let's talk farm animals

The end of the line

Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator,2008.06.06

It’s Friday, May 9. I didn’t need my alarm clock this morning. I was wide awake by 4 a.m.

I admit that I was a little apprehensive. This is Piggy’s last day. This morning, he’s being shipped from the Littlejohns’ farm in the hamlet of Glen Morris to Great Lakes Specialty Meats, a small packing plant in Mitchell, about half an hour north of London.

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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Farm life,Meat/slaughter plants,Pork,Transportation
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The pig whisperer

Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.06.04

I’m playing a word game with Temple Grandin. It’s fascinating to hear her describe how her brain works.

Temple Grandin is a professor of livestock behaviour at Colorado State University. She also happens to be autistic.

You could make the case that she’s the world’s most highly functioning autistic person and I wouldn’t argue with that.

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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Education and public awareness,Family vs factory farming,Farm life,Housing,Pork
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Why eating like a pig costs big

Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.05.30

It’s 7 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 21, and it’s one of the coldest mornings of the winter so far. The snow crunches under foot, there’s just a hint of grey light along the eastern horizon and an icy mist rises off the nearby Grand River.

Two gleaming silver tanker trucks from the Wallenstein feed company have already started emptying their loads into the metal silos at Curtiss Littlejohn’s pig farm in the hamlet of Glen Morris.

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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Canada,Family vs factory farming,Farm life,Innovation and technology,Pork
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The trouble with boars

Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.05.28

Six months, 250 pounds. That’s Piggy’s destiny in life.01 At first, he’ll double his weight in a few days, then it will double in a week, then every couple of weeks, then every month. It’s incredible, isn’t it, to think that a barnyard animal is capable of growing so large, so quickly.

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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Canada,Education and public awareness,Farm life,Pork
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There’s no life like it

Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.05.27

It’s 6:30 on a Sunday morning and daylight hasn’t yet cracked the horizon as I head west along Governor’s Road on the far side of Lynden. I drive for miles without passing another car, but almost every barn I pass is already lit.

No one has said it better than John Kenneth Galbraith, the renowned economist and maybe the most famous graduate of the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph.

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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Canada,Farm life,Pork
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Backyard chickens raise avian flu risk, say experts

Source: CBC News
Last Updated: Thursday, March 13, 2008

Animal health experts are concerned about the spread of disease from backyard chicken flocks in British Columbia.

The risks associated with keeping poultry was a key topic for discussion at a seminar Wednesday in Abbotsford, hosted by the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Animal health,Canada,Education and public awareness,Pork
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HOG WILD

BY TOBI COHEN, OTTAWA SUN, 2003.06.22

Pulling up to Luc and Louise Secours’ Bainsville farm one would never guess it was home to as many as 6,000 piglets at any given time.
It’s located on a large chunk of property a kilometre or so east of their
family farm home which stands perched atop a small hill next door to their chicken coop along Concession 2 in tiny South Glengarry town.

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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Animal health,Consumers,Family vs factory farming,Housing,Innovation and technology,Pork,Regulations
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The Best Care for Pigs Should be Up to the Farmer

October 17, 2008, Letter to the Editor, New York Times

To the Editor:

“Standing, Stretching, Turning Around” (editorial, Oct. 9) does little
to advance the debate on farm animal housing. It accepts completely the hype concerning a California ballot initiative that among other things bans gestation stalls for pregnant sows.

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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Housing,Letters to the Editor,Pork
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Most farmers would never think of abusing animals

Waterloo Record, MARLENE OTTENS, (Jul 19, 2006)

The July 14 letter of the day, Livestock Suffer Under Horrific Conditions, would be amusing if it wasn’t such a blatant collection of half-truths.

Writer Carol A. Lodin makes a series of statements based on assumptions and propaganda that need to be addressed.

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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Education and public awareness,Family vs factory farming,Letters to the Editor,Pork
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Hog producers defend their care of animals

Vancouver Sun, 2005.08.19, Letter to the Editor

Re: Spin, not reform: The Canadian livestock industry goes for public
relations, Issues & Ideas, Aug. 18

On behalf of Canadian hog producers, I take great exception to Stephanie Brown and John Youngman’s comments regarding our industry’s efforts in animal care.

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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Letters to the Editor,Pork
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