I am a pig. I am a happy and affectionate animal by nature. I like to play in the grass and raise my young. In the wild, I eat leaves, roots, grass, flowers, and fruits. I have a terrific sense of smell and I am highly intelligent.
I am a pig. I can learn tasks as quickly as chimpanzees and faster than dogs. I roll around in mud to cool down but I am a very clean animal and don’t excrete anywhere near where I live. I speak my own language that you cannot understand. I am often loved as a house mate. I like being in groups and live a long natural life in the wild or a safe home. I enjoy interacting with people and I am very gentle.
I wish I could do and be all of those things but I was born on a factory farm like billions of other pigs and so I experience none of them.
I am a pig. If I could speak your language, I would tell you that I spend my life in a crowded and filthy warehouse in a tiny metal crate. The owners call it a farm so you won’t feel bad for me. It’s not a farm. My life is miserable from the day I’m born until the day I die. In many cases, I live my entire life in a gestation crate where I can’t even turn around. I try to escape but can’t.
I suffer severe emotional and physical ailments as a result of my confinement. I have bruises all over my head and face from trying to get out of my cage. I bang my head against the bars.
I am a pig. If I could speak your language, I would tell you that I don’t ever feel the warmth of another pig. I only feel the cold metal bars of my cage and the feces that I am forced to sleep in. I don’t see daylight until a trucker drives me to a slaughterhouse.
I am a pig. I am beaten often by ruthless factory farmers who take pleasure in hearing me squeal. One employee said, “One time I took my knife – it’s sharp enough – and I sliced off the end of a hog’s nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose.”
I am constantly impregnated and do not have any interaction with my piglets. When I was born, I was separated from my mother. In the wild, I would have stayed with her for several months. Now I am forced to have 25 piglets a year through artificial insemination as opposed to six per year I would have in the wild. Being in a constant state of pregnancy is slow torture.
Overcrowding and the smell of being covered in raw sewage causes many of us to go insane and bite each other through our cages.
My home smells of ammonia.
I sleep on concrete.
I am tied up so I can’t even roll over.
I am a pig. I am bored and have nothing to do so I bite my tail and the tails of others so the factory farmers cut off our tails without any pain killers. It is excruciating and causes infection. When it’s time for us to be killed, we are supposed to be stunned to death with a bolt gun until we can’t feel pain but often the gun is not properly charged or the stunner misses, or we’re too big for it and it fails to work properly. Sometimes we go through the slaughter process sticking, skinning, dismembering, and eviscerating–alive, conscious, and kicking.
I am a pig. If I could speak your language, I would tell you we suffer horribly. Our death is slow and violent torture. It can last as long as 20 minutes. If you saw it happen, you would probably never eat an animal again. That’s why what happens inside factory farms is the best kept secret in the world.
I am a pig. You can dismiss me as a worthless animal. Call me filthy even though I am clean by nature. Say I don’t matter because I taste good to eat. Be indifferent to my suffering. But now you know, I feel pain, sadness, and fear. I suffer.
You have a choice to live a more compassionate life. It’s much easier than you think and it is a very fulfilling lifestyle—healthier for you, better for the environment, and most of all, it does not contribute to the abuse of animals. Please give it some thought. I am no more meant to be eaten by you than you are meant to be eaten by me.
The idea of eating me is a human creation for profit not a divine one or one born of necessity but rather choice. If you could choose not to abuse an animal, would you? If the choice of ending cruelty to animals meant making some simple changes in your life, would you make them? Forget about cultural norms. Do what you know is right. Align your heart and mind with your actions. Please stop eating pork, ham, bacon, sausage and buying other products made from pig body parts such as leather.
I am a pig. I’m begging you to develop the same respect for me that you have for your dog or cat. During the time it took you to read this story, more than 26,000 pigs were brutally slaughtered on factory farms. Simply because you didn’t see it happen doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It did.
I am a pig. I had only one life on this earth. It’s too late for me but it is not too late for you to make a change like millions of other people and save other animals from the life I lived. I hope animals’ lives will begin to mean more to you now–now that you know. I was a pig.
Kirschner's Korner 
SAD,SAD,SAD…
Thank you for your voice.
because you are a pig,i love you,because you are a pig i have cried for you,because you are a pig,i am now a vegan,because of this i respect you and thank you,i cannot bring you back but i will remember you because you were a pig x
I am so sorry .. Because you we’re so special, I cry for you every day. You are a pig. But not just a pig. I am a human. But I am just a human. I am vegetarian because I know you are the same as me. And you should have the rights I do. One day, everyone will know, you are not just a pig!
I am a human. Although I am personally a vegan and outspoken activist, attempting to educate others about the plight you are suffering through because you had the NERVE to be born with DNA other than human, I am part of a species whose cruelty and unspeakable penchant for atrocity knows no limits. I am a human. Although I practice a peaceful, vegan way of life in an attempt to save yours, I am reviled by most other members of my race, who if they could would gladly inflict the same cruel torture and murder upon me and my vegan friends as they inflict upon you, out of nothing more than spiteful hatred for those who refuse to participate in their crimes. I am a human, and because I share the collective guilt of my race, I am, at least in this lifetime, nothing more than a dangerous, cruel, unwelcome parasite on this planet. I am human. And I am so sorry most of the members of my race did this to you. Please forgive me. I am human, and I am ashamed of it. :_(
Я думаю,что вегетарианство в генах, у некоторых людей этот ген спит, иногда его можно разбудить
Moving to the extreme. This is soul destroying and I hope through reading this people come to see this for the atrocity that it is. The pig in your last photo has very real ‘worry lines’ creasing his or her forehead – we aren’t the only ones to feel deep anguish, fear, isolation, misery, terror and pain. I love pigs, and I will always fight to raise awareness for their kind. They are very much like us and share our DNA. May we learn the error of our ways. Thank you Andrew for another wonderfully written and enlightening piece.
I hate people. Go vegan, it’s the best you can do.
As a vegetarian for almost 30yrs I still sob over animal suffering. I, we, must continue to do more. Thank you for this writing and reiteration of the lives of factory farm animals. Sometimes one gets so caught up in our day to day (cruelty-free) lives that we become out-of-touch to what still goes on. You’ve brought me back to the reality and I’m standing by your side.
What’s really sad is that humans just don’t know…….throughout the millennia we have been “unconscious” and since we just arrive on this planet with no guide book we are subjected to the workings of the mind and the culture we live in. But people are becoming more and more aware of what we have done….and how others suffering immensely at our hand. Lets hope the more outcry there is the quicker the change. My heart bleeds for any animal who suffers. They don’t deserve it. Instead we do.
I won’t give meat up but If I can i will choose meat from animal that has been treated nice through its life.
Sadly, Mavex, even if she or he (as opposed to it) got treated well during her life, she met her demise in a painful, violent manner. That’s the nature of slaughter. The very word sounds insanely violent, and it represents insane violence. There is simply no getting around it. The only way to avoid that would be to choose meat that was grown in a lab rather than stripped off a murder victim. Since you choose to continue to purchase and consume this violent product, you are making the choice to support unnecessary violence against other animals to satisfy a desire and preference rather than fill an actual need.
Scott i totally agree with your comment,it is of no use to sympathise with the victims if you help hold the knife
True, but my statement was not intended as approval for those who continue with carnist lifestyles. Rather, it’s a statement intended to strip away everything except the hard, cold facts…to make the philosophy less susceptible to political spins, snarky dismissals, and name calling, such as “oh, you bleeding heart liberals only care about pigs and not about feeding humans, blah blah blah.” It’s a strategic approach to sharing the obvious.
That is still taking a life for no good reason…but, Mavex, it is a start.
halfway measure avail nothing.treated nice?you have got to be kidding.
so much pain in the world, the world I’m not sure I want to live in anymore. one thing I’m kind of sure is I dont want to have kids in this cruel and empty world! There is just so much to attend to, one cant even begin to count our atrocities anymore. what should we REALLY do? other than trying, hoping…
Thanks. I have quit eating meat. Treating rightly both non-human and human animals is interdependant.
I stopped eating any kind of pig product when I was 13 years old. I am an amateur body builder and I can tell you there is NO NEED to ever eat pigs. Their meat is the least conducive to building and maintaining muscle mass. Fish, chicken and turkey are the best for that. Beef can be beneficial too. I have always wanted a pet pig, but have never been able to afford 1. I repeat and strongly emphasize: There is NO survival value in eating pork, bacon or any other pig product. DON’T do it, it’s NOT helping your health and it is WRONG. I hope God finds a way to discipline people who choose to support the horrible abuse of pigs.
Alexandra,its not just pigs its all animals that are cruelly treated by humans,its so wrong to eat any of them,they all feel pain and suffer horribly at the hands of man,