PEOPLE AND FARM ANIMALS A person is the owner of an animal. Does that mean he can do anything he likes with it? Read the following three opinions. Which one do you like best? Opinion A: A human is the master of the animal. He can do anything he likes with it. Opinion B: The animal and the human have equal rights. Humans should therefore not keep farm animals anymore. Opinion C: Animals are our fellow creatures. They have the right to respect and fairness. There is a trade-off: humans can keep farm animals, but must make sure that the animal does not suffer. They need to treat them in an animal-friendly way. You humans want my meat and my milk. In return, I want an udderly pleasant life with lots of space to roam before I end up on your plate! Deal? I prefer opinion A B C (check one). I have another view: Adapted from the teacher s manual Tierschutz (animal protection) by the Ministry for Veterinary Sciences, Liebefeld-Bern 1
Wild boar Nosey Porkey Parkers As domestic pigs, we are descended from the European wild boar. Our wild relatives live in a family pack, called a sounder. These can be of various sizes (from three to 300 animals). Mothers, aunts and young boars live together. An older, more experienced sow leads them through forests and fields. Adult male boars are loners and only come to the herd for mating. Every evening wild boars build a soft nest out of leaves, twigs or dry grass for sleeping. We domestic pigs behave like wild boar when we are able to move about freely. We want to discover the world with our herd. Our curiosity knows no bounds! Something to grunt about! Can you unscramble these letters? Rolling around in the....., Discovering our world with our..., Digging around in the.. that s what makes us pigs happy! Domestic pig / wild boar Male: boar / tusker Female: sow / wild sow Young: piglet / suckling boar U M S D D T O R A cool mud bath We don t have sweat glands like you humans do. We can t sweat when we re hot. Our trick: we roll in mud It cools and cleans our skin. Tip: Try out a mud bath: Take some soil (or healing earth from a pharmacy) and stir it up with water. Rub it into your arm. Feel how cool it is! I T U N Trees are for scratching! 2
Wild boar Giving birth in a nest When it s coming time to give birth, the sow builds a round nest out of grass and twigs. Piglets need this warm cave so that we don t get cold. Newborn piglets, of course, don t yet have bristles and have little fat. Put the instructions into the proper order. 1) Dig a pit 2) Gather the materials 3) Put the materials together 4) Lay in the nest Did you know? Pigs are sow clean! When we have enough room in our stall, we set up a strict division for our toilet and for a sleeping nest. And we keep our sleeping nest very clean. This works best outdoors. Tails as mood barometers: If our tail is curled, we re happy!! We re always tussling and playing around! The snout is a sense organ Label the parts: 1. Bosselated skin 2. Nostrils 3. Vibrissae 4. Mouth Glossary on pages 38-39 Illustrations reproduced from: Freiland Verband: Schweinehaltung in Österreich 3
Pigs as farm animals in Austria Fill in the blanks with: piglets, straw, protection, 114 days, warm and secure, organic farms, mother sow, 4-7 weeks, heat lamp, breeding stall, with other sows, boar, birth 4 Birth on the farm Before the..., the pregnant sow is put into a box, which most often is very narrow. There is a great danger that.... could be smothered by their mothers after birth. To avoid this, stall engineers developed a farrowing create for the time around the birth. In it, the sow can only go one or two steps forward and backwards, lie down, and stand up, but she cannot turn around. The side gates of the farrowing crate give the piglet a certain amount of..... against being smothered. During this time, they are not being treated in an animal-friendly way. Because there is no... and the floor is cold and full of slits and cracks, the piglet does not feel.... Many sows spend several weeks a year in these farrowing crates. On..., farrowing crates are prohibited. There are also what are called free farrowing bays. In these, the... and her litter have more room, bedding (e.g. straw), and can move around more. After approximately... the piglets are taken away from their mother. Then they are taken to the.... The mother sow goes... to another stall. There, she will soon be covered by the boar or artificially inseminated. After.... (3 months + 3 weeks + 3 days) gestation the sows go back to the farrowing stall. I always shop with my shopping-checker! It s a pig s life Institute for animal husbandry and animal protection The beginning of piglet s life is very tough. The farmer himself can do the following to the piglet within its first week of life: 1. The tail is cut (docked ) without anaesthetic. 2. The teeth are ground down, because the piglets could otherwise harm themselves or their mother s teats. 3. Male piglets are castrated within the first week of life; otherwise their meat would taste bad and have an unpleasant smell. 4. They are given vaccinations. 5. They are given iron for blood production. Farrowing Crate
And tomorrow will be another horribly boring day Pigs need variety for example, a chance to dig about, to move around, and to discover their surroundings. When they are not able to do all this, they develop behavioural disorders such as biting one another s tails or gnawing on posts. Free-range breeding Who can get a good sleep on a slatted floor? Animals dung falls down into a pit in a slatted floor so that the farmer does not need to clear it out every day (as with cattle). Many feeding pigs spend their whole lives on a slatted floor like this. Many farms in Austria use this system. Lying on a hard floor is uncomfortable. Broken slats can also lead to hoof injuries. There is no straw or other bedding. When these stalls are not properly ventilated, the pigs, who are clean and sensitive to smell, are constantly forced to breathe in the smell of manure. Institut für Tierhaltung und Tierschutz After they have grown to about 30 kg, they go to the feed lot. On some farms, breeding and the feed lot are in the same place. After half a year the pigs have reached the slaughtering weight of 110 kilogrammes. Puzzle: What do pigs like to build before they go to bed? Put together the coloured letters: In addition to stalls with space to move about and straw bedding, there is also freerange breeding. Here, pigs are always out in meadows and fields. To protect them from the cold and the rain, they need huts to sleep in. Organic pigs have more room, straw to roll in and space to move about in than pigs on conventional farms. They can also only be fed with organically-produced feed. Organic pigs live in such a way that best corresponds to their natural needs. Organic pork is therefore somewhat more expensive. Only very few pigs in Austria get to live as organic pigs. What can a farmer do for his or her pigs? Enough space No slatted floors in their sleeping area Places to roll about and to explore Straw Pig showers in the summer A comfortable stall temperature Using anaesthetic for castration, or not castrating at all When building a new stall, famers should think about organic pig farming or stalls with straw and space to move about Conny T/pixelio What can you/your parents do for the pigs? Choose to buy free-range or organic pork. Institute for animal husbandry and animal protection Glossary on pages 33-39 5