Another emotional day

So, it was another sad day yesterday as the two remaining pigs went to the abattoir. It went as well as could be expected.

I didn't like it, I didn't like doing it but as we're not vegetarian and do not want to be, it's up to us to ensure that the animals we eat have the best lives possible. The meat industry is broken in this country and we have never been more divorced from the sources of our food, to the detriment of our own health and welfare let alone the animals.

Prior to coming here, I had switched some of my meat buying habits from supermarkets to butchers and local producers. Not all of it but some of it. I had not appreciated what a huge step it was to go from this half-way house to rearing our own animals. I can honestly say I was not ready for the range of complex emotions that came with it. I've been caught on the hop.

The pigs came here on the 13th March at eight weeks old. One went on 4th September at 33 weeks (nearly 8 months) and these two were 41 weeks (9.5 months) old.  Most people send them at 26 weeks or 6 months old (commercial operations send them at about 20-22 weeks or 4.5 months) but there was no way I was doing that. They still seemed like babies - they had baby faces and thin long bodies. As they got older their faces lengthened into muscular powerful snouts and they grew into their thin bodies, filling out and becoming chubby. I knew I wanted them to live through the autumn and enjoy the windfall apples and acorns - that was why we put them underneath the trees in the first place. And so they did. 

Then the hormones started kicking in and they began to grump at one another. One emerged as dominant and began to steal the food of the other two and get nasty with them. In the end, the decision was made to send him at the beginning of September. In my mind the cut off was 10-11 months, when they would start being aggressive and fighting and I didn't want that. After a brief skirmish, the remaining two settled down to be friends and peace reigned, for a while at least. Over the last month I noticed a lot more cut and grazes on them, some tooth marks that had drawn blood, and knew the time was approaching for these two as well. 

I know my lads had lots of food, green grass, veggies, apples, pears, plums, acorns, tree roots, worms and beetles, mud wallows, straw, sunshine, rain, wind, bird song, toys, a warm bed, trees to bite and scratch against, belly rubs, brush downs, medicated baths, and love and attention. They were never ill nor were they injected; as labour intensive as it was I washed them periodically with medicated shampoo, and their dry coats were combed through with natural powders. Any lice and ticks that survived this onslaught were picked off. I even used to crawl into their ark to make sure it was clean and dry and dose it with natural powders, making sure the flap at the back was open of course. I was usually always joined by one of them wanting to know what I was doing and you need an escape exit with big pigs!

Martin pointed out to me they probably would not have got this level of care elsewhere. He sees plenty of pigs on his delivery living in a range of legal but unpleasant conditions. Deep mud, open windy and exposed conditions, allowed to 'free range' on badly poached ground devoid of anything interesting to explore or chew, and no interaction from their owners. It's not technically illegal but it sure as hell isn't ethical. I don't think people realise the level of care they need. Either that or maybe they just don't give a stuff.

The smallholding is very quiet now. I keep automatically looking out of the windows to check if whether they've tipped their water over (or on warm days sitting in it!). I automatically walk across the paddock to the pen, then have to change direction part way to go to the chickens instead. The pigs never tolerated me going to the chickens first and created a hell of a racket if I tried. Probably because they knew I'd always have something tasty in my pocket for them!

It will be a long time before we keep pigs again, as we will have a lot of food to eat over the coming year. We've loved keeping them. Maybe in 2019 we'll have some more.

Comments

[Maria]

It sounds hard and heartbreaking, but it also sounds like you gave them the best life they could have.

I think you're right that we're totally divorced from our food at the moment, and to our detriment. I'm still city bound so no livestock here, will have to make do with buying from local butchers rather than supermarket.

[Steel]

Local butchers are great because they are able to tell you where the meat has come from. Being smaller, they rely on repeat business and they know good animal welfare brings that in the door. They rise and fall on their reputation.

It's good to support small local businesses, although sometimes hard to find the smaller ones!