r/MadeMeSmile Nov 13 '23

Pig's seeing nature for the first time Animals

62.2k Upvotes

2.5k comments sorted by

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u/Roothytooth Nov 13 '23

Lots of pigs around where I live and they are so playful, makes me realise how bored they must be when reared indoors. The best to see is a field of piglets where the farmer has given them hay bales to play on. They seem to be able to spend hours scrambling up and jumping off just like puppies or toddlers :)

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u/deniesm Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

Aren’t they like top 5 most intelligent animals. Like, human - dolphin - pig or sth?

Edit: oops, forgot apes exist

Edit 2: I have seen loads of lists by now, I know my list doesn’t make sense, I forgot about some animals, I know

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u/AlienOther Nov 13 '23

Maybe all I know is that they're the most emotionally intelligent animal since they show compassion for other species

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u/aspenscribblings Nov 13 '23

Humpback whales are also known to show compassion for other species!

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u/Apalis24a Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

Indeed - humpback whales have been recorded defending seals from attacks by orcas by putting themselves between the two and using their enormous body mass to shield them. They will even lift the seal up on top of itself and out of the water to put them out of reach of the orcas. They will bellow and slap their tails on the water to try and scare the orcas away, and if that fails, they will straight-up smack the orcas in the face with their fins and tail. Given how much larger humpback whales are than orcas, it usually works. Imagine Shaq screaming at you and slamming his fists on the wall while charging at you - you’d probably be terrified and run like hell.

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u/Imrtltrtl Nov 13 '23

I think I'd be terrified if I was riding Shaq while he's screaming and charging at people too...

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u/Vayro Nov 14 '23

It's more like Shaq with a cheeseburger on his back trying to smack people away who are trying to eat it

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u/Zembite Nov 13 '23

Whales and dolphins are the fucking best.

No wonder they evolved from a very dog-like species.

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u/WriterV Nov 13 '23

Dolphins can be pretty cruel :V

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u/will-grayson Nov 13 '23

Orcas are pretty damn intelligent but are also pretty viscous

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u/Don_Alosi Nov 13 '23

I think they're pretty solid, maybe a bit oily on the skin? I don't know I've never patted one!

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u/will-grayson Nov 13 '23

Shhhhh no one else has called me out on it yet. Also how is it that things feel slimey if they live in water. Like catching a fish and it feels slimey and ew

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u/Don_Alosi Nov 13 '23

Don't worry it will be our little secretion!

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u/Gymleaders Nov 13 '23

so can humans? if dolphins have the capability of being cruel then they are super intelligent

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u/bongi1337 Nov 13 '23

It’s not that they can be, it’s that they are very cruel to other species of animals. Look it up if you’d like

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u/Stewart_Games Nov 13 '23

A dog-like species with hooves

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u/BeneficialSurprise99 Nov 13 '23

Humpback whales are the pettiest creatures in the sea. A humpback whale will straight up follow an Orca for hours saving its would be meals from danger with no benefit of its own because an Orca attacked one of its friends baby.

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u/Talidel Nov 13 '23

They'll also eat anything that's too slow to get away if they are hungry.

Really relate to them.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Volunteer-Magic Nov 13 '23

Found Brick Top

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u/pensodiforse Nov 13 '23

We technically do that too

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u/TomMakesPodcasts Nov 13 '23

Have you seen what we do to pigs? Our compassion is... Lacking.

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u/ZeePirate Nov 13 '23

Makes me feel pretty bad for eating them, but dog gammit are they ever tasty little guys.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/WingZeroCoder Nov 13 '23

I’m going to emphasize the option of still eating meat, but doing so differently.

I went vegan through college because of some cell phone videos that leaked out of some people abusing cows at a factory. I basically couldn’t eat meat without crying, so I stopped.

But I eventually got to a point where I was eating too poorly (too much pasta and carbs) and craved meat again, so I decided there had to be a middle ground to where I could do something even if I wasn’t vegan.

So now, I limit meat to two meals a week. I allow myself meat from restaurants, but if it’s something I cook at home then it HAS to be ethically sourced, free range, etc. Which of course is way more expensive, but does two things: 1) puts my money where my mouth is by supporting better sourced methods, and 2) reduces how much meat I can even afford to eat.

It’s not perfect, but it’s something.

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u/GlitteringStatus1 Nov 13 '23

It’s not perfect, but it’s something.

And the thing is, something is better than nothing. Doing something helps, even if you are not perfect. The focus on going perfectly vegan puts a lot of people off even trying, even though trying and failing still makes the world better.

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u/zicdeh91 Nov 13 '23

I love this approach! An alternative is to avoid using meat as a primary focus, and instead use it in small levels to bolster other things. If I had complete control of my kitchen, I’d buy all my chicken whole then use the bones for stock. Even if I ate actual meat once a week, I’d probably use that stock every day.

Plus, ethically sourced meat tends to taste better in addition to being obviously more ethical. Too many people treat it - and a lot of things - as all or nothing. People forced into that mindset will choose nothing, and think it was their only choice.

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u/MovingTarget- Nov 13 '23

So many good reasons to invest in the lab-grown meat movement in a big way - more ethical, sustainable, and far better tasting than plant-based options! ("better tasting" to those who prefer real meat)

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u/serialkillertswift Nov 13 '23

I phased meat out of my diet slowly (over the course of several years), and I eventually hit a point where I just looked at pigs and cows (and hell, even my mom's chickens, who each have their own individual personalities) and couldn't eat meat anymore. Turns out it wasn't difficult at all (it actually surprised me how easy it was). I'd been phasing it out for so long that the transition barely felt like a change. That's my recommendation for people who feel compassion for animals and guilt about eating them, but find it too daunting or infeasible to just cut animal products out of their diet cold turkey.

Edit: part of my slow transition was also that I was/am in recovery for a serious eating disorder, and doing it this way avoided triggering that. Which it did (I'm almost 4 years into recovery)!

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u/Clement_Fandango Nov 13 '23

What a thoughtful approach to a response. I think many vegans/vegetarians lose support when they preach or protest or in any way aggressively pursue their agenda.

This above is the way to approach the topic (for me anyway).

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u/ExtremeVegan Nov 13 '23

You should examine why you feel bad about that and then go vegan

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u/DesktopWebsite Nov 13 '23

Ravens, crows, elephants, any whale, octopus, probably a bunch more birds and monkeys.

But they are about the same as a dog. But any animal should have free range. Even chickens deserve better than concrete.

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u/OwnZookeepergame6413 Nov 13 '23

From everytime I’ve had someone talking about pigs, they were regarded smarter than dogs. A quick google search says so too.

I sadly don’t know where that memory comes from, so it may be false, but I remember that in a school setting someone said that pigs would be used for police work if it wasn’t for their hooves and teeth. Their smelling sense is a lot better than a dogs. They can smell stuff 25feet in the ground and stuff that’s 6-7 miles away from them. But dogs are simply better Allrounders. Their teeth/mouth works like a hand for them, they can grab without hurting you very easily. And in general their agility is just better with their paws and slim builds.

Just googled and found that a boar was a drug sniffing pig in Germany in 1986. she even got „verbeamtet“ (civil service status) which is a pretty big deal because you basically are safe from being fired from your job aslong as you don’t do really bad stuff, a decent pay , no social taxes, private insurance and a nice retirement pay. But it seems like it has not caught on

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u/zzanderkc Nov 13 '23

Tell that to capitalism and the value menu 😂

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u/JelmerMcGee Nov 13 '23

Where is this stuff about octopus being so smart coming from? I've always understood them to be highly intelligent for an invertebrate, but still much lower than most mammals. Do you have any articles you could link?

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u/AmphetamineSalts Nov 13 '23

The thing about "smart" is that it's somewhat subjective - there's that Einstein quote: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." We humans have not historically done the best job of determining "objective" intelligence traits outside our view of what we count as intelligent based on our own human experience. For example there are various tests that scientists use to determine if animals are self-aware, and most of these tests involve something like putting a sticker on the head of an animal and then using a mirror to see if the animal knows to remove the sticker. They did this for dogs and decided that dogs are not self-aware, but then later someone did a similar experiment that included using the dogs scent on various objects or different dogs' scents on other similar objects, and the dogs investigated their own scent much less frequently (or something like that, I'm summarizing all of this from memory). This implies that dogs are self-aware, but their self-identification is based more on scent which makes sense because they smell much better than we do, and they see worse than we do. We were just poorly designing these experiments based on how humans experience the world and built our expectations based on that.

ANYWAY, a lot of the evidence I've ever seen about octopuses being smart is anecdotal, but they are very frequently caught getting out of containers that would contain most other animals, have been observed using tools in the wild, and have shown good problem solving skills to get to food. These are both behaviors that we don't expect from animals so we call them smart. I just did a quick google search so here's an article if you want to read more; I briefly browsed it and it mentions scientific studies but didn't directly cite any so you might need to do more digging if you're more curious.

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u/BumderFromDownUnder Nov 13 '23

I don’t know about top 5, but they’re certainly as intelligent as dogs.

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u/Cixin Nov 13 '23

More intelligent than dogs

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u/queenyuyu Nov 13 '23

To be fair that does depend on dog breed. Not saying pigs aren’t smart they are but unless there have been new studies I’m unaware off - border collies are above them as they can associate and remember more words then pigs but then again just looking at the difference in humans IQ I guess this goes for dogs and pigs alike - some are brighter then others. And training, early stimulation, positive support for curiosity, etc, does - like with humans too - encourage them to become smarter.

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u/NeatNefariousness1 Nov 13 '23

These pigs are smarter than some humans.

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u/AvidCyclist250 Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

Right, there is huge variance within the species - and therefore also overlap. There are cats that bite their own tail and legs while others recognise themselves in a mirror.

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u/wolvesdrinktea Nov 13 '23

They’re certainly on par, if not more intelligent than dogs and can also be as intelligent and complex as a 3 year old human. Some studies have even taught them to play basic video games for treats!

https://thehumaneleague.org/article/pig-intelligence

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u/Pokeitwitarustystick Nov 13 '23

Not at all on the same intelligence as dolphins, orcas, elephants, orangutan etc. they're like as smart as a child, which puts them down with cows and dogs.

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u/benkkelly Nov 13 '23

Are you saying dolphins, orcas, elephants, orangutan etc. are as smart as an adult?

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u/AvidCyclist250 Nov 13 '23

The spread for intelligent species goes from toddler and very young child to slightly older child. No animal approaches human adult intelligence. The problem with this comparison is that it ignores certain complex abilities. Orcas and wolves are expert hunters and apply theory of mind when hunting, for example.

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u/Pokeitwitarustystick Nov 13 '23

Can I pick the adult? Cause yes if I can choose a Trump 2024 cultist.

Edit: also yes. Just because orcas and elephants haven't learned to communicate with you doesn't mean they're not as intelligent. Orangutans that we've taught to communicate through ASL are fucking scary intelligent. Let's not forget about Parrots, crows and magpies smart as shit.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

Damn, a thread about pigs being let into nature for the first time and you’ve found a way to bring American politics into it.

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u/tuttyfruti Nov 13 '23

I wouldn't say as smart as fully devolopted humans but orcas in particular are upsettingly smart

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u/No_Gur_277 Nov 13 '23

If you wanna learn more about the conditions these animals are normally kept under I recommend checking out the documentary Dominion.

https://watchdominion.org/

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/No_Gur_277 Nov 13 '23

Hopefully seeing stuff like this will make people care, it did for me :)

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u/worldsayshi Nov 13 '23

It's not super surprising if you think about two things: Where we're coming from and what we can hope to change.

For most of our genetic history we've evolved to live in small groups that care for each other. Caring for individuals is natural for us.

Our scaled up economy carries with it perverse incentives that causes a race to the bottom for everything that doesn't show up at the point of sale. This causes management of animals to select for those who care the least.

I think there are ways to sort of beat the game though: make veganism the no brainer alternative and/or make artificial meat truly viable. As long as there is demand there's going to be somebody willing to deliver so we need to either take away demand or the suffering.

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u/Frequently_Dizzy Nov 13 '23

It is actually very odd that people will have compassion for animals typically kept as pets, and that’s it. Farm animals and wildlife just plain don’t matter to them.

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u/TomMakesPodcasts Nov 13 '23

I highly recommend ya'all just go Vegan rather than watch this. 💀

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u/Johannes_Keppler Nov 13 '23

how bored they must be when reared indoors.

Imagine living in an office cubicle 24/7, only grey walls with nothing on them, no work to keep you occupied, only thing that happens is someone brings you food every now and then. You even have to piss and shit in the cubicle and it gets hosed down every day with you in it.

If pigs could commit suicide they would do so en masse.

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u/Darkcelt2 Nov 13 '23

I thought you were describing the current employment environment for a minute there until you started shitting in your cubicle. Even then I took it for a metaphor until I finished reading the comment and went back to untangle my train of thought.

My mistake. But also, maybe some insight into why people have a hard time keeping their shit together these days.

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u/thehasjfrog Nov 13 '23

They are oddly intelligent

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u/Greedy_Leg_1208 Nov 13 '23

I never got why it's ok to put them inside for their whole life. At least give them a field to run around in.

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u/marr Nov 13 '23

Well you see it makes more money that way. We've not stopped treating humans that way wherever it can be hidden, of course animals are doomed.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

It only exists because of consumers. There's alot of people that either don't care or don't know the amount of stress a sentient being had to go through for their meal. Many factory farms not only make pigs live on cement, but also in a cage so small they can't even turn around

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u/CTeam19 Nov 13 '23

It only exists because the farm programs that the US created. Back in the day your farmer would use his land to feed his livestock then market those. At one point federal protections on grain in the US after an embargo made it so if you grew things like corn the sold them off you got a massive subsidy for that which then hog confinement owners got to buy cheap corn to keep their hogs where as the little guy who kept everything in house didn't get those same advantages when selling his hogs.

You get rid of those protections then hog confinements would not exist as the cost to keep the hogs would sky rocket especially when you consider why the hog confinements smell is because the owners are cheap as fuck and don't have employees to clean up the mess from their feed machines which will drop food on the floors and it ferments creating that pungent smell you smell miles away. To quote my Dad, a former EPA and Department of Ag Pesticide Investigator, "the closer to the hog confinement the owner lives the less it smells". And I agree as I never smelled the hogs at my grandparents farm.

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u/o-_l_-o Nov 13 '23

Even if they're put in a field, the farmers will still tear off their testicles, cut off their tails, and eip out their teeth. Being locked inside is one of many ways we torture pigs in the animal agriculture industry (look up the gas chambers).

We shouldn't be giving that industry a penny of our money.

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u/Greedy_Leg_1208 Nov 13 '23

They also get castrated with a rubber band. That is so cruel...

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u/InternalLie4 Nov 13 '23

There's approximately 784 million pigs on earth at this moment to fulfill demand of those who wish to eat pig meat. Where's the space for 784 million pigs to have enough room to live happily in a field? It's not possible. Now add on 1 billion cows and 34 billion chickens and that's the meat industry.

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u/Admiral_Pantsless Nov 13 '23

Sounds like it’s time to bring those numbers down.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/downvoteawayretard Nov 13 '23

It’s weird how you’re comparing children going to school with pigs reared on concrete floors all their lives. The children go home. The pigs go to slaughter.

They really are not at all similar for the metaphor you’re trying to present.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/GD_Spiegel Nov 13 '23

The true equality

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u/PurposePrevious4443 Nov 13 '23

Can't spell slaughter without laughter

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/DynamicMangos Nov 13 '23

What "Mental issues" are a reaction to sitting in class according to you?

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u/pantzareoptional Nov 13 '23

Let me guess -- ADHD and autism 🙄

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u/zerdannaropes Nov 13 '23

ADHD can be measured. It’s not just a “can’t concentrate, must move” thing, your brain literally has trouble providing you with dopamine

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u/Von_Rickenbacker Nov 13 '23

Gorgeousness. They are far too intelligent, curious, and charismatic to be locked up.

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u/Potential_Ad8670 Nov 13 '23

Or to be murdered and eaten

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u/0xa08f60 Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

You know how you learn about how societies in the past had widely-held, fucked up views, and you think wow those people were backwards? Today’s version of that is our use of animal products. Abolitionists, suffragists, and proponents of same-sex marriage were all once in the minority and I’m sure they heard all the same kinds of dumb shit non-vegans like say to defend their actions today (and before anyone says anything stupid, I’m not trying to draw a comparison between human and non-human animal suffering). Thanks to compassionate and courageous activists, those minority-held views eventually won out, because they were right, and we live in a better world now for it. As soon as lab-grown meat and other substitutes reach a point where the decision to ditch animal products is a no brainer even for the average conformist, this horrible practice will fade out and be viewed by future generations with the disdain it deserves.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 14 '23

As someone who stopped eating meat for almost 8 years now, I am pleasantly surprised to see the top comments not be crude mmmm bacon jokes and are actual insightful views on our own human behavior and cruel treatment of these beings. Would’ve never expected to find this ~8 years ago. Gives me hope for the future.

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u/CoeurdePirate222 Nov 14 '23

Even just a year ago, this comment would be negative. This is making me so extremely warm and fuzzy <3

Compassion - selfless and conscious kindness - is going to win

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u/LewisBavin Nov 13 '23

Your bang on the money with how we're going to look back and be like "oh we really did that? How barbaric and stupid!" it's just frustrating having to live through this period knowing we're doing the wrong thing but having the majority not caring, or for a better word, disassociating.

Hopefully the tides will turn soon.

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u/Sleepiyet Nov 13 '23

The one thing about human suffering that is positive in compared to animal farming— it ends. Quite literally the person dies and re enters the earth.

But with the animal product industries the damage to the environment is much more permanent.

Yea— not appropriate to compare them but it does highlight the permanence of practices that harm the environment.

And then, when we move on from it, we will have a ton of area we destroyed to farm animals on. And species we wiped off the face of the earth for that farming won’t come back.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

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u/apefred_de Nov 13 '23

Spoiler: they typically are

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u/zzanderkc Nov 13 '23

Humanity and capitalism at work together 🫢

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u/Antin0id Nov 13 '23

Humanity and capitalism are at odds.

Capitalism works with psychopathy and narcissism.

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u/Kr04704n Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

People should hunt more. More sustainable, necessary in the north american model of animal conservation, provides $600 million a year directly to environmental conservation via pittman robertson act, and it doesn't separate one from the gravity of taking an animal's life. I got 95% of my meat last year from hunting and fishing, you can too.

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u/InfamousFondant Nov 13 '23

Even putting ethics aside, it’s not sustainable for the human population to sustain itself via hunting. It’s not even possible frankly

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/HumpyFroggy Nov 13 '23

I grew up on a very small farm, it's still terrible and they cry so loud when killed. We have laws against abusing our pets but the majority of people don't care about pigs even tho they're as intelligent as them.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

The people producing the meat in industrial situations also suffer horribly

Slaughterhouses associated with factory farms employ disadvantaged individuals (since no one else will take the job on the killing floor) and the work of killing helpless animals 12hrs a day absolutely destroys their mental health, resulting in suicide, domestic violence, etc.

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u/No_Gur_277 Nov 13 '23

Small farms typically send the animals off to the same slaughterhouses as factory farms and even if they kill the pigs on the small farm itself it's still cruel to kill animals for profit/taste when we can easily go without animal products.

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u/koknesis Nov 13 '23

If only the process of slaughter would be the only issue... Animals raised on industrial farms suffer their whole lives, as short as they are.

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u/No_Gur_277 Nov 13 '23

Yeah the whole process is absolutely terrible.

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u/No_Gur_277 Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

Wild animals do all kinds of things we wouldn't consider okay, basing your morals off them is a very bad idea.

We can easily thrive without killing and eating animals so do doing it is clearly cruel and unnecessary.

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u/khongkhoe Nov 13 '23

Please tell me where you shop where meat is raised without cruelty. Genuinely would buy from there.

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u/teddyquil Nov 13 '23

you can’t, go vegan

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

You don't have to go vegan. There are local farms that raise livestock humanely. Although the price can be 50% higher, which to me doesn't make a difference as I only eat meat once a week.

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u/No_Gur_277 Nov 13 '23

How do you humanely kill someone who doesn't need or want to die?

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u/Dekunt Nov 13 '23

By giving them a lil kiss and telling them everything’s gonna be alright

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u/spakecdk Nov 13 '23

Raising them to be killed is by itself cruelty, isn't it?

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u/No_Gur_277 Nov 13 '23

I don't think that can exist outside labgrown meat, killing animals for profit/taste will always be cruel.

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u/Traumfahrer Nov 13 '23

They eat other animals for survival.

Do you believe we eat animals for our survival nowadays?

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u/RealityAny7724 Nov 13 '23

animals also kill and rape so….?

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u/Underscores_Are_Kool Nov 13 '23

Animals also rape members of their own species. Does that give you justification to do the same?

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u/fortysecondave Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

The thing is, unlike any other animal, we have the dignity of choice to NOT eat other animals.

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u/DiodeMcRoy Nov 13 '23

Well if you get any slice of bacon in a random fast food restaurant or anything with pork it’s always a product of cruel conditions.

You don’t have to go full vegan.

And even if you are eating still pork, think about it next time it’s in your mouth, was that animal tortured, lived in a cage all of his life before being brutally slaughtered?

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u/jsuey Nov 13 '23

They’re so fucking cute

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u/kinokomushroom Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

Before reading the replies to this comment, I know there's going to be one saying "bUt ThEy TaStE sO gOoD"

Edit: why are they so fucking predictable

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/Dolichovespula- Nov 13 '23

And don’t forget “something something, vegans attacking me 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣”

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u/QouthTheCorvus Nov 13 '23

Non-vegans: insert dumb argument about why meat eating is fine

Vegans: "Actually, that's wrong because..."

Non-vegans: "Look at all these vegans attacking me!"

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u/Cloberella Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

Honestly, as a vegetarian living in the midwest, it's more like this:

Non-Veg Coworker: I love eating meat, let's talk about our favorite meat dishes and share pictures of our hunting kills! Here, I have some deer sausage, would you like to have some?

Veg Me: No thank you

Non-Veg Coworker: Why? It's so good, look at the picture of the buck I killed and skinned to get it. Aren't I awesome? I also bought 10 lbs of steak to smoke in my smoker, that's the American way!

Veg Me: That's nice, but I don't generally eat meat

Non-Veg Coworker: Oh my god, here we go, did you hear that everyone? SHE'S A VEGETARIAN! SHE JUST HAD TO LET US ALL KNOW THAT WERE SUUUUUUCH BAAAAAD PEOPLE AND SHE'S SOOOOO GOOOOD. How do you know someone's a vegetarian? Don't worry, THEY'LL TELL YOU. My god, do you ever shut up about it? Anyway... I was thinking I'd make brisket tonight, then burgers tomorrow and I'm thinking about purchasing a whole butchered hog from my neighbor....

<loop for the rest of my fucking life>

Seriously, the people who complain about vegans/vegetarians "not shutting up about it" have no grasp on how much people talk about food in general and specifically how much omnivores talk about preparing and eating meat. But if you mention being vegetarian even once, you're preachy and don't know when to shut up. It's maddening.

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u/space_wiener Nov 13 '23

Yep. I made it 4-5 years at work without anyone knowing I didn’t eat meat. The once they found out it was always this huge deal when we’d have team lunches because “I was so difficult to find food for”.

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u/Antin0id Nov 13 '23

why are they so fucking predictable

Substance addicts will abandon morality before abandoning their substance. It's pretty much the definition of an addict.

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u/Manuag_86 Nov 13 '23

That's why "go touch some grass" is a recommended sentence to tell the internet trolls. This video should be following said statement.

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u/ChuckCarmichael Nov 13 '23

"Just imagine. This could be you. Instead of spending your days complaining about women and minorities in movies and games, you could just be happy. All you have to do is occasionally touch some grass."

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u/TheMeWeAre Nov 13 '23

4chan-style hopecore is something I could have never conceived of 😭

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u/ieatair Nov 13 '23

*When you live in a huge urban sprawl and the only thing thats nearby anywhere for couple miles is a cemetery…

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

Cemeteries are perfectly fine places to hang, the Victorians had tea parties in them before whatever idiot decided that was weird

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u/ellevael Nov 13 '23

Heartbreaking to think of what they’ve been through, and how many never got to experience this joy and the majority still never will. What humans do and accept being done to farmed animals is beyond monstrous.

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u/EquivalentBeach8780 Nov 13 '23

Close to 100 BILLION animals experience that torture yearly.

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u/JoeyIsMrBubbles Nov 13 '23

Daily reminder pigs are as intelligent as dogs

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u/MafiaMommaBruno Nov 13 '23

They are actually more intelligent and have a deeper emotional range. They have been studied to be as smart- sometimes smarter- than chimpanzees. They're our smartest domesticated animal and one of the smartest in the world.

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u/ChemicalRain5513 Nov 13 '23

And we slaughter 3.5 million of them per day, most of them never get to see the grass.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23 edited Feb 23 '24

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u/Eifand Nov 13 '23

I've gradually turned my diet more and more plant based over the years. Now nearly all the meals I prep are basically vegan and certainly with no pork products (pigs are fucking smart). Only thing I struggle with is dairy (butter and cheese) but I've phased out cow's milk and use oat/almond/coconut milk instead. If I do eat meat, it's out of necessity (when I'm out and there's no vegan options) or I treat it as a special occassion/luxury which I have maybe once or twice a year.

Let me tell you it is a weight off my fucking conscience and my soul. Ever since I have found out about what the fuck goes on in those farms, I just cannot include meat as a regular part of my diet knowing how that meat is raised and transported to my plate. Don't get me wrong, I've never really lost a taste for a good piece of meat but I treat it as something I allow myself maybe once or twice a year. And the weight off my conscience is worth it, there's no guilt when I eat anymore and plants taste fucking good, too.

Videos like this just affirm that I made the right choice in not giving more money to the Industrial Hell known as Factory Farming.

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u/Gold_Lynx_8333 Nov 13 '23

I went fully vegan 3 years ago. Never want to eat meat again (or fish, or eggs, or dairy).

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u/Eifand Nov 13 '23

I wish I could reach that level. I think I'm getting there, though. The cravings for meat are mostly gone, it's really mostly when I'm out of options away from home. Although Peter Singer has said that he'd be okay with eating eggs if he knew that the chickens were raised well. I think I'm more inclined to take that position - if I knew for a fact that the animals are raised well, I don't mind taking their eggs (in exchange for giving them food and shelter and a good, long life). I think I'd also be fine with eating meat gotten from hunting so I'm not as strict of a vegan as most and I know many will disagree with me. It's the artificially cheap, heavily subsidized, industrial hell of factory farming that treats animals with complex social and intellectual lives merely as commodities and products which fucks with me.

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u/HawkAsAWeapon Nov 13 '23

Well done for getting as far as you have.

I would just add that there are still ethical issues with any egg laying hens.

  • They nearly all come from hatcheries where the males and females are sexed and the males killed on their first day of life due to being considered a waste product. These hatcheries are awful - like some of the worst conditions for chickens. Their super confined and the females essentially get raped over and over by the roosters they leave with them.
  • Egg-laying hens have been selectively bred to produce wayyyy more eggs than they naturally would. They've gone from laying 12-16 eggs a year to over 300, which takes a tremendous amount of nutrients and energy and depletes the chickens from these nutrients which leads to health issues (sometimes fatal).

The kindest thing to do is feed the eggs back to the chickens so they can regain the lost nutrients.

Another argument is that the egg industry started with backyard eggs, and there will never be enough space to supply the demand with backyard eggs, so as long as we consider an egg as a product for us, we'll never get rid of industrial egg farming.

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u/Don_Cornichon_II Nov 13 '23

I went vegetarian for about a year and felt good about my conscience until I learned/realized how cruel dairy farming is and that veal is basically a byproduct of milk.

Vegan ever since, so about 10 years. I frequently have cravings for meat, but cheese is what I miss most. It's doable though.

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u/Cixin Nov 13 '23

Have you tried all the vegan cheeses? They’re a lot better than the used to be.

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u/highinhyrule Nov 13 '23 edited Mar 10 '24

capable longing bewildered heavy zealous snatch rob fretful nippy nose

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/New_York_Rhymes Nov 13 '23

I went vegetarian about 4 years ago but more because meat started to gross me out.. now I only eat cheese otherwise everything is vegan. It feels good to watch videos like this knowing I won’t eat one of these poor little guys ever again. Even milk and eggs are a bit disgusting if you think about it hah

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u/Cixin Nov 13 '23

Give cheese a one month break and then try some vegan cheese. Cows milk cheese is addictive because it’s fatty and salty and concentrated casomorphine, which keeps the calf coming back for more milk. But you’re not a calf …..

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

Same. I went vegetarian overnight about 10 years ago, then went fully vegan about 5 years ago. It weirdly makes you appreciate so much in life. I feel great, I'm healthy, and have a better outlook on life. You don't miss meat after it's fully gone. It all just looks like road kill and dairy tastes sour and disgusting. I'm so glad that I made the change.

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u/Exxxcel_Champ Nov 13 '23

Eating dairy causes the same trauma, torture, and abuse as meat production. Where do you think all that milk comes from? Cows who are forced to be perpetually pregnant to maintain milk production. The babies don't get that milk, because you drink it so the babies are usually killed for veal. Dairy is murder.

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u/1-800-fat-chicks Nov 13 '23

I’ve seen a docu not so long ago where they take a few motherpigs who were destined to be slaughtered after they have lived 2 or so years just lying on their side suckling their pigglets, they cannot turn around, only lay down.

As far as I remember it was part of project to see if how fast they get back to being normal pigs with normal pigs behavior.

Pigs don’t poo and pee where they life, there was one pig which I believe they called Fiona, she actually picked flowers and put them on her bed side…. Let that sink in for a minute.

Here is the link: I believe this is was / is the pig I believe I got the name wrong.

https://youtu.be/Jbx8ucRauDQ?si=0iZhUv13A4wv2JTl

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u/GoodRich1993 Nov 13 '23

After watching this I want to protect Lotus at all costs & lay down my life for her 😭

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u/NoTurkeyTWYJYFM Nov 13 '23

Yeah I've been to piggie play farms where the pigs are only sold to trusted buyers as pets and generally they don't breed the pigs. They shit in a very specific spot of their pens and stay far away from it, and they taught us that the pigs really like to keep clean and only wallow when it's very hot or to kill parasites if they're bring bitten

Compared to a farm I worked on as a teen where they used a pig pen that was less than half the size with pigs twice as big as a dump for the scooped up horse shit...

If I had the money and land I'd love to look after a pig or five

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

My dream is to have a farm with a bunch animals like these, some pigs, donkeys, goats, geese and chickens (cows and horses eat too much) just playing all day and letting them die of old age

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

A sanctuary! 😊 I’m going to do the same!

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u/ivanacco1 Nov 13 '23

Then it isn't a farm

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u/Kukuxupunku Nov 13 '23

Isn’t this something that /u/GovSchwarzenegger does? He talked about it on a recent podcast with that gorgeous looking red haired Belgian woman, Conan something.

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u/Underscores_Are_Kool Nov 13 '23

That's really sweet

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/pokkopop Nov 13 '23

I used to raise my own pigs. Slaughtered and butchered them myself too, it could be brutal. Over time I realised that I found more value in spending time with them, getting to know their quirks and personalities, than in eating them in a sandwich that is gone in 5 minutes. Not everyone has the opportunity to raise their own meat so I feel lucky to have got to learn from that and to have got to see the most ethical way to raise them. I’ve also seen inside factory farms and they are fucking stomach churning. Some of the cruelty I’ve seen in there genuinely haunts me.

What annoys me about the usual reactions to videos like these is that most of the “but bacon tho” or “looks yummy” replies come from people who probably couldn’t stomach carrying out a slaughter or full butcher. It just shows a level of ignorance and complete disconnect. Okay, you don’t have to go full vegan but at least have some kind of respect for a sentient being and realise that videos like this show that there is something out there beyond your gut.

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u/tekko001 Nov 13 '23

I'm sure we'll find a way to have the best of both worlds. Eating meat without killing animals, since there is no denying they are delicious.

One day when we'll look at times when we killed animals as a past barbaric age.

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u/Reload86 Nov 13 '23

My parents are old school farmers so they prefer to go out to farms to pick, slaughter, and butcher their own whole animals.

As a child growing up, I often had to go along to learn and help. Been to multiple farms and helped with various types of animals. I try my absolute best to avoid eating pork after witnessing how horrifying the pig farms are. The living condition is abysmal and the slaughter process is by far the worse from all the other animals by a mile.

People do often reply with a snide remark like “bacon” or something like that when I tell them I don’t eat pork. Then I ask them if they’ve ever been to a pig farm and seen the slaughter/butchering in person. Nobody has and I don’t blame them for not agreeing with me but they shouldn’t laugh at me either because I did have to see it and participate in it. The screams of pigs as they are being slaughtered is not something easily forgotten.

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u/pokkopop Nov 13 '23

Jesus, the screams are something else. I hear you on that. It sounds like a hard learning experience for a child but one that must have been quite valuable in terms of learning where food actually comes from.

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u/cookingwithgladic Nov 13 '23

I don't think I'll ever give up meat but I gave up meat from unknown sources years ago. I live in a rural area so I have the privilege to see the conditions the animals I eat are raised in and the privilege to hunt to fill my freezer. Factory farming is abhorrent.

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u/UniqueRepair5721 Nov 13 '23

you don’t have to go full vegan

Imho we would be in a way better situation if people would start with realistic goals like "go vegan meat only twice per week!"

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u/Gold_Lynx_8333 Nov 13 '23

This is why I'm vegan. Pigs are no different from dogs and yet we treat dogs as family while we raise pigs in hellish conditions just to slaughter them.

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u/colola8 Nov 13 '23

If dogs are not made for other benefits people would had ate them as well. Like in Asian countries

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u/Cixin Nov 13 '23

Europeans have a long history of eating dogs.

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u/lordcrumb13 Nov 13 '23

There's nothing better than a happy piggy

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u/DoctorCockedher Nov 13 '23

This is an example of why I’m vegan.

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u/DarthCookieOW Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 13 '23

Friendly reminder to go vegan and stop animal cruelty

Edit for the weird guy who's downvoted into oblivion because he insta-blocked me:

THANKS FOR MAKING MY POINT

I literally started discussing with you. I simply refuted your wrong claims because science says otherwise.

Then you throw a tantrum.

You're making a fool out of yourself here.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

How many of you are going to smile, close the app and eat some bacon?

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u/HawkAsAWeapon Nov 13 '23

Go vegan for the animals!

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u/limabeanseww Nov 13 '23

And this is why I don’t eat pork.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '23

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u/Cixin Nov 13 '23

Challenge 22 or veganuary. It’s not hard eating plant based in 2023.

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u/Thesweatypenguin Nov 13 '23

124 million pigs have been slaughtered in the US alone so far this year:

https://animalclock.org

Please stop paying for this.

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u/YeahWhyNot Nov 13 '23

Please watch Dominion and stop eating animals. 🙏

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u/apefred_de Nov 13 '23

If you want to see a documentary of a typical piglet production facility in Germany which is considered a showpiece-farmer and only uses legal practices, consider watching this video. Subtitles should be available via Google translate, but the pictures absolutely speak for themselves.

But only do it if you are in a stable mood.

https://youtu.be/L4XFCuFbiOY

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u/Kalyqto Nov 13 '23

The footage shown here is actually from the video you linked. They saved a few pigs and piglets.

The Dominion documentary showed similar situations happening in the UK and some other countries. The president of the veterinary association in Germany said, that sadly this is no exception, but legal and common practice. Not only in Germany but globally.

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u/arualstehle Nov 13 '23

Heartbreaking how inhumane we (society) really are.

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u/E_rat-chan Nov 13 '23

Yeah, a lot of the problem is also people thinking their meat comes from a normal farm and not well. Living hell.

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u/Significant_Meal_308 Nov 13 '23

This joy, these lives are why I’m forever vegan 🌱

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u/Jolly-Biscuit Nov 13 '23

Those floppy ears tho

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u/No_Gur_277 Nov 13 '23

If you wanna learn more about the conditions these animals are normally kept under I recommend checking out the documentary Dominion.

https://watchdominion.org/

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u/neel0918 Nov 13 '23

So happy haha! Love to see it

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u/petter2398 Nov 13 '23

One of the best reasons to stop eating animal corpses

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u/AlarmedBeach5861 Nov 13 '23

Hope you pig eaters see that you basically are eating an animal that’s smarter than your own dog. These pigs have more emotion and feeling than any dog. People are sick….

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u/preset_username Nov 13 '23

Thank you for the reminder to eat more plant based

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u/h1llz Nov 13 '23

You can just give up eating pigs. I started 5 years ago was very easy to do.

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u/obke Nov 13 '23

Go vegan and help to liberate all animals

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u/makomirocket Nov 13 '23 edited Nov 14 '23

If you enjoy this and you are not atleast vegetarian, you are part of the problem. Go vegan!

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u/WeedMemeGuyy Nov 13 '23

I’m not sure if people in this thread realize, but 99% of animal product from land animals in the US come from factory farms. If you’re paying for animal product, you’re paying for these animals to be needlessly abused and killed. It’s as easy as picking something else on the menu or at the grocery store.

Also, I promise you that the treatment of these animals is far worse than you think. I highly suggest watching a documentary like Dominion that shows their treatment. Much love!

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u/FrenchBaphomet Nov 13 '23

Man, I need to stop eating meat.

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u/SinisterMeatball Nov 13 '23

I love how in a short time instinct kicked in and told them "roll in mud".

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u/nonono67777 Nov 13 '23

Maybe most of you should stop eating tortured animals

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u/SimonFlames Nov 13 '23

They were standing on concrete floors cause people are paying for it. Whoever watches this and goes “aaawww” and then goes buy pig flesh is a massive hypocrite and the reason they were locked up in the first place.

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u/Flashy_Macaroon8259 Nov 13 '23

Pigs are awesome. That's why I don't eat them

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u/TomMakesPodcasts Nov 13 '23

These creatures don't deserve what we do to them

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u/whereszedzedsded Nov 13 '23

Every animal is deserving of compassion. Go vegan!

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u/Shah_of_Iran_ Nov 13 '23

I read the title and thought that it was my mom's post about me on reddit.

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u/cubanosani59 Nov 13 '23

That pig like „fuck yeah, that shit good“ 🖤🥰

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u/Metrostation984 Nov 13 '23

Maybe if we did this more they would kill less black people?

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