I mean, is cannibalism really the worst problem here?
Humans are omnivores and if the alternative is to throw unused human parts underground or cremate them, feeding them to new humans is at least not a waste.
Not just "don't care", people actively mock and deride those who try to spread awareness.
I think we all know how fucked up the meat industrial complex is, we just don't want to face it and feel guilty about the ease of access to something so nice.
Also not to mention the huuuge amounts of propganda by Big Meat
This is how we got BSE/CJD in the UK, i.e. mad cow disease. Prions are really scary, if the moral weight of feeding animals their own species wasn't already a good enough reason not to do it.
Honestly, I don't know enough about pig behaviour to properly judge the practice. Maybe they're happy to eat dead pigs, some animals practice... necrophagy, or whatever. But it's not a great idea in livestock.
Hey, just incase you missed my reply as the post was deleted..
This is why people hate PETA.
Yes, PETA does some crazy shit, but as with many things there are two sides to the story which is difficult to see when you get bombarded by anti-PETA stuff as is common on e.g. Reddit.
They are the driving power behind all the misinformation and PETA-hate that is spread around. PETA is actually doing a lot for animal rights, that's why they are such a big target for smear campaigns:
PETA kills animals because unfortunately there are no better places for them. Blame the puppy mills and irresponsible short term owners that give up their pets a few days or weeks after getting them because they had no idea what they got themselves into. Those people create more pets than there are places for them, so instead of having them become strays and further add to the problem, PETA put down those they can't adopt out. Because PETA accepts all animals, even those that other shelters turn away in order to not sully their adoption numbers, PETA shelters end up with many more "hopeless" animals. See more here.
The case of the mistaken dog (and how PETA doesn't steal and murder pets):
A farmer asked PETA to euthanise a pack of stray dogs that were aggressive and violent towards the farmer's cows. Upon arrival, PETA found the pack of stray dogs, took them to the shelter and put them down, as a free service. Unfortunately it turned out, that one of the presumed stray dogs was a pet-chihuaha called Maya, that was not sitting on the porch, as often claimed, but running freely with the stray pack, without leash or collar or supervision. PETA fucked up, because they didn't wait the 5 day grace period to give the owners time to look for and collect their pet. That's why they had to pay a fine and apologized for it. http://www.whypetaeuthanizes.com/maya.html
The monkey selfie:
The monkey took the picture himself btw, the photographer just left the camera lying around. I am not saying the monkey should be copyright holder and it's an open-shut case, but it does raise the question about the photographer having ownership over something that was voluntarily and independently created by an animal. What if a painter would leave his brushes lying around and an animal would create a painting? The artist actually sees it the same way and settled for a compromise with PETA followed by a joint statement. This was a landmark case in copyright law.
PETA equating milk to racism:
White supremacists actually use milk to demonstrate their superiority over "inferior" (their words, obviously) lactose intolerant ethnicities. That's the reason behind their campaign on the issue.
Final thoughts (I promise):
PETA does a good job at raising issues and are one of the most successfull organisations to fight for animal rights. The granting of rights is the only real way to protect animals from unneccessary cruelty. Animal welfare will always be arbitrary, both in what species are worthy of protection, and the extent of protection they are worthy of. You cannot consider yourself an animal lover without recognizing the importance of that.
Sometimes PETA (intentionally?) overshoot, that happens when you try to move the border of current perceptions (i.e. animals are objects to be used for food, clothes, entertainment). I am not here to defend their tone or (lack of) tact, and there are a number of (sometimes downright stupid) PETA-campaigns I disagree with. I'm not trying to convice you to become their friend, but at least judge them for what they are doing, not for what they are said to do.
Most of the criticism of PETA you read on Reddit comes straight from the mouths of the Center for Organizational Research and Education (CORE), formerly known as the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF). It's basically a corporate propaganda organization with donors like Tyson Foods, Wendy's, and Coca-Cola. They also run campaigns claiming obesity isn't that major of a problem and that you can eat 10 times as much mercury from fish as experts recommend. The vast majority of the animals PETA euthanizes are suffering and are brought to PETA's shelter by their owners specifically to be put out of their misery, but the CCF distorts that into "PETA is stealing people's pets off the streets" and Reddit gobbles it up.
The media also knows that PETA is an easy target. Years ago I read an article in one of the British tabloids (the Sun or the Mirror) with a headline something like, "PETA blasts child's bunny wedding!" But if you actually read the article, what happened is a kid dressed up some bunnies in wedding outfits, the "journalist" reached out to PETA and asked them to comment, and PETA said something like, "we don't support dressing rabbits in costumes because it may be stressful for them." And that was the end of the story, but that wouldn't get clicks so they distorted the headline to make it sound like PETA was protesting or attacking the kid on their own accord.
For the record, I think there are perfectly legitimate criticisms of PETA, like the sexist imagery they use in some of their ad campaigns and their welfarist (as opposed to abolitionist) approach to advocacy. It just gets to me that so many redditors claim to be rational and free-thinking but then read literal corporate propaganda about PETA and swallow it whole without a second thought.
Again, I hope you find out why you don't like PETA (and can formulate some sort of coherent reason) other than the childish "because I don't like them" kind of circular reasoning.
Pigs are resistant and it doesn't matter to any animals unless they are eating brains. All of the smarmy aasholes in here commenting "wHaT aBoUt PrIoNs" are embarrassing themselves.
Bro this isn't about veganism, I love the taste of bacon too. What I read in that article is absolutely fucked. A small quote:
Male piglets at the farm have their tails cut off and testicles ripped out by hand without anesthesia or pain relief, both standard practices in the industry. The investigator filmed employees tossing the testicles at each other and at a wall that was covered in them.
Not gonna lie, I read that as "porn industry" and was really confused as to why tf everyone is talking about pigs and animal abuse. Took me a awful amount of time to realize it's actually "pork industry" not "porn industry"
Too late! Farmers very often have to stop sows from eating their own piglets, and they don't always get there in time. Pigs are naturally cannibalistic in the wild, which is part of what makes them such a nasty invasive species. They're their own food source, at least in part.
I think people know, but there's this weird disconnect where it applies to bugs but not animals. Most kids know female mantis and spiders generally eat the males of their species, but far fewer know the realities of chickens or pigs. Always pretty easy to pick out the farm kids in biology class.