The MurrTudi Homestead

Stole this from Darrow, who probably won’t even know i’m referencing her in my blog because we’ve only met 1.5 times, but it’s too good to pass up.  Those piglets… sheesh.  Makes me want to get one (or a leaping goat!) for Inka to play with.  We could see whether the pig could be trained to do as many tricks as the dog!

The photos are part of a campaign against laws in several states that would prohibit taking photos or videos of farms. If you don’t know much about agriculture these laws might strike you as odd, but harmless. Due to my recent obsession with our food production system, these laws make my guts churn. We already have no idea what goes on in those dark chicken houses or giant racks of battery cages or livestock processing plants. It’s only thanks to a few stealthy workers or spies that we have an inkling of the awful conditions these poor critters deal with.  Here’s an example that will make you sick in an NYT article that talks a bit more about the proposed laws.

Don’t mean to go on a tirade- but it’s a tirade against meat production, not eating meat.  Happy animals just taste better, they’re more healthful to eat, and they cause less environmental damage.  My friends Alison and Kevin call this kind of meat “Oscar meat”, after pork they bought from a farm that came from an actual pig with a name.  I call it “friendly meat”.   Though… i will admit that i have never eaten any animal that i’ve raised and named.  Tried that with the chickens- the plan when we got chicks was to eat any that turned out to be roosters, since roosters aren’t allowed in the city.  But, when we found out Matilda was very likely a rooster, i promptly exited the room and burst into tears. I did not want to eat Matilda, and didn’t want anyone else to eat her either.  And i certainly didn’t want Imogene to be eaten when we found out she was a dude too- she was my favorite one!  (Sorry, i still remember them as girls.)  So, I learned that i could not eat my pet chickens, and they went to a farm in southern Washington to make babies with a nice woman’s flock of hens.  And i really miss Imogene.  Matilda was a bit scary.

Some people only like to eat meat from animals that they’ve killed themselves.  I’ve eaten fish that way, and did eat meat from two goats I saw being killed while i was in Mali.  Well, “saw” meaning that i fed the goats carrots for a couple days and protected them from harassing children while they waited in the courtyard for the holiday feast.  Then, i hid around the corner while their throats were slit and reemerged to help skin and take them apart.  Both were delicious.

Some people like to eat meat, but don’t like to think about the animals it comes from.  Melanie said she would dig up an article about that philosophy and send it to me, so more on that later.

In any case, those animals are durn cute, and deserve happy lives before they get et.