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I am slowly trying to re-evaluate my consumption of certain meats from certain sources... I feel hunting and local farming can substantially improve the ethics of meat consumption.

I also have never heard a pig called smart. They're dirty, and the mothers sometimes eat the young. I thought Octopus was the animal of the week to defend.




Pigs are not smart?!

Apparently ranked #4 in animal intelligence according to some random non factual comic

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/pigs

And the whole dirty thing is just wrong. Naturally they choose not to soil where they sleep or eat.

Granted spending their lives in a 6' pen they'll root it up and make a right mess, but then I expect anyone would.

Unless you mean the religious connotation, but then that is unclean rather than dirty, because it "has cloven hooves but does not ruminate"[1]

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unclean_animal

I've never farmed Octopus..


Maybe you think pigs are dirty as they wallow in mud? This is because they lack functional sweat glands, and can't pant like a dog can. They wallow to keep cool.

I'd be curious to know if "savaging" (eating/killing their young) occurs outside of factory farms. I imagine if it does, the likelihood is a lot lower.


It's an anecdote, but my mom grew up on a small farm and she remembers hearing the squeals of a piglet as the sow ate it one time. She didn't eat pig for a while.




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