Dead Pigs Cover a Highway After Another Slaughterhouse-Bound Truck Crashes

For one horrifying moment on a roadside in England, it was almost as though a slaughterhouse did have glass walls. On April 14, a car and a slaughterhouse-bound truck hauling pigs reportedly crashed on a highway in East Yorkshire, in the northern part of England, causing what witnesses described as a “massacre.” Pigs were apparently thrown from the truck onto both sides of the highway: “[T]he [truck’s] roof has been ripped off and there’s dead pigs on both side of the motorway,” said one woman, according to MSN.

A bystander added this:

[T]hree dead pigs had been thrown from the [truck] onto our side of the motorway. There must have been another six or seven dead pigs on the other side—it was horrific.

Wrecks like this one are common—including in the U.S., where roughly 100 truck crashes involving animals en route to slaughter occur every year. These wrecks leave animals mangled and bloody, sometimes with their intestines hanging from their anuses. Some are killed on impact, while others are left to languish for hours, crying out from overturned trailers. And even when trucks don’t overturn, animals used for food suffer immensely. At slaughterhouses, they are hung upside down and bled to death, often while they’re still conscious.

Pigs used for their flesh are put through hell.

Before they’re killed, pigs are kept in cramped, filthy conditions and denied everything that’s natural and important to them.

Pregnant pigs are confined to metal gestation crates so small that they can’t turn around or take a single step in any direction. Their piglets are taken from them when they’re as young as 10 days old and packed into pens to be raised for breeding or meat. Baby pigs’ tails are usually chopped off, their teeth are often clipped, their ears are mutilated, and males’ testicles may be cut off—all often without any pain relief.

After their piglets are taken away, the grieving mothers are forcibly impregnated again. This cycle continues for three or four years, until the mother pigs are also slaughtered.

Pigs are friendly, inquisitive animals who feel pain and suffer just as much as dogs, cats, and other animals.

It’s cruel and speciesist—a form of discrimination based on species—to claim that certain animals should be treated with love and kindness while others can be killed and eaten. If these pigs’ bodies scattered across a highway are haunting you, please leave the flesh of pigs and all other animals off your plate. The easiest way to help animals and prevent suffering is to choose plant-based foods over pork and other meat, eggs, and dairy. Discover some of the mouthwatering vegan pork options available on grocery store shelves today, and order a free vegan starter kit with recipes and tips: