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Yes, they are. We can split hairs over what qualifies as torture, but I invite you to familiarize yourself with how commodity pigs are raised and slaughtered.

• throwaway413 8y ago
  Seconded and proud that fellow HNers are ethically conscious of their food.
  • throwaway413 8y ago
    Wow, most downvotes I’ve ever gotten, for simply showing support for other people on this site, nice...keep ‘em coming!
• jacquesm 8y ago
  I am quite aware of that and it's a good reason why I consume very little meat. But it is as nothing compared to keeping a brain alive outside of the body. If we did that to a human without their consent there would be blood in the streets. Keep in mind that the whole reason pigs were used for this experiment is because they are biologically similar to humans.
  • jonknee 8y ago
    > If we did that to a human without their consent there would be blood in the streets The same could be said for almost anything we do with pigs
    • jacquesm 8y ago
      There is a big difference between the way pigs are treated for consumption and what is happening in this experiment. For all we know the rest of the pig was discarded. To me there is a huge difference between killing animals for food and conducting ethically questionable experiments on them. Another bothersome element here is that pigs are super smart and even though they state they are sure the pig(s) never regained consciousness you have to wonder what kind of extreme stress they would have cause if that had not worked out. Animal research is something that I hope we can do without in the near future. And if we all ate less meat (or none at all) then that would be for the better as well, though ironically that would likely mean that there would be no more domesticated animals kept for food at all except for cows (for milk) and chickens (for eggs).
      • jonknee 8y ago
        It sounds like they literally took the brains from slaughtered pigs. I don't know why they wouldn't have processed the meat as normal. > Brains rescued from a slaughterhouse had their circulation restored with a system of pumps, heaters and artificial blood.
      • throwaway413 8y ago
        You’re ignoring the method of killing the animal for food. It’s not just “killing them for food”. It’s the entire industrial process of slaughter at scale. Look into it sometime.
      • tao_oat 8y ago
        It’s not really possible to separate the egg and dairy industries from the meat industry. What do you think happens to chickens or cows when their production levels start falling?
        • scottie_m 8y ago
          More than that, male chicks are overwhelmingly not raised and just killed because they’re not particularly worth the money. Buying mass produced eggs means a lot of chicks died to make it efficient at the start. With cows the males who are not going to be used for breeding (very few are raised as bulls) are generally raised for veal. As you say, they are inextricably linked on the large scale. At least for eggs though, you can definitely patronize small farms that don’t need to employ such aggressive economies of scale.
      • dghughes 8y ago
        > pigs are super smart Until they smell blood. If you ever go into a pig pen and cut yourself the pigs will attack you and probably kill you. Chickens are similar but of course being smaller they attack each other. People these days more than ever want to anthropomorphize animals they like. But when instinct kicks in many of those animals are, well, just animals.
    • XJOKOLAT 8y ago
      I refer you to a certain Mr David Cameron ... #whatiwouldhavesaid
  • georgyo 8y ago
    I suppose we could pack hundreds of non consenting humans so they are always touching each other on a metal grates for flooring and no sunshine, no access to bathrooms, and no ability to move around. No one would complain about that. /s
    • jacquesm 8y ago
      Humans have done worse than that to other humans. And are doing so as we are having this conversation.
      • wutbrodo 8y ago
        That level of inhumanity generally _is_ accompanied by "blood on the streets", as you put it in your original comment.
      • Sharlin 8y ago
        So? That makes doing the same to animals morally acceptable?
• dghughes 8y ago
  Have you ever been on or near a farm ever, or even talked to (not shout at) a farmer? Pigs squeal for no reason and they squeal all the time I'm sure non-farmers assume squealing means pain. I live in a rural area with lots of farming. A few people I know come from families that raise pigs and no they do not torture them. Even to the point of having a controlled access entry to the barn to prevent disease coming in from the outside (disinfectant tray for shoes). It's hard work to maintain and raise animals for food farmers aren't going to spend time and effort torturing pigs which are their income. No business person is going to damage their product for kicks. A wheat farmer doesn't drive over his crop and flatten it. Fishermen don't throw dynamite into the water for fun.
  • fogzen 8y ago
    Yes, yes I have. At minimum pigs are castrated, transported and imprisoned against their will, and slaughtered against their will. Small, independent or family farmers do take care to minimize suffering. Minimize, not eliminate. That's not at all the case at industrial farms. Sows are raised and slaughtered in dismal conditions. Gestation crates, forced and early weaning, artificial insemination, etc. Sows raised for slaughter can experience physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse in a number of ways.