Pork... Are you outraged?

U.S. factory farms confine millions of breeding sows (female pigs) for nearly their entire lives inside tiny crates so small the animals can't even turn aroundThese intelligent, social animals can't turn around or walk, let alone perform many of their other most important natural behaviors. They’re moved to a different crate to give birth, and then are soon re-impregnated and put back into a gestation crate for the cycle to repeat. This happens several times until the pigs can’t reproduce at a profitable rate any longer, and the pigs are then sent to slaughter. It’s hard to imagine a more miserable life.

 The HSUS has worked to pass laws to ban gestation crates in 8 states: Ohio, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, and Oregon. Bills to ban gestation crates are currently pending in Delaware, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey and New York. Many retailers—Harris Teeter, Wolfgang Puck, Burger King, Wendy's, Red Robin, Sonic, Subway, and Safeway among them—have taken steps to move away from pork from producers that use gestation crates. Smithfield, the largest U.S pig producer, has announced a plan to end its use of gestation crates in company-owned breeding facilities by 2017. And Cargill, the nation's eighth-biggest pig producer, has stated that more than half of its sows are no longer confined in gestation crates.

 Personally, I will sponsor these businesses that don't use pork from companies/farmers that use gestation crates. The Humane Society shines a bright spotlight on the abuse of pigs in the pork industry by conducting investigations at factory farms and videotaping what conditions are really like for these animals. For example, in December 2010 we released an investigation into Smithfield, the country’s largest pork producer, showing extreme abuse of animals. Just take a look at these photos and make up your own mind.

Where do you want your next pork chop, ham, bacon, or sausage to come from.... ??

Where did your lunch come from?