South Korea Buries Alive 1.4 Million Pigs

This is one of the most disturbing things I've read since that story I blogged about where 400,000 baby chicks in Russia were drowned or left to die in the cold because the business that owned them went into bankrupcy.

1.4 million pigs are being apparently buried alive in South Korea's attempt to combat a foot and mouth disease outbreak among swine there. Here's the link to the story on the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/12/south-korea-buries-pigs-alive_n_808119.html).

My grandfather told me once when he was boy growing up that he always felt guilty butchering pigs (or as he said, being the one to lead them to their slaughter). I wonder how or what people think when they're dumping screaming, relatively intelligent animals out of a dump truck and then burying them.

And for the record, foot and mouth disease is not a public health concern for humans like swine flu. It is usually nonfatal to animals too. The main reason for the culling of so many animals is to protect economic interests, just as killing them in such an inhumane way is probably cheaper than euthanizing them.

Just1.4 million reasons not to eat industrially produced animals or animal products.

(photo © 경인일보 kyeongin.com)

Photo source: http://www.vegan.com/blog/2011/01/12/millions-of-animals-buried-alive-in-south-korea