We visited a small farm shop near us where the pieces of dead pigs are sold from their own farm. Regional delicacies from animal welfare are offered here, so it is advertised. When you walk in, you see a screen above the counter, where the processed corpses are for sale, on which images run continuously. It shows the yard, the buildings and the shop, the family that runs the yard and the shop. What is particularly eye-catching are two photos in which you can see children playing with a piglet in the straw. What a lying world, because this one little piglet saw the daylight and straw exactly once in his life, namely when the picture was taken. Then it was set back to the others, on the full slatted floor and next to the mom in the crate.

But when you see the pictures, it is suggested that yes, this is how our piglets live. On purpose. We asked the farmer if she wasn’t sorry for the animals. No, she wouldn’t be sorry for them, but the dogs who lived in small apartments did. Because that is not appropriate to the species. Also. So, pig farming is not appropriate for the species. Of course, it would be nice to be able to let her walk around in the pasture, but that’s not possible because of the space and the work. You just have to see how much space wild boars take up. And then all the work. When you wonder where it is.

The mother pig is inseminated and comes into the crate, where she has the babies and nurses them. From there, the little ones come to a different crate after a few weeks, also on fully slatted floors. The feeding takes place automatically via a feeding machine. Do the same with the water. It also doesn’t have to be mucked out, because the pigs, who see no natural light and no straw in their six-month life, push their faeces straight down through the cracks, crevices in concrete floors, on which they rub themselves and suffer from the fumes that suffer rising from the feces that burn the eyes and make breathing difficult. But everything is legally correct, has been checked. It’s true that keeping pigs on fully slatted floors is permitted in Austria. Fully slatted floors and just enough space for them to lie down. That is the rule. This will be complied with, but that does not mean that it is good. Especially if the consumer is faked with something else with the sweet piglet with the human children on straw. Nobody asks.

But when someone comes and questions these idyllic pictures and even shows what it really looks like, then you are portrayed as a slanderer who wants to destroy the family. And they can’t do anything else because they’ve always done it that way. There has never been a problem. A company in which it is handled exactly as it is in 80% of the others in Austria. So far it was done because nobody asked. It is also nothing new to attack those who reveal the truth. Again, the question of whether you weren’t sorry for the animals. No, the repeated answer, but now on the grounds that the animals are there for them, that is, that they are fattened under the most adverse conditions within a very short period of time and then slaughtered. One wonders who decided that they were there for it. Because that’s the way it is. Probably more because it has always been this way. Exactly the same meaningless arguments put forward by those who were and are against the emancipation of women, the liberation of slaves or the rights of workers. Because it has always been that way and because it is their destiny. Now you can join in or think for yourself. And yes, I feel sorry for the animals because they suffer. If we decide together to stop suffering these and all other animals, then there must and will be a different way. Each of us has the opportunity to put an end to these abuses with every purchase. With every meal. So that the world gets a little bit better.