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Reporter feels business end of electric prod

Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, 2008.06.06

The use of battery-powered electric prods to get hogs moving is a controversial animal welfare issue.

The prod is poked into the back or rump of the pig and with a push of a button, a flash of electric current jumps between two contacts. It’s enough to elicit a loud squeal in some pigs.


Posted by Admin on July 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under Meat/slaughter plants, Pork, Transportation
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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.


Posted by Admin 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.


Posted by Admin on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Education and public awareness, Family vs factory farming, Farm life, Housing, 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.


Posted by Admin on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Canada, Education and public awareness, Farm life, Pork
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These little piggies go to market

Luisa D’Amato, Waterloo Region Record, July 12, 2008

The hogs are just a few minutes away from death.

High-pitched screams pierce the warm air at Conestoga Meat Packers, a pork processing plant near Breslau.

Men with plastic paddles push the dusty animals, each as heavy as a football player, toward a covered, metal passageway.


Posted by Admin on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under Canada, Meat/slaughter plants, Pork
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NMA, AMI seek to overturn California slaughter law

Feedstuffs, (12/25/2008) ,
Rod Smith

The National Meat Assn. (NMA) has filed a lawsuit in a federal court in California seeking to overturn part of a California law passed this summer that bans the slaughter of non-ambulatory livestock for meat for human consumption, and the American Meat Institute (AMI) has moved to intervene in and broaden the action, according to an announcement yesterday.


Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Meat/slaughter plants, Regulations
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Ambassador for ‘nature’s perfect food’

Source: The Record (Kitchener), September 29, 2008, KEVIN SWAYZE

International poultry expert Peter Hunton is tired of the question.

“What came first? The chicken or the egg?”

The Cambridge man answers in a deadpan tone.

“I don’t have a good answer to that question.”

But ask Hunton, 72, a serious question about his life’s work and conversation comes easy for a 2008 inductee to the International Poultry Hall of Fame.


Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Housing, Poultry
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Animals for meat beneficial to earth

BY CRYSTAL MACKAY, ONTARIO FARM ANIMAL COUNCIL, London Free Press, 2006.04.22; Letter to the Editor

Regarding the letter, Meat products harmful to the environment (April 20):

I’d like to do something crazy and write in favour of something, which seems to be out of vogue these days. Eating meat is actually good for the environment and makes ecological sense.


Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Letters to the Editor, Vegetarian
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Modern Farms Balance Efficiency with Responsibility

The pigsite , August 04, 2008

INDIANA – It’s no secret that the farms of today are significantly different from those of generations past.

Dr. Jeff Harker’s veterinarian practice is dedicated solely to swine.Today’s farmers depend on technology such as GPS, odor filtration systems and computer programs to efficiently and safely produce food to feed the world’s growing population says a feature in the Indy Star. But the picture of modern farming sometimes makes those outside of agriculture uneasy.


Posted by Admin on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Family vs factory farming, Housing, Pork
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The real deal about veal

Jennifer Bain, Toronto Star, 2007.04.04

The real deal about veal; The Ontario Veal Association president opens her barn for a tour, encouraging butchers, supermarkets, chefs and consumers to learn more about this lean red meat

Ontario farmers want you to know how they do – and don’t – produce veal.


Posted by Admin on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Consumers, Education and public awareness, Housing, Veal
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