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December 12, 2002
Florida Farm Animals 'Liberated' From Life Itself
The animal rights movement’s “pregnant pig” triumph in Florida may turn out to be Pyrrhic victory, as some Florida hog farmers have been left with no choice but to kill their sows. Asked for comment, hog initiative organizer Nanci Alexander said: “That’s terrific!”
Today’s Miami Herald reports on this new trend among Florida pork farmers struggling to comply with the new “pregnant pigs” constitutional amendment. Instead of buying larger enclosures for their pregnant sows, or raising them in the open (as activists have long demanded), farmers are opting to slaughter them.
“The animal rights people missed the boat on this one,” farmer Henry Mathis told the Herald. “As farmers, they’ve killed us, and as a result we have to kill the animals.” Mathis intends to raise more cattle and alligators (which are prized for their hides) once his sows are gone.
Animal rights activists have already publicly declared their intention to attack hog agriculture in Iowa and North Carolina next. If farmers in those states were to adopt the same strategy, it would result in literally millions of animals going to slaughter rather than continuing the birthing cycle.
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