Most people don’t stop to think who the animal on the Christmas table was. What was she like? What made her happy? What did she want from life? Those who stop to ask these questions usually conclude that she would have been better as a friend—rather than food.

Who has four legs, knows her own name, wags her tail when excited, and can form strong bonds with humans? Who holds herself with a graceful poise, loves to be patted, purrs with delight at human touch, drifting to sleep …softly clucking all the while?

Most of us live or have lived with a dog or a cat; we’ve played with them; talked to them; and loved them as a family member. But what makes these animals so different to the pigs and turkeys that are served for Christmas dinner?

Scientists say pigs are one of the smartest animals outside of the primate family and can even be more intelligent than dogs and 3-year-old human children.¹ They are social, and playful; they dream, and see in colour.²

When not confined in factory farms, pigs love to relax in the sun. They will sleep nose to nose with their closest friends. Mother pigs will build nests for their young, and form strong social bonds which will take them to great lengths to protect a loved one.

Joanne Altsmann’s porcine companion Lulu made a hero of herself, by saving Joanne’s life after a heart attack. Lulu forced her 90 kilogram body through a doggie door designed for a 9 kilogram dog, scraping her sides to the point of bleeding. Once outside she raced onto the street and lay down on the road until a car stopped. She then led the driver back to the house, who was able to rush Altsmann to hospital.²

“Turkeys love to be caressed, and people often remark that they respond just like their own dogs and cats. And while turkeys make a purring sound when they are content, you haven’t lived until you’ve had a turkey hen fall asleep under your arm. This is when I see hearts and minds completely transformed.”

—Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
“Talking Turkey: Reflections of a Misunderstood Bird”
in Satya Magazine (Nov 2006)

Turkeys are inquisitive animals that love to play. Tom Savage, a poultry scientist at Oregon State University, remarked, “If you throw an apple to a group of turkeys, they'll play with it together. Kind of like football.”³ They also love to sing along to their favourite music and are particularly fascinated by shiny objects!⁴

Sadly, the vast majority of farm animals in Australia are confined in factory farms—where even their most basic natural instincts are denied. Yet what occurs behind the closed doors of factory farms is made possible only because the majority of Australians have been kept in the dark about the reality of factory farming. Awareness is the key to change…

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References:

1. Donald Broom of Cambridge University’s Veterinary School
2. Jeffrey Masson, The pig who sang to the moon.
3. Tom Savage, http://www.upc-online.org/turkeys/120403notdumb.htm
4. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, “Talking Turkey – Reflections of a Misunderstood Bird”, Satya (Nov 2006)