Pigs

Of the many animals exposed to the horrors of factory farming, pigs have perhaps suffered the most.

Despite having personalities and intellects similar to dogs, sows are kept almost continually pregnant, and confined to stalls where they are unable to turn around or express their natural behaviours.

The chronic stress means they spend much of their time engaged in purposeless behaviour, such as head waving or bar biting.

Prior to giving birth, sows are moved to farrowing crates; barren, concrete enclosures where mother pigs spend weeks at a time on their bellies as they wean their young. They have no chance to form any lasting bond with their offspring.

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Animal Testing

Cruel and painful testing on animals is widespread in medicine, agriculture, pharmaceutics and education. However, the scientific merit and human benefit of many of these tests is contested by numerous scientists.

Amendments to the Code of Practice have seen ‘benchmarks’ implemented calling for the three R’s: reduction (less animals used), replacement (non-animal alternatives) and refinement (ensuring suffering is minimised).

Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go before there is an onus on people to utilise non-animal means of testing – such as the use of proteins from human cells.


THE LAW

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