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PART ONE OF A DISGUSTING TRUE STORY… http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2010/07/12/a-day-two-pigs-would-die/#comment-10519 July 12th, 2010 12:30 AM ET A day two pigs would die: ethical slaughter There's no pretty way to say this. I was present for the death of the pig pictured above. It was a grim, sodden day on an upstate New York farm. A local meat sciences professor named Eric explained to the pig's owners that the most humane method of slaughter was to shoot it at close range between the eyes with a .22 rifle – a stunning blow to knock its central nervous system offline – then slit the main artery so the blood loss would bring about swift, arguably less painful death. The blow would also supposedly reduce the stress on the animal, allowing for better meat quality. The farmers, having researched the matter thoroughly and consulted with the Humane Animal Farm Care project, believed this to be true. Still, as they stood several yards from the slaughter, half sheltered in the doorway to their goat barn, they flinched at the stark crack of the rifle, and then they cried. They can certainly be excused for that. This was their first slaughter – mine, too – and it's a shocking act. As the farmers' friend and neighbor, I'd met Porky and Bess (the first death was followed swiftly by a second) only a handful of times, tossing cucumbers and corncobs from the farm's vegetable garden into the lopped-off silo in which they were penned. They were affable, loud as all get out and smelled to hell and back. It was always a bit bittersweet to check in on them, marking their maturation from wee piglets into fully grown hogs, knowing that that someday soon, they'd be dispatched and turned into food. For as charming and vibrant as they are, it is simply impractical to keep pigs as pets on a farm. They don't produce milk like the farm's dozens of goats, can’t be sheared for wool like their sheep, don’t lay eggs, herd, chase vermin or scare away predators. They're simply not useful, from a strictly practical standpoint, so to buy and raise a piglet is a commitment to turning it into food. That doesn't make the act of their slaughter any easier to watch. Josh Kilmer Purcell and Brent Ridge, the pigs' owners, are fledgling farmers and yes, they have a reality show about it – Planet Green's 'The Fabulous Beekman Boys' – but they are by no means unserious when it comes to the welfare of the animals they raise. The vast majority of the Beekman Farm's livestock, over 120 goats at last count, along with chickens, a turkey or two and a llama who earns her keep as comic relief are housed in a clean, spacious barn. They are tended to, most affectionately, by Farmer John, who knows the name of every single animal on the premises. He, along with help from Brent (who lives there full time) and Josh (who commutes back and forth between Manhattan and Sharon Springs, New York) feeds them, cleans the barn, grooms them when needed (a llama's coat can get terribly matted) and harvests the goat milk that's used to make the Beekman 1802 soap and Beekman Blaak cheese that, in addition to Josh's salary as an advertising creative director, sustains the farm. Walk into the barn, and roughly 120 heads crane in your direction and acknowledge your presence with a friendy baa. It's a really warm, friendly place to be. The pigs' sunken silo was like that, too. Porky and Bess would caper around the perimeter, accepting offerings of whole vegetables, wallowing in the mud, luxuriating in the sun or nestling together in the cool of the shade. CONTINUED… added by: EthicalVegan