Hope I'm not too late to comment. Surely it's time people stopped thinking of animals as "just" animals and who cares how they're treated. A sow not confined to a crate will very rarely crush her babies. Anyway from what I saw on TV that night the farmer didn't seem to have been worried about a dead pig in a crate. Or pigs with open sores on their bodies. If it is deemed necessary to crate a farrowing sow how do they explain all the crated pigs that were not farrowing? I was horrified watching that programme and reduced to tears to see highly intelligent animals being treated that way. I haven't bought pork products since. I don't eat chicken or eggs for the same reason.

The 48-hour Freedom For Pigs vigil in Wellington's Civic Square at the weekend gives us hope that at least awareness is building. If you are interested in pig welfare or the massive impact factory farming can have globally visit Pig Business.co.uk

Good on you Loren ! And good on you Mike King ! Media personalities of integrity. Humans have no need to treat animals so cruelly. What sort of industry denies a visit from parliamentarians ? What hogwash (no pun intended) about the risk of swine'flu. The industry is treating our nation's leaders & we the public, as if we are all stupid. What arrogance. Evil people doing evil things to animals - because they can. Get some courage Pork Industry .... treat your essential resource & customers with the respect they deserve.

What a lot of strange comments.

Missy Hissy - "You also taste like pork, people." I do? I wouldn't know. What worries me is how **you** know.

There is nothing wrong with eating meat. Never has been. True, we may not necessarily need to eat it, but then we could get by on purely synthetic products that meet all our dietary requirements. Might taste like crap, but it would be all we need.

So many people express incredibly selfish attitudes - "why should I care?" "as long as it doesn't affect my lifestyle". Free range and ecologically sound farming isn't that hard, and the food isn't that much more expensive.

H1N1 was a mash-up of two types of swine flu, one of avian and one of human.

Ian #33: let's see ... keep an animal all its life in terrible conditions so it has a lifetime of suffering is better than having an animal living "naturally" and then humanely killed. Wow. Weird logic.

Oh for crying out loud! Can we please lock up all the pc hippy types who are wasting our time by moaning about stupid things like this? Nothing wrong with farming pigs. I have not seen any footage of anything wrong on pig farms!

@ AaronC #36

Probabily, but to be fair, there are so many good causes to care and do stuff about that if you were to devote your life to them you would require days the length of a week. So me not caring and doing nothing about 100 good causes is the same as someone else not caring and doing nothing about 99 good causes. and who is to say that animal (pig) wellfare is the best cause to care about, what about child poverty, domestic violence, drug abuse and homelessness, free-range seal hunting, the list goes on, and what one persons no-no is someoneelses great cause. So when i am 'selfishly' doing nothing or about animal wellfare, what are you 'selfishly' ingoring in pursuit of your special project. "Hey, at least im honest" -- homeless guy asking more money for booze and drugs.

FYI While Swine Flu was supposedly spread by pigs, the virus developed from the disgusting, dirty and over crowded conditions in China and Asian countries, this is where the virus originated and spread from. If you saw the horrible places and the awful treatment of these highly intelligent and sentient animals, you would heave. The farmers walking around in all the c****, then transferred the bacteria and pig excrement etc to their homes and all around, carried on their shoes and clothing. So while the pigs get the entire blame, it is in Fact , as usual, from human negligence, ignorance and selfishness. Wikipedia is Not a source to get facts, only opinions.

Ian number 33- Completely selfish much?

Firstly I can't believe how many naiive people there are out there who are now jumping on the bandwagon.

The fact is, that right or wrong, stall farming and sow crates have been part of the NZ pork industry for decades and the pork you were all brought up on was farmed in this manner, to suddenly cry foul now because Mike King and some no-name actress tell you it is so is pathetic.

Furthermore, for those who think price isn't an issue get a grip, for the average Kiwi price is a major issue, why do you think there are more articles, blogs, books etc coming out everyday on how to reduce your food bill. The fact of the matter is that NZ Beef and Lamb are too expensive for most households leaving pigs and chickens as the only really affordable meat options. COST DOES MATTER.

@Brian Smaller #2, jeff #9, Piggy #11, Darrell #17 So you think cost factors justify everything. What a pathetic mentality! Those who don't care about the welfare of farmed animals are those who seek pleasure at the expense of the suffering of others. Unfortunately there are far too many of these cruel people in this country, and that's why NZ is such a violent society. We humane/conscientious/civilized people can imagine the pain and suffering of farmed animals, and care how they die (are killed), not to mention how they live (are bred). If you can't afford to pay more, just eat less.