A very shocking footage of impressively-large and muscled pigs has been released on social media early this week and is giving animal-rights defenders a lot to talk about. The videos were taken by Cambodian farmers, which are supposedly located in the Banteay Meanchey province of the country, and then uploaded on Facebook.
In one of the videos recorded by the Cambodian farmers appears the sounder of swine squealing and fighting for bolls filled with food. Another part of the footage shows male pigs with huge testicles hanging behind their massive legs.
Another part of the footage shows male pigs with huge testicles hanging behind their massive legs. Image credit: The Sun
However, other videos and photos are showing different perspectives of the genetically-modified animals – which belong to a company called Duroc Cambodia. The exact number of boars has not been informed to the media, but it seems to be up to 40. Most of those videos show how difficult is for these animals to walk properly due to their incredibly large muscles.
These terrifying creatures are thought to be the result of genetic breeding. The videos were used to promote the selling of the muscled-pigs’ semen, which is offered in a kit with a pair of prosthetic penises and boar semen to artificially induce a sow for people who want to start their own farms. The page offers two lots of pig semen and two artificial penises for just £5.
Farmers believe they can sell more meat by weight if the animal possesses an irregular body composed of big muscles. This might sound ideal when talking about pigs, whose meat demand has increased these late years in Asian countries – especially in China, which is the world’s biggest pork market. However, PETA showed a case where 13 out of 32 pigs only survived on last year in another China’s farm that genetically-altered animals too, and just one of them was considered as healthy.
The farmers show on the footage the pig’s double-sized legs, backs, and testicles. It’s very worrying to see these animals struggling while the owners spank their lower-backs. Of course, this kind of behavior brings with it hundreds of angry voices asking the farmers to stop these practices that put at risk the lives of the animals, just to commercialize their meat after.
Many people from all over the world commented on the farmers’ Facebook posts saying how wrong they consider these practices are for animals. They have been sharing regular updates on the pigs’ progress since last December.
Voices disagreeing with the genetically-altered animals
One of them was Katherine Loweparker, who judged anyone that would even consider to buy or eat the muscled-pigs’ meat, saying that “not only is it animal cruelty, but people are eating this garbage and feeding it to their children.” She dubbed this footage as a “mess.”
Another unhappy Facebook user was Janice Short, who considered these practices as “grotesque.” She wondered if the country had “no laws to stop this sort of thing.”
Additionally, Ric Tucker responded to their comments asking “what are (they) trying to show here?” He didn’t understand “how much meat (they) can produce, or how badly these animals are treated.” He firmly believes that anybody who puts any animal at danger “should be locked up forever” behind jails.
The American animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), based in Norfolk, Virginia, pronounced this Wednesday to condemn the disturbing ways these farmers are treating the pigs. PETA considered that these practices of “Hulk-like pigs” only lead people to have nightmares and not a proper meal. They assured every animal that’s genetically engineered is very “likely to be born with painful health issues.”
“Pigs suffer even without this “Frankenscience”—on typical pig farms, their tails are cut off, their sensitive teeth are ground down, and the males are castrated, all without so much as an aspirin,” said PETA on its web page. “Then, even though we have a wealth of nutritious plant-based foods to eat, these intelligent, playful, sociable animals’ throats are slit and their bodies are turned into pork chops or sausages.”
Image credit: The Sun
Animals are not altered just to sell their meat, and pigs are not the only creatures that farmers use to modify their genes in exchange for better profits. In its web page, the organization also talk about a recent investigation that revealed “monster foxes” being bred on fur farms in Finland under deplorable conditions.
The footage show five fur farm across Ostrobothnia in western Finland. These farms genetically altered the foxes to make them grow large pelts and rolls of fat folded over their bodies to increase the amount of fur on them. These animals can weigh up to five times their own healthy weight, but these seemed to be able to move inside the cages barely.
“Just as the story of Mija and Okja shows how animals are much more than food, pigs and cows bred to develop this unhealthy double-muscling all experience fear, pain, happiness, and despair,” said PETA referring to Netflix’s movie, Okja. “Just as the cats and dogs with whom we share our homes do and just as we humans do.”
