2024-01-01 01:14:42
Disclosure
Pork cuts are highlights on Christmas and New Year’s Eve tables
Alongside cod, ham, suckling pig and other pork cuts are highlights on the traditional menu for Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations. However, at what cost does this delicacy reach consumers’ tables? What sacrifices do these animals undergo during the breeding and slaughtering process?
According to frequent complaints from animal protection organizations, there is still much to be implemented to improve the production process in order to minimize the suffering not only of pigs, but practically in all types of animal husbandry. The situation becomes even more significant, since Brazil, in addition to being a large consumer of meat and eggs, is one of the main exporters.
Food and livestock companies lose considerable numbers of buyers who join the vegan and vegetarian movements. There is great competition among those operating in this segment to retain those who maintain a carnivorous diet.
In this scenario, the second edition of the report “Pigs in Focus: Monitor of the Brazilian Swine Industry” becomes even more relevant, which highlights a greater commitment to the intention to adopt mitigating measures and promises of changes in the process in relation to the first survey. This greater adoption is driven by research that points to consumer dissatisfaction with the current model. Among them, the one carried out in 2021 by the Datafolha Institute and the Animal Forum Organization, which reveals that 88% of Brazilians are concerned about animal welfare in food production.
Seven of the nine companies analyzed presented changes to their practices. Among the main advances observed in this second edition are the commitments of BRF and JBS, the two largest producers, to abolish the continuous use of gestation cages and migrate to the collective gestation system in new, less painful units to be implemented by 2026.
Freedom: the End of Cages
The comparison between the two editions also highlights the movement of the sector, previously criticized for a lack of sensitivity and which is now more concerned about its position in the ranking of the most responsible companies. Despite this, animal rights defenders say that there is still a long way to go, with the need to adopt many other measures to minimize suffering in the breeding and slaughter process.
“Gestation crates are a controversial practice, banned in the United Kingdom and in several countries, due to the intense physical and psychological suffering they cause to animals. It is an extreme confinement, where pregnant sows are kept isolated for weeks in a space little larger than than their own bodies — preventing these intelligent and social animals from walking or even turning around”, explains Cristina Diniz, director of the Brazilian branch of Sinergia Animal Brasil, an international organization dedicated to reducing animal suffering.
Feed the Pain
The recently released report highlights the behavior of the country’s nine main industries, classifying the most appropriate practices, the most painful with the implementation of a program to reduce the suffering of their creations. The proposal includes public commitments on confinement in breeding, and the elimination of painful procedures. Among them, cold-blooded castration.
Another highlight in the “Pigs in Focus” report is piglet tail docking, still widely practiced. Sinergia Animal Brasil estimates that millions of these mammals are subjected to amputation without anesthesia or analgesia, which are drugs used to alleviate or minimize pain.
Indiscriminate use of antibiotics
Among the battles is the abandonment of the practice of indiscriminately administering antibiotics to animals, even when they do not have diseases. In this scenario, human health is also compromised. Scientific segments point to risks associated with the presence of these medicines in consumed meat.
Many experts indicate a possible relationship between the consumption of this food containing accumulated antibiotics and various diseases, including digestive diseases and certain types of cancer. Not to mention the indirect ingestion of these drugs may be one of the contributing factors to the resistance that humans have shown to treatment with these drugs, making them increasingly less effective.
“This is a problem that not only affects animals, but also threatens human health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of antibiotics in healthy livestock animals is one of the main causes of antimicrobial resistance, which can result in up to 10 million deaths per year by 2050. We hope that the pig farming sector recognizes the urgency of this problem and moves forward with policies in 2024 that prohibit the misuse of antibiotics”, highlights Diniz.
#Minimize #pain