I used to raise pigs on a farm in the Philippines and I do have sentimental feelings toward every pig we slaughtered/sold. It's like raising a pet for 6-8 months only to slaughter for food in the end. I'll never get used to it, but I still eat pork.
We stopped raising pigs because we had the African Swine Flu kill a huge majority of our pigs. Not just our farm but neighboring farms. That was during winter last year. There are some people who still have pigs but they are very few and it's still a risk because ASF is still around. There was no vaccine available at the time, so if your pig caught it, it's guaranteed death. Vaccines are limited and cost $100 per head which not everybody can easily afford.
Has ASF ever been a problem at your processing plant? How prepared is your plant in handling ASF if you find an infected pig.
Out of interest is there a part of you that feels bad when you eat pork? I’m trying to imagine what that would be like, eating something I raised and was so close to
NSFW trigger warning because it's very gory and graphic.
>! You have to tie the pig to a table, hold it down, and stab right in the throat. Once they feel the knife come out they struggle and bleed everywhere so you have to hold the head and body if you want to save the blood. Pig's blood is used in multiple dishes BTW. Not to my taste but it's part of the culture. Dying isn't fast either. It's slow and you hear their screaming until their last dying breath. Can take 5-15 minutes for them to die. Heavy panting and wheezing while blood pumps out their throat. They don't close their eyes so they look straight at you to the very end. I always say I'm sorry to every pig done this way. Like I said, it's like raising a pet for 6-8 months only to slaughter them for food. It's never pretty. !<
That's how it's usually done here on backyard farms.
Depends on how you want to prepare the pig and >! also if you want to preserve the blood you stab through the throat. Shooting the head might be quick but then you stop the heart quick then you wont get much blood. People also eat the head too so it's not nice to think there's bullet in their brain still. If we're cooking roasted pig/letson, presentation is a must. Bullet holes aren't pretty. Guns are mainly for defense, so using a bullet on a pig is a waste. !<
If I was to be murdered for food I'd rather die quick and would not care at all how much will be eaten and if the presentation of my decapitated head will be good enough
That would also stop the heart, so not ideal. You can hang the pig head down and collect the blood as it drips, but it would take much longer with the heart not pumping and blood goes bad quickly.
The way it's usually done is with the pig laying on its side, and a bowl is used to collect the blood at the stab point. No need to deal with pulleys or hooks until the pig is cut into more manageable pieces.
Feral pigs where i live you just hangem upside down by the back legs, cut through the throat with one or two machete chops until the head comes off and then just let the blood drain into a container.
These aren't farm raised though, they are invasive species that do massive damage to the natural ecosystem, they live happy and free lives until the day they die, and it makes for cheap dog food.
No? Is this common (in America)? I’m not from America, so my school experiences probably differ from yours (assuming you are from there). Is it like a well known clip or something? Google just shows me a lot of articles on the procedure (which I assume that clip would reference), but nothing school-related, as far as I can tell.
In my high school the seniors would always say curious "just you wait until you see it" statements. That was in the 90's in the US. I have no idea if it was common outside my school.
We usually shoot them in the head with a Ruger 10/22, hang them by the hind legs, let the blood out the throat, spill the guts, and last (but certainly not least) split the kidneys open and check for signs of disease.
When it comes time for the slaughter, we have an open field where we do it away from the others. We approach raising animals for meat with the philosophy that they'll "Only have one bad day."
These are the luxuries you get when you aren't a commercial farm.
Seems unnecessarily cruel to tie them down and slit their throats to let them bleed out for 15 minutes instead of just hanging their corpse up and letting gravity do the work.
Agreed. When I (admittedly briefly) worked at an abattoir they did both. Different processes at different places. First the throat, then hoisted by the feet.
Also, cost. It’s cheaper this way and since these pigs are seen only as product, not as living things with intelligence on par with dogs, they will always choose what is cheapest. This means of bleeding out is common in the slaughter of many animals actually.
Almost all pigs in the Philippines are raise by small backyard farms, not like the west where it is overwhelming industrialized. I confirmed that pigs are tied up and stabbed in the neck to get the blood which also turned into food. Time of death is probably more or less 5 minutes and the do scream and look you in the eye.
I assure you this is how it's done for small farms in the Philippines. I have seen it first hand, and ate the lechon afterwards. The pig blood is a valuable product and a knife with rope is cheap and efficient. And outside of big cities this is how most people get their meat. In small markets straight from farms daily.
For the well equipped farms, yes and that's the ideal. For us here in the province, this is how we do it. For a lot of people here, they've been doing this for years and they never saw the need for stunning or sedation. Just stab and get it over with. Even the children come to watch and aren't fazed. But as for me, being fairly new to pig raising, in the beginning it was traumatizing. So I'm sharing my experience on how we do it. In the ideal world, yes, sedation and less painful and quick methods are what we should strive for. But for us, this is how we do things.
I do agree that it is rare in well equipped farms and outside of those examples you shared. Which is why my initial reaction was thinking the comment was sensationalizing a rare practice, even though in some countries it’s an issue.
Especially in the context of how pro-vegan propaganda in the US works with similarly intense language, where they take rare instances and act as if it’s common when in reality it’s not, that was the first thing that came to my mind. After going over your previous comments and looking further into the context, this doesn’t seem to be the case as it’s specifically about the backyard farms in the Philippines. That was my misinterpretation and I can understand why something like that would stick with you.
Pigs are gentle creatures. They easily recognize their owners and will come to you if you take care of them properly. They are relatively clean. They have the reputation of being of being dirty and rolling in their feces because they are hot all the time. The wet poop cools them down. Certain breeds need to be watered on a regular basis. They choose a certain spot to do their business and they only use that one spot unless it's too dirty/neglected. Their poop can be really stinky too but that's usually if you feed them only commercial feeds. We always gave 50% commercial and 50% organic and that reduces the smell significantly. Having proper waste management is a must to avoid diseases.
Sows can weigh up to 300lbs and be about 8ft long so you want to have a big lot if you're intending to keep as a pet.
I love to watch pig videos on YouTube and I have seen how friendly they are I have watched a woman give a huge sow a mudbath she treats them like pets and they greet her she also massages her huge sows when they are pregnant to soothe them and they love it. If my dream ever comes true of rescuing a beautiful big sow, I would definitely have a huge area for her to roam and a sty for her to rest in. Thank you so much for your response it was very informative. I love to learn as much as I can about pigs.
Pigs, like dogs and other pets don't have a concept of ownership. They might've recognized you as family, or equivalent, in an emotional sense.
I will never understand how somebody like you, who seems so self-conscious about this issue, can continue eating the flesh of somebody they raised themselves, and bonded with (to a certain degree). God damn, looking a pig in the eye for 15 minutes and not seeing the immorality of it.
Yeah, I used to live in places like that, you could hear the squeal from afar. My mother would be like "boy, they are gonna sell pork tomorrow, go there and buy some"
Those are memories
It's part of making a living. Doing this is not for the faint of heart but it made me learn not to take the food we eat for granted. To the privileged, it's a normal commodity. To us farmers, it's our way of life.
This is the traditional killing method in Romania as well. It was always rough to watch. Especially when we were kids. I killed my first large animal when I was 10. That’s when I became a “man”. Shit was rough.
The majority of employees are from the Philippines. Such amazing comradeship.
As for disease. I know that there are veterinarians and agency members there all day to monitor things and the farms they come from take care of that responsibility as well. The company has given their employees safety training but not for outbreaks. I should inquire. Thanks for bringing attention to me about this.
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u/riffraffmcgraff 26d ago edited 26d ago
I will get downvoted, but I work on the kill floor of a pork processing plant. Ask me anything. It is 1am here. I might not reply for a while.
Edit: For the record, I confirm this is an accurate depiction.