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Why are the Taiwanese breeding such fat pigs?
( 2003-08-14 15:01) (The Guardian )

They are known as the "pigs of god", but their enormous bulk has nothing to do with the heavens and everything to do with force-feeding. Several hundred of the grossly obese pigs will be weighed and then slaughtered as part of a ritual sacrifice in Taiwan this weekend.

Animal welfare groups are calling for the annual ceremony to be scrapped. "For an animal to have been made so deliberately obese is incredibly cruel physically and psychologically," says Philip Lymbery of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

It takes about two years to fatten up the pigs. They are allowed to gorge on unlimited food supplies until they reach about 400kg, then they are transferred to a tiny pen. Unable to turn around or stand up, they are force-fed milk, fish and vegetables through a tube until their weight reaches as much as one tonne.

As the heaviest pig wins, some unscrupulous farmers used to feed their animals sand or metal in the run-up to the contest - a practice now ended by x-ray scans. The fully-fed pigs are unable to walk and it takes five or six people to drag them to be weighed, before the animals are trussed and have their throats cut.

   
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