Is that method of depopulation actually humane? It sounded pretty horrific
This is so true. I’ve seen a lot of social media posts about buying beef and pork direct from the rancher or farmer and while I think that is fantastic, it’s not a real, sustainable solution right now. My dad runs a few cows as a hobby and we always feed one out for meat for our family. Usually it takes a month or two to get scheduled, but in March my dad called the local locker to make an appointment for this year’s steer and the first available slot was February 2021. Basically a year away. He found another facility a bit further away with availability in October 2020. And that was before things got really bad in April and May...I’ve heard of people reserving spots into 2022 already. The little facilities just don’t have the capacity to absorb the shutdowns and increase in demand. I’ve seen discussions about building new ones and that’s great, but will take time. It’s a rough situation on many fronts.
Looking at the AVMA guidelines for euthanasia of pigs you could do some of the other methods such as euthasol but when needing to depopulate a mass population like that, then you also have to worry about disposal because of the barbituates. Of the approved methods gases seem like the most efficient for the number of pigs needed to depopulate, and more humane than at least one other method mentioned
The problem with all of those, as far as industry is concerned, is that they are more expensive than ventilation shut down. Both at the moment of euthanasia and in the after effects (environmental regulations, etc). And if they have VSD as an approved option, they are not going to pick a more expensive one when they are already losing millions of dollars worth of product.
Update: this message filtering thing is the most useless crap ever.
I have been getting these cells longer than I have even owned a car. I admit I don't stay on the line after 'hello, we've been trying to reach you about your vehicle warranty' so I don't know if a real person comes on later on. As a resident I needed to answer unknown calls since it could be a student or clinician calling about a sample, but now that I am not working a job with on call anymore and have an office line I just don't answer unknown calls. Maybe I'll try it next time.
Also your family mortuary
Can full confirm 🤣
you were telling people your sister died a matter of months before she actually died?
Eerie
The fact of the matter is that they could have used the traditional slaughter method to kill the pigs because it minimizes suffering... but they chose not to because they only care about profits. These people are complacent with animal cruelty and that makes me sick. The pigs needlessly suffered, they were literally cooked from the inside out and their screams were recorded. What kind of monster would be ok with that??? I read an article about it and I was brought to tears...I actually work on a farm and am around pigs constantly. I would NEVER be involved with a process like that. I am not trying to start an argument, but it almost sounds like you're defending these workers. I am forced to beleive these workers don't give a **** about the pigs because they were involved with the process. Anyone with any sense of ethics/morals would refuse. The only somewhat sensible worker was the whistleblower.
I am curious to hear how you would go about depopulating a pig barn. I have also worked with pigs for many years and am familiar with most of the processes that go on in a pig barn. Personally I do not think the people doing it are okay with it, no one wants to depop a barn, but what can they do. One professor of mine, an animal welfare professor, once said depopulation isn't always euthanasia, it's not always a good death, but it has to be done for the welfare of the animal, to prevent disease or prevent present/future suffering. These pigs are most likely suffering or will be suffering due to space constraints in the barn.
Well not ALL plants are closed....maybe the nearest and most convenient to the farm is. I guess the bigger picture is that if we didn't rely so much on the agriculture industry in the US in the first place this kind of needless suffering wouldn't occur. And I never brought up veganism but I don't think that makes you evil. I ate meat but I forced myself to be detached from it. Now that I work at a farm I can't rationalize eating anything more cephalized than a fish.
These are all very fair points. My question is why couldn't the workers have just stunned them all...?? The workers did that anyway for the leftover survivors that weren't successfully killed by the VSD method. Regardless of there being "no other option", is it not still animal abuse?????
Small packers can't pick up the slack of the big plants. My local guy is booking a year out. You can't get a slaughter spot for any species. Aside from small packers, is even if you could take them to other large plants they're full too or at reduced capacity because of COVID. Plus who knows what contracts may be in place and what they say. It's an unfortunate situation of happen stance. COVID has many parts of life charting new waters-some less extreme than others, but it's definitely not a decision I think anyone wanted. I'm sure no one wanted to depopulate. Definitely not the farmers because that's money out of their pocket, not the vets, but more of a out of necessity and ultimate welfare for the pigs. They would have much rather shipped out to slaughter if possible. I also don't know that relying on ag industry is a bad thing . You're lumping alot of aspects into that category(Ag also includes plants), I would argue more good than bad. Are there issues of course, but part of it is driven by supply and demand. However, by the same logic of relying too much on the Ag industry then everyone too involved-look at FMD situations in the UK, ASF in China-all mass depopulation.
Ugh water weight is the worst. Makes you feel so bad about yourself even though you know in the back of your head that you can't gain that much in fat in <24 hours. I'm dieting right now too and have become super irritated with how much water I retain throughout different parts of the month because of my endometriosis
I'll hold onto 5-6 pounds for a week or more and then lose it all basically overnight
I am assuming your term of stunning is captive bolt. When thinking of having farmers do this to every single pig, I don't think it would be that easy.
Most if not all plants are back to being open, but at a reduced capacity. Where I'm working at we send pigs to three different plants normally. When covid started to hit, we had loads being cancelled due the the plants trying to shuffle the pigs around to still try to meet everyone contracts as best as they could. For a few weeks we were selling/shipping half as many loads as we normally would. We were trying to find other places all over the country to send pigs to, somehow we found places is Oklahoma and Arkansas and a few other states that aren't very close to where we are located. Most other producers were doing the same things. We also were trying to slow down the growth of the pigs, between diets and different ventilation set points in the barns. We slowed down a lot of pigs. Projections when plants were being hit the hardest was we were going to have to depop 100,000 market hogs, luckily we only had to do one barn of 1,200.
Why could they not have slaughtered some of the pigs and donated the meat to the needy at least since they had to kill them anyway? There are alot of people who became unemployed/food insecure due to the pandemic. I feel like that would have been practical. Also, I am working within the system so I feel like I kinda take both stances. By working at a farm I am able to see first hand what needs improving and work my way up to a position of authority. But anyway, there are other reasons to avoid giving money to the ag industry and a huge reason I do is because of a little problem we have called climate change.
)
I actually don't mind trying to handle pigs -- at least, small pigs. Just please don't ask me to estimate their weight or figure out the ear numbering system.
(why couldn't it be an easy base-10 instead of like, multiples of 17?
Lots of my experience with pigs is finding these pet pigs wandering the side of the road and taking them into the shelter, then yelling at people all day to make sure the damn pig always has water because it's 80000 degrees in TX and pigs are sensitive to salt toxicity even on a good day
