"A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for the urban stranger to understand, is that the two statements are connected by an 'and', and not by a 'but'."

John Burger

Prequestions:

Before you start this session, please answer the following questions.

1. Why would anyone bother to care about the lives of pigs? Choose the best answer from below.

a) He or she is hungry.
b) Pigs would revolt if you don't take good care of them.
c) Pigs are generally mistreated, and they deserve better existence.

2. Why would someone start an organic pig farm?
Please use a think-aloud method to write your answer for 2 minutes. That is, write non-stop whatever comes to your mind regarding this topic. At the end of 2 minutes, stop and send an email to me at: berlinf@yahoo.com

Introduction:

Why bother? Why should we care about the miserable lives of pigs?

We probably think that we do not have much in common with pigs. But there is one similarity for sure, we all live on this planet. Pigs contribute a lot to humanity. They have always done so, probably since Adam and Eve. However, they were one of the worst treated species on this planet. They eat badly. They sleep badly. They’ve got no toys. They get beaten. Their dog and cat neighbors recieve cards, specially built little houses, carefully wrapped little gifts, and even handsome sums of money when their rich owners die. What do pigs get? Nothing.

As the New York Times magazine says before Thanksgiving, 2002, "Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig—an animal easily as intelligent as a dog—that becomes the Christmas ham." (New York Times Magazine “An Animal’s Place” by Michael Pollan, 11/10/02)

Increasingly, we find pigs are being raised in industrialized pig farms, where pigs never get to see the sun. They live in narrow spaces, take various medicines that help them to grow fast and big, and get transported to various places in even more crowded trains or trucks. On these journeys they never get to eat or drink anything!

If I tell someone I will eat his dog, he will prosecute me, send me to jail or fine me or something. But imagine me asking him to sell his pig so that I can eat it. Very likely he will do so happily, taking out his pig, get my money, and he would not even look at the pig. Not even a decent farewell! Oh, man, Such is a pig's life!

We believe that humans are going to suffer if we just treat pigs as pork units. We belive that we ara going to suffer if pigs are not raised organically. Pigs originally eat grass and vegetables, We humans eat everything. We are omnivorous! We even consume the medicine that pigs were given by malicious people who want to speed up their growth.

We are an advocacy group for pig rights. The group was formed by several Chinese animal lovers. By profession we are instructional designers, IT professionals, lawyers, psychologists, accountants, etc. By location we are in Beijing, and Shanghai, China, Syracuse, USA, Sydney, Australia, Berlin, Germany,etc. What we have common is a love of pigs, and a passion to improve their lives. Our mission is to educate people to be nice to pigs, treat pigs humanly (pigly, if you will), raise pigs organically, and eat pigs healthily. This advocacy group is headquarted in New York, the empire state, therefore, the pig farms we would like to have would be called "A pig's empire".

Some radical groups support an altogether vegetarian way of life, and they do not eat pork at all. And they advocate the equality between men and pig. These are not positions we would find desirable.

This brief lesson will consist of 3 modules. How to select pigs, how to raise pigs organically and how to build a relationship with pigs. All of these are important elments in organic pig farming.

Intended Audience:

This lesson is intended for the following people

  • Kids, for they will grow up either getting along or not getting along with animals on this lonely planet
  • Policy makers, whom we count on to fight industrial pig farming as compared to organic pig farming, which we strongly support
  • Traditional pig farmers, who will benefit from learning the skills to better organic pig farming
  • Industrial pig farmers, who will benefit from learning the lesson by getting a better conscience. They probably would then die of shame of what they have done. So much the better!
  • Anyone who is indifferent to pigs' lives

Lesson Objectives:

By the end of taking this online lesson, you will be able to::

  • List the injustices that men do to pigs
  • List the benefits of organic pig farming
  • Select a healthy piglets
  • Find ways to build a healthy relationship with pigs
  • Raise pigs in a natural setting to allow a pig to have a pig's life
  • Touched by tears by my description of pigs' lives that you want to send me a lot of money so that I can create my “Pig Empire” farm

Review Question:

  • Why would someone care about the miserable lives of pigs?

Questions, concerns, decisions, assertions, suggestions?