Natural pig farming believes it is our duty to ensure our pigs are humanely treated from birth through to slaughter. We raise with love and slaughter with kindness. We take the responsibility to ensure our slaughtering process is is stress free and painless as possible for the pig.

To fulfill this commitment we kill our pigs on-site where possible. The pig is let out of the pen (not chased, pushed or coerced) where is allowed to wander freely. It is stunned in one blow to the head out of blue, and it is immediately bled with a sticking knife which cuts through to the jugular. The pig does not unduly suffer. It certainly escapes the trauma of the factory farm system of long transportation and death.

• Slaughtered on site (location where pig sty is)
• No stress
• Done humanely by people who care

Unfortunately most western countries discourage such compassion. They legally require you to take the pig to a slaughter house. With the modern concentration of pig production, the smaller more local slaughter houses are now rare and this does mean long distances will need to be traveled to get to the slaughter house. Pigs are usually transported in crowded conditions with unfamiliar pigs resulting in heightened stress and aggression. They have to endure long journeys (often 20+ hours when including loading and off-loading times) without water or feed, and conditions are inevitably hot with lack of adequate ventilation. Once at the slaughter house they are greeted by a mechanical heartless system of slaughter. As a natural pig farmer all you will be able to do is try to ensure the pig is got into your vehicle as stress-free as possible, that it has feed and plenty of water available, and that up to the point of leaving it you have protected it as much as possible from any stress or worry. Not mixing family groupings of pigs with other pigs will do a lot to alleviate stress and the risk of aggression.

In Asia and in many non western countries where smaller scale pig farming may still take place pigs are forced into extremely small crates, loaded on the back of a truck to be taken to slaughter (see photograph top above). Chasing and forcing the pig into these small crates, so small they cannot stand up, is an extremely stressful experience.

In natural pig farming if pigs are sold and need to be transported they are tempted to enter the adequately sized crates with food (see photo below). They are transported to local locations and so not exposed to long journeys.

NEXT ==> Quality of meat

Stable family groups      Low stocking density       Deep bed floor      Mud wallows      Sow welfare     Weaning

No pig mutilation      Boar welfare     Castration     Fresh air and sunlight     Disease prevention & health     Pig husbandry

Feed     Natural growth       Slaughter      Quality of meat      Environmentally friendly