I visited a factory farm. I wanted to see for myself the conditions the animals live in. Are they really as bad as activists claim, or are they exaggerating to convince you to go vegan?
But before showing you what I filmed there, I have to show you what’s in this box.
Do you know what it is? This chain is used thousands of times on Spanish pig farms, and it’s key to the debate about animal welfare. However, no one is talking about it.
Once you discover what it’s used for, you’ll see the debate in a different light.
A few months ago I posted several videos about meat production. Most of the comments were very positive. But, of course, the haters also arrived in droves: “But ham is so tasty!”, “Plants suffer too!” and “Where do you get your protein from?” But my favorite was definitely the one that insisted that human beings are “obnivores.” “OBNIVORES!”
Jokes aside, some of the criticism caused me to reflect. What if the images that vegan activists tend to show are the most extreme cases? Maybe farmed animals don’t have such a bad life. After all, who am I to talk about farms… if I’ve never even been inside one?
So for this episode, I decided to actually get my boots dirty and visit a Spanish pig farm.
But on the way to the farm, let’s take a little stroll around Barcelona and ask people if they know what this is.
What is this object used for?
Pablo: Hi! Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions? First question: What’s your name?
People: Sara. Luis. Kathrin. Maialen. Urtza. Oneca. Ricard. Ezequiel. Darío. Guadalupe.
Pablo: The second question is: What do you think this is used for?
Ricard: Maybe to… tie something up?
Kathrin: Well, it’s a chain…
Ezequiel: Let’s see, it’s a chain…
Luis: It looks like a… bicycle chain?
Maialen: A fence.
Ricard: Well, I don’t know, to be honest.
Sara: A game?
Pablo: What kind of games do you play?
Guadalupe: To add weight? For running, or doing some sport…
Kathrin: No, it’s not for the gym.
Oneca: I have no idea.
Ezequiel: The plastic part catches my attention.
Kathrin: Something connected with a boat?
Luis: Sometimes you forget where you left your bike, and maybe the color helps you…
Darío: …to see the distance…
Kathrin: …under a curtain, for example…
Guadalupe: I’m completely lost now. I don’t know.
Darío: No… I don’t know.
Pablo: Okay, should I give you a clue? It’s something used on farms.
Ezequiel: On farms…
Sara: Is it for animals?
Ricard: Like to keep them inside, maybe?
Luis: To close the gate… the main door.
Kathrin: To tie up the animals?
Guadalupe: No, I don’t know!
Ezequiel: I don’t know what it could be.
Sara: No idea.
Ricard: More clues?
As I expected, no one has any idea what this chain is for. But if you pay close attention, you’ll see it again several times throughout the rest of the video. Now, let’s go to the farm.
My first visit to a farm
My first experience on a farm was… at a farm school! We went on a school trip there. I remember they taught us how to feed the chickens, milk the cows… And although it sounds pathetic, I think that’s really the only farm experience I’ve ever had in my life.
We’re arriving at last.
My first impression is that… this place is really amazing.
Pablo: Hello, good afternoon! I’m Pablo.
Lía: Hello! How are you? Nice to meet you – I’m going to show you how the pigs live here.
Lía: People don’t know this, but they love to graze, and in general, they love to eat.
Pablo: Yes, you can see that they love to eat!
Lía: They’re like dogs, very affectionate and playful… And as you can see, they’re covered in mud because pigs, like dogs, can’t sweat. So they’re very sensitive to heat and they protect themselves with the mud.
Pablo: Does she like being tickled here?
Lía: Of course! Tickles everywhere, on her belly… Anything that involves being pampered…
Pablo: This one is very happy.
Lía: Yes.
Pablo: I read that although it seems like they only make one “oink” sound, they actually have about 20 different sounds.
Lía: Yes. They have so many subtle differences. And you can tell: when they’re hungry, when they’re angry… When you force them to do something they don’t want, they squeal a lot. Or when they’re stressed, they squeal.
Pablo: The other day I learned that pigs, just like humans, also have REM phases, where they move their eyes very quickly whilst sleeping. I wonder what they’re dreaming about…
Pablo: What a way to snore!
Pablo: Taking a little nap here? What a great life!
Pablo: Everyone knows pigs like acorns. But I didn’t know they also like watermelon.
Girl: This one likes anything that’s sweet.
There are two things that surprised me most during this visit: one is that the pigs were huge. For some reason, I thought they would be smaller! But the other thing that surprised me is how they look at you. They have a curious and thoughtful gaze, as if they were trying to tell you something.
I learned a lot today. Understanding a little better what pigs are like is crucial to being able to decide if they really have a good life on the farm.
Pablo: Wow, what an experience! I loved it. It reminded me a lot of when I went to the farm school when I was a kid. This is exactly how I imagined a farm would be.
I would say that the animals are happy there. They always have enough food and water, space to roam freely, and a shady spot to shelter from the sun or rain. It’s a place where they can be themselves, play, rest, explore… and they also have people who love them, who take care of them, and who are concerned about their health and well-being. I loved experiencing that natural connection we all have with animals.
But then, you might be wondering, what are all the vegans and animal activists complaining about? At the end of the day, farm animals don’t have such a bad life, do they? Well, there’s a small catch. The place we visited earlier represents what a farm should be like. And that’s how most people usually imagine farms to be like. But that place isn’t actually a farm.
It’s an animal sanctuary: a refuge that takes in injured, abandoned, or rescued animals that were going to be slaughtered on farms.
The truth is that the vast majority of the meat we consume today comes from a very different place: factory farms.
Pablo: Now let’s visit a real farm.
The factory farm
Someone who visited my channel, and whose name I won’t reveal, invited me to visit a modern pig farm, as long as I agreed to abide by three rules:
- That the location where I filmed couldn’t be identified.
- That I wore a biohazard suit.
- That I wouldn’t interact with the animals (under any circumstances).
As I approached the farm, the smell became more and more intense. It was different from the smell at the animal sanctuary – much thicker and more pungent.
In general, pig farms can be divided into four main stages.
1. Gestation
This is the gestation area, where it all begins. This is where the sows are kept, to be artificially inseminated and become pregnant. Throughout their pregnancy, which lasts approximately 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days, the sow is confined to the gestation crate. There, she eats, defecates, and sleeps.
The sows were just as curious as the pigs in the sanctuary. But it was clear that they were stressed. They often squealed and banged their heads against the bars of the crates.
At one point, I realized just how enormous this room was. One sow after another, like cars in a parking lot. There could have been hundreds of sows in this building alone.
A few days before giving birth, the sow is taken out of the gestation crate and moved to the farrowing crate.
2. Maternity
This is the birthing area. In this new crate, the sow gives birth to her piglets – about 15 per litter. She spends the next 3 or 4 weeks there, lying mostly on her side, nursing her piglets. During this entire time, the mother can barely even turn around to see them.
In their natural environment, sows prepare a nest with leaves, twigs, and soil, just like birds. But on a factory farm, they are forced to give birth in the same place where they eat, urinate, and defecate.
Instead of a floor made of soil and straw, like in the sanctuary, it’s a hard metal grid.
Some of the piglets I saw were newly born, with their umbilical cords still attached.
The smallest ones still had their long, curly tails. But during the first few days of life, they will have them cut off, without anesthesia.
These ones already had their tails cut. Their testicles are also removed without anesthesia – a practice that causes them excruciating pain.
In this room, I saw some piglets with obvious health problems: they were too thin, unable to stand, and moving strangely… If they don’t die first, they are killed. The most common method is to slam their heads against the floor.
Those that survive are separated from their mother in less than a month. And she leaves the farrowing crate to go back to the gestation crate. This cycle repeats about three times a year, until she is no longer productive. Then, after about two or three years confined to cages, she is taken to the slaughterhouse.
Suddenly, one of the piglets started squealing desperately. It had gotten stuck between its mother and the bars of the crate. It squealed incessantly while its siblings nibbled and trampled it, trying to reach the teat. I wanted to go in and help. But then I remembered the third rule I had promised to follow: never to interact with the animals. Fortunately, the little piglet managed to free itself.
3. Transition
At 3 or 4 weeks of age, the piglets are separated from their mother and moved to the transition area. Here they remain for several weeks and fed a specialized diet to promote growth.
They spend about two months here, confined to small individual pens, without ever seeing the light of day. Once they reach a weight of around 20 kg, they are moved to the growing area.
4. Growing
Finally, the pigs in the growing area continue their short lives until they reach a weight of over 100 kg.
While a pig in a sanctuary can live up to 15 years, in factory farms, most pigs are sent to slaughter at just 6 months of age.
This, in broad terms, is how a typical pig farm operates.
Or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
What should not happen
The conditions some of those pigs were living in were deplorable. There were insects, cobwebs, and rats everywhere. But without a doubt, what I saw the most wasn’t pigs, but cockroaches. That night I saw more cockroaches than in my entire life.
At one point, I decided to film what was on the floor, and also underneath the grate, and there I saw a pile of waste teeming with flies and maggots. That’s where the urine, feces, pieces of placenta, umbilical cords… and even carcasses all end up.
Yes, I also saw carcasses. That night I filmed things I never expected to see, but which are too disturbing to show here. In the description, I’ve included a link to an unlisted video, where you can see newborn piglets, either dying or dead, lying among feces and placenta, being nibbled on or crushed by their siblings.
And to finish off the visit, in one of the containers, I found a pile of dead piglets, piled up among food scraps, garbage, and blood.
Frankly, I never expected to encounter so much death on a farm. This was undoubtedly one of the most traumatic experiences of my life.
Do you know what this chain is for now? I don’t know if you noticed, but you’ve already seen this chain several times before.
What is this chain for?
Pablo: This is an anti-stress chain. Basically, in pig factory farms, sows are put into a cage for artificial insemination so they can have piglets. And while they’re in this cage, the “gestation crate,” this chain, by regulation, has to be next to the sow, so the sow can keep herself entertained by chewing on the chain.
So, literally, this is the only entertainment the sows have during their entire lives.
How does it feel to learn this?
Luis: It’s sad that… first of all, they are kept in such small cages.
Oneca: It’s a bit sad that they are kept there for that purpose. That they can’t be free, living peacefully, like animals should.
Kathrin: I feel sorry for the animals having to live in cages.
Ezequiel: It represents animal abuse, plain and simple.
Darío: Serving the industry in such a cruel way…
Kathrin: The boredom, the sadness…
Luis: And then having to use these things for entertainment is very cruel.
Sara: I think it’s better for them to have more space and freedom.
Kathrin: I think it’s better for them to be outside.
Pablo: In other words, you don’t like the idea of them living in cages?
Maialen: I don’t.
Pablo: Well, that’s all, thank you very much!
How is it possible that so many people eat pork products, yet so few know where it actually comes from?
The other day I was at my mother’s house, browsing through the books I used to read as a child. As expected, the books about farm animals portrayed a picture much more like a sanctuary than a real farm.
That’s why when we think of a farm, we imagine the countryside, piglets playing in the straw, and happy farmers. It’s an image that’s been shown to us since childhood, in stories, movies, and at farm-schools.
Then I also saw the books which my nieces had read recently:
Pablo: “Clea is a very dirty little pig. Running around the farm, she gets her curly, twisted…tail dirty!”
“Look how lucky Clea is. She’s the only one whose tail hasn’t been cut off.”
More of the same: an idealized image of life on a farm.
But once you see with your own eyes where meat really comes from, the world no longer looks the same. For every 10 people you pass by on the street, there are about 7 pigs somewhere in Spain. Almost all of them are kept in factory farms.
You’re walking down the street, and you no longer see ham, steaks, or sausages… Now you see a helpless and curious little piglet, about to be castrated without anesthesia. Or his older brother, who will see sunlight for the first time from the truck that’s taking him to the slaughterhouse. Or his mother, who has spent her entire life in a cage, with no entertainment other than…
This chain.
This chain represents lots of things. On the one hand, it shows that there is some level of concern for animal welfare. On the other hand, it also shows how incredibly low the bar is.
Perhaps you’re expecting me to tell you to stop eating meat. But that’s not the case. After many years, I’ve learned that that message almost never works.
Today I want to share a different message with you. If you don’t want to go vegan, you can still become a “vegan ally”. This means reducing your consumption of animal products as much as possible, signing petitions, and, most importantly, donating to effective organizations that are making a real difference.
Organizations that fight to improve the lives of farmed animals, change laws, pressure companies like Burger King and KFC to adopt better practices, support farmers to transform their farms into sustainable plant-based farming businesses, or to develop alternative meat that is healthy, affordable, and delicious, without the need for animals.
In the description below, I’ve included links to these organizations, as well as one where you can calculate the negative impact of your consumption of animal products and the positive impact of your donations. Because even a small contribution can make a big difference for thousands of animals.
After having seen firsthand how pigs live on a factory farm, and how they live in a sanctuary, the contrast is truly shocking, but their expressions always reflect the same thing: the desire to be free.
Before I finish, I wanted to share with you a little experiment I tried at the sanctuary. I wanted to see if the pigs really did like the stress-relief chain. And actually, some of them spent quite a while chewing on it eagerly. But after a while, they all got tired of it and went off to eat, or take a walk, or roll around in the mud.
There is no stress-relief chain that can replace our freedom: True well-being is to live without chains.
A huge thank you to Lía Domínguez and the Gaia Sanctuary Foundation, for allowing us to film at that wonderful location. And also thank you to the anonymous person who allowed me to document what life is really like for pigs on a commercial pig farm.
If you want to understand the issues surrounding meat consumption better, I invite you to watch my other video. If you have any questions or corrections, please leave a comment. And if you feel an overwhelming urge to do so, fine, you can also remind me that humans are “obnivores.”
In any case, if you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for your time. If you’d like to help me spread this video around, please like and share it. And of course, you can also subscribe to my channel. That way, I’ll have the pleasure of seeing you again in the next episode of AltruPhysics.
