SANCTUARIES: Claire Hamlett explains why she chose to join the Pigoneer 2000 Club, a crowdfunding initiative with practical funding of sanctuary pigs at its heart.

The number of pigs likely to be killed on farms around the UK due to labour shortages at slaughterhouses has risen to more than 120,000. Pig farmers are furious at the government for not acting fast enough to fix the problem with temporary visas for migrant workers. As there is no one to “process” the bodies of the animals killed on farm, their bodies will instead be incinerated, meaning a loss of income for farmers and a potential shortage of pig meat products on supermarket shelves.

The situation has exposed some strange contradictions in the meat industry, particularly that farmers don’t want to kill animals themselves. “If I have to kill healthy pigs on my farm, I’m not sure I could do it,” one farmer told Farmers Weekly. “I’d rather let them go free in the woods. I’d certainly never be a pig farmer again.” If that’s the case, why do the pigs that can’t be shipped off to be killed by someone else (likely a low-paid migrant worker) have to die at all? A tweet by political economist Jan Dutkiewicz sums it up: “Just like slaughter for meat, culling is a business decision, in this case taken to minimize loss.” 

Farmers’ distress at having to cull pigs themselves is unlikely to tug at the heartstrings of many vegans, but the plight of those 120,000 pigs does raise the question of how we as vegans should hope for the situation to be resolved. What should we expect for the animals that the food system no longer has a use for? What alternatives to their slaughter can we advocate for and support? Is wishing for them to be sent to a sanctuary (assuming they can’t and perhaps shouldn’t simply be released into the woods) or for pig farms to become sanctuaries enough?

Activist and veganic crofter Gina Bates doesn’t think so, which is why she created the Pigoneer 2000 Club. In January 2019, police found more than 200 animals living in squalor on Bramble Hall Farm in Pembrokeshire. Many of the 80 sheep, 20 horses, a donkey, 58 dogs and 53 pigs were deprived of adequate space, food or water and several animals were found dead, resulting in a 20-week jail term for the man responsible for their welfare. Many of the animals were then sold or re-homed, but the 53 pigs had been feeding on carcasses left around the farm, as well as other inedible debris, and so were considered a disease-risk and condemned to die. But an animal sanctuary called Beneath the Wood stepped in to save them.

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The pigs subsequently gave birth to 38 piglets, who are now fully grown, weighing half a tonne each. Because they are classed as disease risks, the pigs cannot be left to roam about and must be kept within the bounds of the sanctuary where they are given food specific to their needs. The task of feeding and housing 91 full-sized pigs should not be underestimated, especially as pigs have a natural lifespan of up to 20 years. Though it only costs £1.80 a day to feed each of them, this amounts to almost £5,000 a month.

The Pigoneer 2000 Club is run through Bates’ Global Vegan Crowdfunder initiative and is aiming to get 2,000 people to donate £2.50 every month for the duration of the pigs’ lives so that Sasha, who runs Beneath the Wood, can rest assured that she can always afford to feed them. 

I became a Pigoneer this month because I am convinced by Bates’ arguments that it is a concrete way for vegans to support the liberation of animals from the food system. There are lots of ways to fight to stop animal exploitation that go beyond what we buy or don’t buy, including protesting, taking direct action against meat and dairy companies, and using whatever platforms we have to educate and influence others on the realities of how animals are used and abused for human ends.

But we also need to consider what we can do when a group of animals actually achieves liberation. We need to think about how we can help create the conditions for those animals to live out the rest of their lives in safety and as much freedom as it’s possible for them to have. The Pigoneer Club is a model for how large-scale rescues of animals can be supported and sustained.

As of now, more than 1,000 Pigoneers have guaranteed feed for 75 of the pigs. The same can be done for the remaining 16 for the price of a coffee each month. You can sign up here.

As Bates asks on Twitter: What is #AnimalLiberation? What does it look like to you?

Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.

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