This Little Piggy Got Depressed and Stayed Home

*This post will contain a possibly disturbing image so please be warned.*


This is a picture of a cute little piggy. Notice its curly little tail. Do you like its curly little tail? Don’t you think that little curl adds a certain…flair to the pigs’ overall appearance? I do too. (Here’s Amanda’s story on why pigs have curly tails that I found while researching) Like dogs, pigs can move their tails. Not quite as much to show happiness in wagging or anything, but when they get stressed, they straighten their tails. Pigs are not only cute, they are smart little cutie pants, ranking as the 4th smartest animal/mammal. And like say, smart humans, smart pigs are able and prone to have “feelings,” or at least moods on the same cognitive level as a 3 year old child. Pigs can get stressed, or even bored doctors say, from being in environments they do not “like.” When this starts to happen, their tails straighten. Within a few days, they will begin to nip at other pigs’ tails and continue to do so until they bite them off! An un-depressed or un-stressed out pig would fight back. A stressed out pig literally “doesn’t care” and lets its tail get bitten off.

I couldn’t imagine an environment I would like less than a CAFO, or a concentrated animal feeding operation. This is where animals are crowded together in a large warehouse like place, living on slats raised over their manure piles, stuck face to butt. Most of Americas’ pork is raised in a CAFO - that is alotta pigs to be tail nippin’ stressed out. If these piggies all had gaping tail wounds, infections would be rampant and there goes our supply of bacon, sausage and pork chops. Operators of these CAFOs have deduced a way to combat the pigs stress – to cut little piggy’s tail off when he or she is born. And they don’t just cut it off, these operators are even more far thinking than that simple remedy. No, they cut it off (without antiseptic) to leave a little stump that is super sensitive. This way, if a pig bites this sensitive little stump, even a depressed pig will be unable to ignore the excruciating pain and will at least try to stop it.


The picture above is what happens in reality as soon as a piglet is born – castration, teeth filed, and its tail cut off. I read this first in Pollan’s book and as I was searching for other factual reports to support what he was claiming, I found these disturbing images and other stories that made the reality of America’s pork production gruesomely real. Knowing this information is not intended to convert meat eaters or glorify vegetarians. For me, it’s accepting what is happening to animals in order to supply me with food; it is what is happening to deteriorate America’s food chain, maybe even the world’s food chain. Because when I sit down to a breakfast of eggs, toast, home fries and sausage, if it is not from a small, local farm, it is from a CAFO. And I, in my consumption choices, was a part of the cycle of a pigs life through the yuckiness I just described. I do not like being ignorant or just blindly going along with a routine because “that’s just the way it is done.” I want to know all the facts I can, so I am better able to make a conscious choice of what I am eating and what effects that choice has on the world around me.

It's really hard to see that everything is connected. Especially when CAFOs are not around every corner to be up in our faces to let us know HERE is where your meat is from. But really, that saying "You are what you eat" is true. After reading this book, after finding that image even more horrible than Pollan's words can describe, I want to ask myself and ask anyone who made it through this blog -

If I am what I eat, what exactly am I eating? What does that make me a part of?