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A Touch of Some Animal Reality in Canada - Simply Woman

By on August 1, 2015
Pigs on a farm

By Jaci Pozdzik

I had posted a picture on my Facebook page the other day of a baby elephant mourning and weeping over top of her slaughtered mother. This photo is absolutely heartbreaking and the photographer is, in my thoughts, a true artist.

This photo received so many responses of disgust and one even of a person wishing that I would stop posting such horrible photos. No I feel that I must keep posting and bringing the awareness to others of what is happening. We live in a time where I have the ability to press a key on my computer and instantly post something which all of my contacts can see clearly that which I am passionate about. Any form of animal cruelty is heart breaking to me and so many of us have been stuck in the problems of this so I feel that now is the time for us all to be solution orientated.

Yes I do believe we have the ability to STOP the slaughter of elephants and rhinos and ……..

Of course thoughts of this post was in my mind all day and I would like to bring to your awareness some of the animals issues that happen here in Alberta that so many people don’t even think about.

I was on route to Calgary delivering a load of trees and I had stopped to get a coffee. I drove past a cattle liner with a load of pigs on. Instantly my eyes weld up with tears. I do love pigs, they are so intelligent and such personalities. Yet I do know that they are a food source and income for farmers. No doubt this is a case factory farming.

This is reality as it is supply and demand, as any other industry. My problem with this load of pigs was it was very humid. I would guess the temperature was about 25 degrees. The trucker driver was no doubt having breakfast and maybe wasn’t even thinking about the heat for the pigs. Please understand that I am not being judgemental to this driver, this industry is huge and I know how hard these drivers work.

Yet here is some things maybe you don’t think of. Pigs have no sweat glands and they are like heaters all the time to have all of these pigs packed into this liner, and all of them laying down together generates so much heat! Thankfully there was a slight breeze so they were having a bit of relief, yet really think about what it would be like to be packed into a trailer and not be able to have any relief from heat! Not being able to escape.

Pigs do pant like dogs and when they are hot will drink so much water yet the last bit of their lives, before they are unloaded at the slaughter house, is unbearable heat exhaustion to them. Yes I do understand maybe to some people I maybe sound very dramatic, but it’s reality!

My choice is I buy meat from a farmer. I know that the pig I am eating now is a pig I helped to raise. This pig had no stress in its life. This pig wasn’t fed any antibiotics or growth hormones. I could go on and on of what happens at factory farms. I choose to support an industry that I love, that being the real family farms… the way animals should be raised in a normal healthy environment.

Another enormous industry feedlots. This is what really got my hackles raised about this picture I had posted. This person was upset about an elephant being slaughtered yet no one thinks of what happens in feedlots. Now I know I did work at a feedlot and I am grateful as I have my 3 heifers from there. I want you all to understand that cows going to feedlots are not suppose to be pregnant, yet it happens.

And supply and demand at times dictates what is acceptable. Cattle at feedlots are fed for maximum weight gain and it was incredible to watch some of those cows barely be able to walk because they were so fat. Yet this is for the consumer,-everyone wants marbled meat. And I promise you that so many of these feedlots, not all, also use growth hormones. The cattle are weighed all the time and different feeds are given to them for different weights and stages of the growth of these cows to achieve maximum growth. These animals’ bodies are maxed out all the time.

And we have found it acceptable to eat this meat?

What was on my mind so much about this picture was the fact that Missy, my one heifer, was born minutes before her mother was loaded on the truck destined for the slaughter house. I am so grateful she was born at that time, otherwise she would have been born on the truck and trampled to death.

Missy’s’ mother never even had the chance to clean her baby. I was the one that towel dried her off. There is a very likely chance that by the time I got Missy home that night her mother would have been slaughtered already. How many people think of this? I do. Society has mindlessly accepted this and has chosen to be ignorant to these facts as they stop at the store and buy meat for the barbeque.

I cleaned manure from this feedlot and I will tell you I found many dead calves in the straw. These cows are not fed to support a heifer being pregnant and many die even when they are rescued.  Most die within a few days. I will say it’s no doubt that, myself being so passionate about my heifers, those that survived all have had health issues.

Especially Muffin. I had to hug her so tight and prayed and begged her to drink her colostrum,..she was a very weak baby. Through all the love she is thriving now. I am raising my cows to be bred as I will not deny them being mothers. Cows are amazing mommas. And I pray for more heifers. And if there are bull calves, yes they will be steers for meat.

This is normal and although I know I will be sad, at least I am helping to bring balance in my small herd.

I choose to not even touch on the rest of factory farming that happens here in Alberta at this time.

I highly recommend reading any Temple Grandin books as this woman is incredible. Through reading one of her books I honestly can’t tell you how many times I have watched her movie…she has touched my soul. I do have such incredible compassion for all of the animals in the entire world, yet I ask all of you to maybe look at what is on our doorstep. What can we change in our lives? It may take me years to be able to have a big enough ranch to feed so many people, yet it is a goal and one that I am so passionate about.

If I have written this and helped you to make a better choice I am so grateful.

 

Jaci Pozdzik with her cowJaci practices true honesty in her life, has a degree in life experience, a deep love of animals, and has the ability to leave an imprint on other people’s lives.  After spending time with her, I promise you, her passion and love for life is contagious as well as unforgettable.

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