Pigs Don't Deserve Poor Treatment

I was horrified to see the video broadcast on a TV news show of pigs being mistreated at the Western Hog Exchange facility in Red Deer.  The video was taken by an undercover animal rights activist, who watched the animals being kicked, hit, prodded, and beaten while being moved into or through the facility. 

It is my opinion that a few folks who work in these kind of facilities forget these are living, breathing, feeling critters they're dealing with.  They start treating them as a logger might treat a tree, or a miner a coal seam. I don't think this is prevalent throughout the agricultural scene, but those few bad circumstances appear to create a media frenzy.  

In my volunteer work with many agriculturalists at the Calgary Stampede, I have seen nothing but respect shown to the animals in their care.  These animals are not pets but they are treated with dignity. 

In my opinion these workers need to be given specific training, skills and knowledge to be assured they do treat the animals they're handling in the proper way.

It shocked me even more when I found out that the video in question was taken months ago!  This information was kept from the owners and operators of that facility for more than two months.  Why wasn't something done two months ago?

From here, it looks like the delay was caused by the group and the media wanting to make a big splash.  The welfare of the animals appeared to take a back seat to the media expose! I think it's TV journalism at its worst!  The animal rights group and that network should be ashamed of themselves.