A company in China has built multistory pig breeding facilities on Yaji Mountain that hold a thousand pigs per floor. The company deceptively calls these high-rise buildings “hog hotels, but the truth is, the towering factory farms are more like hog hells.
According to a Reuters press release, privately owned agricultural company Guangxi Yangxiang Co. Ltd. currently operates two seven-floor factory farms specifically for breeding pigs and plans to construct four more, including one with 13 floors—the tallest building of its kind. In recent years, companies in Europe have tried to run multistory facilities like these, but most have failed because of resistance to factory farming.
The company’s site will hold 30,000 mother pigs and produce 840,000 piglets annually. While typical factory farms are already dangerous breeding grounds for disease, these high-rise buildings pose a significantly higher health risk due to housing more animals in cramped, filthy conditions.
Animal welfare expert Irene Camerlink at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna is concerned that pigs in these large buildings would receive less care and that any disease outbreak could lead to a greater number of pigs being condemned and killed. Xue Shiwei of Pipestone Livestock Technology Consultancy says he would not encourage any of his clients to choose these “hog hotels.
Guangxi Yangxiang is constructing a waste-treatment plant for its facilities. Once treated, the liquid will be sprayed onto the surrounding forest, which the company plans to develop for tourism. Such massive facilities generating so much waste could be disastrous for the environment and nearby villages. Regarding people living near factory farms in North Carolina, the Natural Resources Defense Council states:
People who live near or work at factory farms breathe in hundreds of gases, which are formed as manure decomposes. For instance, one gas released by the lagoons, hydrogen sulfide, is dangerous even at low levels. Its effects—which are irreversible—range from sore throat to seizures, comas and even death.
While Guangxi Yangxiang and similar companies are building more pig factory farms, pork industry profits in China continue to plummet. And with good reason.
Eating animals is not only detrimental to one’s health and the environment; it supports horrific and rampant abuse.
Pigs are thought to have the intelligence of a three-year-old child and are considered the fifth-most intelligent animal in the world. They have also been known to play video games with more focus and success than chimpanzees.
But at factory farms, pigs and other animals are subjected to unspeakable cruelty.
For nearly their entire lives, mother pigs are confined in metal cages barely larger than their bodies, making it impossible for them to lie down comfortably or even turn around.
Piglets have their testicles ripped out without painkillers and sometimes suffer herniated intestines due to botched castrations. Their tails are painfully sliced into and yanked off with dull clippers. Piglets who do not grow fast enough are horrifically killed by “thumping, or being slammed headfirst onto concrete floors. These extremely cruel practices are all standard in the pork industry.
Don’t believe us? Mercy For Animals has conducted over 60 investigations worldwide. Watch what we uncovered at a Hormel pork supplier.
Luckily, the public is waking up to the horrors of factory farming, and plant-based alternatives are gaining support every day. With so many great products like Omnipork, a vegan pork alternative in Asia, and Gardein’s porkless bites, we have the power to leave cruelty off our plates.
Learn more by chatting with one of our veg support specialists or by downloading our Vegetarian Starter Guide.