Monday 16 February 2015

Pig Pledge

 

Of the bristly adventure that befell Don Quixote.

CHAPTER LXVIII
(Part two, 1615)

The fact of the matter was that some men were taking above six hundred pigs to sell at a fair, and were on their way with them at that hour, and so great was the noise they made and their grunting and blowing, that they deafened the ears of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and they could not make out what it was.

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It wouldn’t happen like this nowadays. All the pigs would be in prisons and Don Quixote would be trying to free them.

It all began in Brittany. Where were the pigs? We never saw any but people kept telling us stories that you could smell Lamballe before you see it, not to drink the water because it had been contaminated by the pig farms, that the sea was so polluted and full of algae emitting a gas that was killing dogs and horses…..

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jul/27/brittany-beaches-toxic-algae-boars

Because we never saw any pigs we kind of forgot about the pigs until the topic re-emerged in Catalonia.

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When sheds like this one kept appearing on our horizon… all day long…

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and always a smell of pig in the air…. even in the city centre of the small city called Vic (pronounced Pig)….

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In the small town of Avinyo we stayed with a vegetarian who grew up there. He told us about the biggest employer in town, the slaughterhouse, killed 3000 pigs a day. They were arriving by the lorry load. Again we kept seeing them all day.It was the only time we ever saw any pigs, in the lorries .

So we decided to find out a bit more about pig farming. If you also want to read more here is a couple of links to follow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intensive_pig_farming

http://www.yeartohelp.com/day-343-the-dirty-face-of-spanish-pig-farming/

Cycling past all the pig prisons, as we started to call the sheds, we remembered the other pigs we have met on our travels.

Pigs in peoples small holdings…. the black pigs roaming the fields of the Alentejo and Extremadura…

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And we really got put off eating the pigs from the ‘pig prisons’ and decided we would be happier eating happy pigs.

So Carnavale it is now and we shall take the pig pledge and as best we can find out where the pigs we eat come from before eating them.

http://pigpledge.org/

We have the consent of this happy howling Devon piggy.

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And of course pigs feature quite heavily in our current show. Carmen Munchita and her friend (pictured) are working on their own little show to appear in the up coming Scopi-go-tone show… shhhh! … its a secret!

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A book recommendation

The Whole Hog: Exploring the Extraordinary Potential of Pigs
by Lyall Watson

"I have had close relationships with three species of wild pigs, each a chance encounter on a different continent, and all continue to enrich my life in surprising ways. I know of no other animals that are more consistently curious, more willing to explore new experiences, more ready to meet the world with open-mouthed enthusiasm."

and some fun facts about pigs…..

http://www.yeartohelp.com/day-331-ten-fast-facts-about-pigs-oink-oink/

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