"I can still vividly remember her screams of pain, her cries for help, her pleas to live."
Dear Friend,
As World Farm Animals Day approaches, I am compelled to share with you the story of one pig whose struggle changed my life forever. I watched her suffer to death, and I can still vividly remember her screams of pain, her cries for help, her pleas to live.
A few years ago, we observed World Farm Animals Day with an overnight vigil at the Smithfield pig slaughterhouse in Virginia. We witnessed truck after truck file into the gates – trucks carrying terrified young pigs crammed together, their noses sticking out between the metal bars, sensing the horrible stench of death.
As each truck approached the loading dock, the workers would offload the pigs into the holding cells where they awaited slaughter in the morning.
Then I saw her... a small limping pig, who lost her footing and fell onto the hard pavement below. For the next three hours, I watched helplessly through the 8-foot barbed wire gate as she struggled to get up, her painful squeals escalating and waning throughout the night.
As the sun began to rise, I heard her final screams dissolve into silence. Then, a slaughterhouse worker grabbed her hind leg with a large hook and dragged her into the slaughterhouse...
Witnessing the pain and misery of one pig felt like an eternity, but then I realized that billions of innocent, sentient animals just like her are abused and killed every year for food. This is when I knew that I had to dedicate my life to ending the tragedy of animal agriculture.
