time of year with the Christmas holidays in full swing. Everywhere decorations adorn homes, shop windows and colored lights light up the nights. People everywhere seem friendlier, more giving and caring.

At Precious Life Animal Sanctuary, the celebration of life goes on for all the rescued animals. It is the same winter routine of feeding, added Christmas treats, cleaning, repairs and time taken to provide comforting, soothing talk to all.

It is very cold at the foot of the Olympics. Daylight is short and a white Christmas is expected. Upon reading the newspaper on this day, an ad appeared that diminished the spirit of the Christmas holidays. “Order Your Roasted Pig for Christmas, Raised in Oregon, butcher available.” Rationalizing the ad was easy, but forgetting about it was not. The reality is, at this time of year, every meat case in every supermarket is chock full of butchered pigs, labeled as Christmas hams wrapped to no longer resemble any living being. So, the question remained, was there any real difference between the cut-up pigs in the meat cases and the live pigs in the ad soon to meet the same fate?

The difference was those baby pigs were alive and one could still be saved and not sacrificed on the holiest day of the year for a Christmas feast. One was left to ponder the meaning of Christmas, with the birth of Jesus, surrounded by farm animals. Jesus believed in kindness and mercy for all of God’s creatures.

Regardless of religious beliefs, this Christmas holiday would not be trivialized when a baby pig could be spared. After all, he was born with a will to live and a fear of death no different than any human.

The next morning the long journey began in never-ending rain and sleet halfway up to Mount Hood. After exiting the main highway and leaving miles of happy skiers behind, the pig farm was located. The dilapidated barn stood at the bottom of a winding hill encased in rain-drenched mud. Inside were three pens. One housed huge sows with little room to maneuver. One housed the advertised roasters, only four months old, weighing between 50 and 65 pounds, and a few more of assorted sizes. The last pen housed newly-weaned piglets, classified and sold as wiener pigs.

In a corner of the barn hung one of the roasters, freshly slaughtered that morning by the common method of “shoot and stick”. A brother and a sister were all that was left of the litter. The pig farmer said most of the litter had been butchered for ethnic groups wanting to barbecue on spits or cook in the ground and a few had been sold to restaurants.

The pig farmer pointed out several in the roaster pen that were coughing, lethargic and being given medication for pneumonia and would not make it. He was informed that a healthy live pig was wanted and he quickly stated there was no guarantee that any would be free of pneumonia. He remarked, “What’s the difference? You’re going to eat it anyway.”

The female roaster kept her small head buried in straw next to others for security. The black spotted male walked to the side of the enclosure and listened to the farmer and myself and looked up with curious eyes. He had been castrated with no anesthetic which is a common procedure and his large ears were disfigured having pieces notched out for identification purposes within the litter, another common procedure. He was chosen, paid for and put squealing into the back of my van on blankets. The farmer was informed that he would be allowed to live and he replied, “one lucky pig”. Since no Christmas name seemed to fit, he was officially dubbed “Lucky”.

Continue reading for the conclusion, for what came next for Lucky (who was not so well after all, it turned out), at Precious Life's Web site.

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Photo: Young pigs in overcrowded transport. Most pigs humans eat are killed when only 5 to 6 months old--at about 1/30 (that's not a typo--1/30, not 1/3) their natural life span. One of the many similarities between pigs and dogs is their similar natural life spans. I wonder how many people would continue eating the flesh of pigs if they considered that killing and eating these pigs is equivalent to killing and eating a 5-month-old puppy.