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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…

Comments
"Oh, to be a pig in pre-Olympic Beijing…" life would be short, beautiful, healthy... but very short, short, short. I think I'll pass.
# Posted By Diana | 10/9/07 10:48 AM
Having said goodbye last April to my pot-bellied pig and best friend of 13 years, any article that deals with pigs as food sickens me. I have loved every one of my dogs very much, but none of them were even close to being on the same mental level as Pickle, so eating pigs is even more horrific than eating dogs and cats. Of course, this is China, so I'm sure that while they are parading the well treated pigs, some dog and cat meat will find its way into the food provided for the athletes and tourists, with a little bit of lead thrown in for good measure
# Posted By Brian | 10/9/07 11:09 AM
Brian: My goat, Poppy, might have given your pig, Pickle a run for her mental money. But, then again, maybe that's only because I have Frenchies. By comparison, my Poppy should have been named Einstein. ;-)
# Posted By Dr. Patty Khuly | 10/9/07 3:29 PM
ahh...goats. I've heard that they are very smart as well, but I must admit that I have never really taken the time to get to know any goats. Perhaps it is due to the blunt force trauma to the chest that I suffered during a violent attack when I was knee high.

Okay, so it probably wasn't a very hard butt from the goat at all, but when you're somewhere around 3 or 4, it seems like something out of "when animals attack," lol
# Posted By Brian | 10/9/07 8:40 PM
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