A drift of rescued piglets (yes, that is what a group of pigs is called) is at the center of a controversy between animal rights advocates and the Wiltshire fire department. After fire fighters pulled 18 piglets and two sows from a fire, the farmer, Rachel Rivers, wanted to thank them so the farm butchered the pigs, made them into sausage, and served them to their rescuers.
There was clearly a failure to communicate. For the farmer, these pigs were destined for food and were not pets. For animal rights activists, this was not a case of “jumping from the frying pan into the fire” but jumping from the fire into the frying pan. PETA spokesman Mimi Bekhechi denounced the actions of the farm and said that the piglets were “no better off” for escaping the fire.
The fire department at first posted pictures and praised the “fantastic sausages.” However, it later deleted the pictures of the sausage and said:
The pigs were slaughtered six months after the fire. Farm owner Canon Gerald Osbourne said “An inevitable part of farming is the death of an animal which gives us the food to eat.”
The controversy reminds me of my youth when my Sicilian grandfather raised a colony of rabbits. We loved to play with them as kids until one day they were gone. We asked Grandpa where the rabbits were and he smiled and said that he had a big surprise for up. With that he proudly pulled out puppets that he made from the rabbits. My cousins and I screamed and ran from the kitchen — leaving my bewildered grandfather at the table. He could not understand what kids would not like some puppets. He was completely clueless about our viewing the rabbits as pets because that is not why he raised them.
PETA has offered to send the fire fighters a selection of vegan sausages.
Every thanksgiving the msm covers about a dozen peta protesters. While Americans consume 40 million turkeys.
First of all, vegan sausages contain soy, which is often GMO, and can be an endocrine disruptor. Soy mimics estrogen. Do they think the firefighters are too manly?
Secondly, I know various farmers, including a hog farmer. She takes great care of her heritage hogs, and, according to her, they “have one bad day.” Farmers provide food, and livestock like pigs are one source of that food. It is true that you can raise a pig and gentle it, and it can make a great pet as long as you keep it fenced in a place where it can root and destroy its pen. But an omnivore eating meat is not evil. What else was the farmer to do? Keep 20 hogs that had notbeen tamed, as pets perpetually? There have been instances where a cow has escaped a slaughterhouse, and she’ll be donated to a rescue because she moved the public. But 20 pigs raised for food are a lot. Pigs can grow up to around 700 pounds, on average.
An untamed hog can be dangerous. There is a saying “I ain’t had so much fun since the hogs ate my little brother”, which is one of those horrifying sayings grounded in a bit of truth. One of my relatives had to shoot a neighbor’s boar who had gotten out and had pinned his wife in the house all day, trying to attack her every time she stepped outside. The owner let them range, with little human contact, and did not properly fence his property.
Anyway, regardless of how much human interaction they had, the pigs were raised as food livestock. When butchering time came, the meat was shared with the fire department just the same as a farmer would have shared it with anyone else who helped. Those who help their neighbor pluck chickens, build coops, or transport hogs are often gifted with the resulting meat. It’s the traditional way in which a farmer expresses thanks. You don’t spit on a gift.
And let me explain to PETA that living for an additional 6 months, and being humanely and quickly killed is indeed better off than slowly burning to death in a fire or smothering from smoke inhalation 6 months earlier. Is that even a question?
So if the pigs hadn’t been killed for food, what would have happened to them? The demand for porcine actors hamming it up on stage or on TV (think Arnold Ziffel) is limited. I suppose they could have starred in a revival of GB Shaw’s Pigmalion. Or in a mini series based on Slaughterhouse Five. Even a musical based on the life of Sir Francis Bacon. It in the end they would merely have been criticized for hogging the limelight. So why not turn them into sausages? As the French would say: “Porkwah”?
Multiple cute play on words, Mr. de Drain. 🙂
How do you describe a pig harnessed to a little wagon full of sausages?
You say he’s drawing his own conclusions!
Paul Compton, Clever.
One of the tactics of animal rights people is to let thousands of minks free from their cages to roam free and starve to death!!
A drift? No silly, JT. A group of pigs is called a “Congress.”
Highlight of the day! Thanks Mespo!
PETA has a 80% Kill Rate at their Virginia animal shelter.
They are just too busy fund raising, then to be bothered to look for foster or adoptive homes.
They call it mercy killings.
How sad the fire department removed their post due to their intimidation.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6612490
Good point, Ter ber.
PETA activists have also been harassing carriage drivers, because they are against horses being ridden or driven. They must be feral, and only feral. They keep trying to cause accidents, which would hurt or kill the horses, teamster, and/or passengers. A recent example was a woman in a TRex costume kept roaring at the head of a pair of carriage horses until she got them to spook and dump the teamster, injuring him. One of the horses even fell. That could have been the most horrific accident – a driverless carriage, loaded with passengers, loose in traffic. Typically, when the lines fall, the horses get scared and take off. They can’t find the driver without the lines, and an abandoned horse left behind gets eaten, according to their survival instincts.
http://abc13.com/news/woman-in-dinosaur-costume-spooks-carriage-horses-/2012505/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nicole-wells-dinosaur-costume-scares-horses-palmetto-carriage-works/
PETA also typically shows photos of carriage horses from other countries who are being abused, with the implication that it’s here in the US.
“Pork em if ya gottem.” – Jimmy Carter
We have a place near here called the Pork Shop. Once a year they butcher and make fresh sausages and brats and cook them there. It is a spring ritual round here.
Rumor has it that Jimmy Hoffa ended up in a commercial sausage product, which is why his body or any part of it has never been found. But don’t think about that the next time you eat sausages.
Careful what you say.
I thought he was under the end zone at Giants stadium?
I like sausages now and again.
What could be a more fityong “thank you” than that?
city folk never fails……. cannot eat it all
for those who couldn’t figure out the missing word. ‘eat’
Excellent use of farm produce. Now the perfect pig story talented did a lot of things other animals could not do, firewood, newspaper, mind the kids, herd the cows home, weed the garden so a city dude said how come if it’s so perfect it’s not got but three legs? Farmer shook his head in disgust and answered, “Reckon a pig that perfect you cain’t it all at one time.”.