Capable of living 10-12 years, most pigs are killed at 5-6 months old
Graphic content deliberately avoided. Please click here to view reality for pigs.
Piglets who survive the first few days of their life are mutilated without pain relief, their tails and teeth cut to reduce cannibalism, and pieces cut from their ears, or tags punched in as a means of identification.
10-18% of piglets who are born alive won’t make it until weaning age, succumbing to disease, starvation or dehydration, or being accidentally crushed by their trapped mothers.
Most pig farms utilize artificial insemination rather than natural mating, as it allows them to impregnate up to 30-40 female pigs from a single boar. Workers collect the semen by masturbating the boars, then insert it into the sows via a raised catheter known as a pork stork.
The waste products – the skins, bones, hoofs, guts and fat – are trucked to the rendering plant to be turned into lard (or pork tallow) for use in food, soaps, lubricants and biofuel, or into other products like gelatin. [Dominion]
