I know I’ve hit the slaughter hot button a little too frequently lately but I couldn’t resist this one: Pigs being raised in Beijing are getting the royal treatment in preparation for slaughter—get this—so that athletes and other Olympic luminaries will have access to a safe supply of pork (their national protein staple).

Wow!—If that don’t beat ‘em all.

The hundreds of pigs are reportedly handled with kid gloves, taken for sunny walks and fed organic, human-grade food.

This article was one I came by in the Wall Street Journal last week. I was flabbergasted by the following takeaway points:

1) the insinuation that their own food supply isn’t safe for the rest of the world,

2) the admission that important people might not want to eat their food if they don’t treat it with extreme care, 

3) the hypocrisy inherent in feeding foreigners a well-cared for protein source while the rest of the country suffers the effects of consumer-unfriendly food practices and…

4) the irony that these pigs’ rights are being recognized more humanely than those of the vast majority of China’s citizens.’

Oh, to be a pig in pre-Olympic Beijing…